Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993                   TAG: 9309140108
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Melanie S. Hatter
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SALE OF 2 STATIONS LOOKS LIKE NO SALE

Sources within the Roanoke-Lynchburg broadcasting area - including the vice president of the stations WROV was to have bought - say the Roanoke-based station is not buying WJJS (101.7 FM) and WXYU (1320 AM).

But Mike Slenski, WROV's vice president and general manager, says until he gets legal notification that the sale is canceled, he won't confirm anything.

Nonetheless, he did concede Monday that "there is the possibility we may not close at all."

Dan Phillips, vice president of CRS Communications Inc., which owns WJJS and WXYU, said the deal is off. He said he received a letter from WROV's owner, David Weil, on Aug. 24 that said: "It has now become apparent that a closing cannot take place" and asked that Weil be released from the contract.

The purchase price of the Lynchburg stations was estimated at $300,000. But in April, Weil and his wife, Emily, filed personal bankruptcy in federal court in Wilson, N.C. Weil, who lives in Goldsboro, N.C., also owns radio stations in North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Weil's bankruptcy may have "elongated the process," Slenski said. The sale would have made WROV the first broadcaster in the market with two FM stations airing different programming. other business ventures."

With the sale, WROV would have been the first broadcasting operation in the market with two FM stations airing different programming. Slenski had said WJJS would continue its urban contemporary format instead of switching to the WROV-FM's album-rock style. WXYU had already aligned its format closely with WROV-AM's oldies, sports and talk programming.