Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 3, 1993 TAG: 9302030264
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
LIGHTS, CAMERA, TWO-STEP
Who knows? "American Bandstand" started out like this in Philadelphia. Why not "Valley Country: The Television Show" in Roanoke?
Most of us who look out across the open dance floor and two-step ring at Valley Country picture people dressed in their cowboy and cowgirl finest doing the Boot Scootin' Boogie and having a good time.
But not Bud Dowdey.
He sees syndication.
Dowdey and Valley Country owners John Hagen and Lawrence Causey are using the Roanoke nightclub as the setting for a country dance show that premieres tonight at 10 on WJPR (Channels 21/27).
Although it will air only in the Roanoke market to begin with, Dowdey and his partners hope to syndicate the show to stations beyond the Blue Ridge.
They don't think it will be too difficult either, given the current craze over country music and dancing, Dowdey said. "It's so popular right now that I think the success is almost inevitable."
And potentially, successful syndication could mean some tidy money for the group.
Of course, the country "American Bandstand" was not exactly what John Hagen had in mind when he dreamed up the idea for "Valley Country: The Television Show."
Foremost, Hagen saw the show as a way to promote the nightclub he opened with Causey last fall. He also saw it as a way to draw more people into the club on his slowest night of the week, Thursday. He said he draws about 350 people on Thursdays, compared to around 800 on Fridays and 1,500 on Saturdays.
Hagen figured: tape the show on Thursday nights, and the people attracted to the cameras and a chance to two-step on television will come.
"The theory behind it is that people will see the show on television Wednesday and come in the next night," he said.
A deal was struck with Dowdey, who owns AKD Productions Inc. in Roanoke. He would produce the show and have equal rights in its syndication, should there be any.
It would be modeled after TNN's "White Horse Cafe" dance program that comes out of Knoxville, Tenn. Introduce a song. Let the dancers do their stuff. A proven formula.
Only instead of taping the show on a television set decorated to look like a honky-tonk, Dowdey and company would use a genuine club setting.
Already, Valley Country had a big enough dance floor. It was expanded from 2,500 to 3,500 square feet recently. In fact, Dowdey said from a television production standpoint, Valley Country's dance floor is almost too big.
"It's like trying to do a warehouse," he said. At the same, it offers him a challenge he has never had before.
Dowdey, 51, opened AKD Productions in 1981 after working as a pilot and marketing vice president. Most of his video work has been for the corporate sector, although he has produced some commercials and "Bud Dowdey's Southern Cooking" on WSLS (Channel 10).
"This is different for me."
At a Thursday night taping last month, Dowdey said he has never tried an hour-long show filmed on location like this before.
He was predictably harried coordinating three camera operators and support crew, a dance choreographer and the show's three hosts through the taping. He also was amazingly focused as the distracting business of the nightclub swirled around him.
It helps that the tapings start early, about 8 p.m., before a real crowd comes in. That could change, however, after tonight. "I think the first time this airs, people are going to come swarming in here," Dowdey said.
Wishful thinking? Maybe so, but tapings of the "White Horse Cafe" are mobbed, and often people are turned away.
Further, Dowdey, Hagen and Causey couldn't be cashing in on a trend at a better time. Country album sales have more than doubled in the past four years and the number of country music radio stations has grown from 1,500 to nearly 2,500 nationwide over the past 10 years.
Fueling this growth even more is the popularity of country dancing, which is threatening to become a bigger - and more enduring trend - than disco.
"This is going to put circles around that," said Gary Ballard, the morning host at WSLC-AM 610, a country radio station in Roanoke.
Ballard is one of the Valley Country co-hosts, and he is excited about working on the show. So far, four shows have been completed.
"It'll let everyone know where Roanoke is, and it will have people say, `Hey, Roanoke, that's where things are happening,' " he said.
Ballard laughs at being called the country answer to Dick Clark. He said he doesn't want to look ahead that far. For now, the show is only airing in the Roanoke market.
Nor does he intend to stay behind the microphone, like Dick Clark did, and never get out on the floor with the dancers. "I intend to learn so I can be out here with these people and out here on camera."
Ballard also is toying with the possibility of wearing a cowboy hat on the show, an idea he is lukewarm about.
Hatless or not, his time on camera is brief. The same goes for his co-hosts Kelly Palmer of Vinton and Lisa Hammer of Troutville.
The emphasis is on the dancing, mostly different variations on the Texas two-step, western swings and a multitude of country line dances.
Directing the on-floor action is choreographer Mel Hastings who owns Star Dance Studio in Vinton.
Hastings picks the dances and the songs for each show rather than Ballard, perhaps the more obvious choice because of his radio knowledge of what's hot.
But Ballard concedes: "So many songs sound good, but they're not exactly what they want to dance to."
The final edit of the first show tonight is decidedly low-budget. There will be no mistaking it with the slick polish of something like "Bandstand."
Dowdey shrugs at the low-budget quality. Slickness will come with time and success, he said. "We had no rehearsals. We just cranked up and went. Cold turkey."
Already, he has noticed a marked improvement over the first four tapings. He estimates it will take at least a dozen shows before he will be ready to syndicate beyond Roanoke.
Even then, despite his overall optimism and country's current boom, he realizes the odds.
"There is no easy money in this."
"Valley Country: The Television Show" premieres tonight at 10 on WJPR (Channels 21/27).