Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 4, 1994 TAG: 9404040105
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Starting April 15, WSLS-TV viewers are going to have to do without go-get-'em reporter\ Andrew Colton.
After nearly 11 months of working with Channel 10 News, Colton will be roving nightside about Detroit, reporting for the Fox Network station there.
When asked just what it was that made him appealing to Fox, the 23-year-old Philadelphia native laughed, paused and replied, "Being young makes me attractive." But he also acknowledged that his "intense, aggressive" style is popular and more effective in a big city.
Roanokers' reaction to Colton's style has been " . . . mixed," he admitted. "Some love it, some hate it."
Colton says he'll miss Roanoke. "Everybody here is so nice," he said. But being part of a major television market is an accomplishment to savor, "although I never imagined I would be doing it at age 23," he said.\ \ And we thought you loved us
Stephen Tschida, a former weekend news anchor at Roanoke's WDBJ (Channel 7), was featured in a Washington Post story last week about Newschannel 8, a 24-hour cable news operation serving Northern Virginia, Maryland and D.C. Tschida - unlike Colton - seems to have had no regrets about leaving the Star City.
"I looked for years to get out of Roanoke," he told the Post.
When he arrived at Newschannel 8, Tschida said, he was uncomfortable with live shots and the banter required to fill time. Now, he said, "I can do anything."
Tschida joined WDBJ in 1986 and was a producer and reporter before taking over the weekend anchor position in 1990. He left Roanoke for Newschannel 8 in 1992, following Jane Karlen, another former WDBJ news anchor.\ \ It's Juan Valdez!
It was a rare opportunity, like when the kid catches Mean Joe Green alone and trades him a Coca-Cola for his jersey in that commercial from the '70s.
But when Scott Elich, co-owner of Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea, met Juan Valdez, they shared a different dram: a bottle of South American rum.
Elich and his wife, Kathy, passed the bottle with the living symbol of Colombian coffee and his wife while tooling around Cartagena, Colombia, on a tour bus.
Elich was part of a group that went to Colombia on a tour of coffee farms arranged by the Specialty Coffee Association. He returned March 22 and spilled the beans: Juan Valdez is really an actor named Carlos Gomez who, Elich says, will drink rum before coffee, given the choice.
Gomez, who traveled with the group for the entire trip, is actually the fourth Juan Valdez, and has held the crown for 24 years, according to Elich.
"He didn't have his donkey with him, though," Elich says of Valdez' sidekick. "I guess there wasn't room on the bus."\ \ Numbers, numbers
New Roanoke Valley phone books went out last week, and for the first time, they include white page listings for Blacksburg and Bedford.
Paul Miller, a spokesman for Bell Atlantic, said the new listings are the result of a proposal that would expand local calling areas around the state.
Salem residents could call Blacksburg free because they are in adjoining phone networks. But Blacksburg customers would have to pay 73 cents more a month in basic rates because of the larger service area. There would be no rate increase for Salem residents.
Roanoke residents still would have to pay a toll to call Blacksburg but could make free calls to Bedford County's Stone Mountain area with no basic rate increase. Bedford and Roanoke residents could call each other at reduced rates.
The expanded calling area will go into effect June 1, pending approval by the State Corporation Commission.
\ A crowd displeaser
Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, did the politically unthinkable last Thursday night. He showed up at a meeting he wasn't invited to and told the crowd what it didn't want to hear.
Griffith campaigned on the Interstate 73 issue last fall, before anyone was listening. When he heard about a meeting on Bent Mountain by a group opposed to a possible interstate route over the mountain, he decided to crash. He quickly became a party pooper.
Griffith, Bent Mountain's representative in the General Assembly, told more than 400 residents packed into the firehouse that he supports I-73 coming through their community.
"Roanoke and Salem and Christiansburg and Shawsville exist for one reason - because they lay on the natural transportation route for the mid-Atlantic area," he told the crowd. "There's no good route that runs into the Southeast. I-73 provides that route. It accents our natural place in the economic community."
A member of the audience stood and asked how many people voted for Griffith last fall. A few hands went up. He asked how many would vote for Griffith again. No hands went up.
"I believe a majority of my constituents favor this road," the Republican said after the meeting. "They don't want it here [in Bent Mountain]. The problem is, where do we put it?"
by CNB