Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 5, 1994 TAG: 9405050100
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WPIR is a key element in a planned network of contemporary Christian radio stations that will stretch from Martinsville to Bristol and be totally listener-supported. The network's first station, WPIN (91.5 FM) in Dublin, went on the air in mid-January.
"We've been working on this 10 years," said Baker, the network's chairman and director. Baker, who lives in Blacksburg, operates other radio stations in Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio, and with his son, Edward, also owns Paging Inc. in Christiansburg.
George McNerlin, general manager and on-air morning host for The Positive Alternative Radio Network - headquartered in Blacksburg - said he's confident that "people will catch the vision and support the station."
The network will be commercial-free and will rely on tax-free contributions from listeners and corporate sponsors to stay on the air. It will be actively soliciting donations Friday and Saturday during its "Spring Sharathon '94."
McNerlin has estimated monthly operating costs at approximately $20,000, once its first four stations are on the air.
The network bills itself as "the new PAR-FM, your Christian connection." McNerlin and the network's owners intend eventually to blanket much of Western Virginia, as well as parts of North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, with contemporary Christian programming.
Transmitters for WPIM in Martinsville and WPIB in Bluefield are "about 98 percent ready," McNerlin said. Those stations and one in the Tri-Cities (Bristol-Kingsport-Johnson City) should be on the air by the end of the year.
The network's genesis has been inauspicious. Its adult contemporary Christian music and talk programming originate from small studios in downtown Blacksburg. When the network takes off, live programming will come from studios in each community, as well as from Blacksburg, McNerlin said.
WPIN's low-wattage signal, transmitted from Peak Mountain overlooking Pulaski, was so modest that the station put a translator on Prices Mountain at 102.5 FM to re-broadcast the signal and improve coverage over Blacksburg and Christiansburg. WPIR's 3,300-watt transmitter is much more potent.
"It's gangbusters in Roanoke," McNerlin said. "We just got a call from Lynchburg." He estimated the station could be heard from Bedford to the New River Valley, though reception might be spotty in some places.
"We're getting tons of listener response. Most of the calls are starting to come in from Roanoke and Salem now," he said, though he did get a call from Martinsville.
McNerlin said he was encouraged by the reaction. "People are saying, `at last, at last.' "
An experienced secular and religious broadcaster, McNerlin came to the New River Valley from Texas, where he had worked at major contemporary Christian stations in Dallas and Houston. "We love it here," he said. The network's owners, he said, "saw the need. There was no contemporary Christian music in the area."
He said the network's owners "are kind of holding their breath to see how this works out," but he expressed confidence it would work.
While he concedes that Western Virginians might have somewhat more conservative tastes than other markets in which he has worked, he's banking they'll come to like the station's on-air product well enough to make it succeed. "We are in debt, but our lenders are patient," he said.
The network's formula for success involves targeting 25- to 49-year-old listeners, with a slight tilt toward women. The music features performers such as Amy Grant, Sandi Patti, Steven Curtis Chapman and Bebe and Cece Winans. In addition to the music, PAR-FM carries four Christian-oriented vignettes and a nationally broadcast two-hour afternoon talk program.
Despite its religious overtones and commercial-free underpinnings, PAR-FM is "just a regular, fun, Top-40 type radio station," McNerlin said. The network plans to do live remotes and give away prizes and bumper stickers.
Audience response has been good, McNerlin said, but he anticipates it will take awhile for listeners to get used to the idea that they're responsible for the network's financial success.
To give that notion a nudge, the burgeoning network has been soliciting contributions on the air. Ultimately, the radio grid will have the potential to reach 3 million listeners in Western Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, Southern West Virginia and North Carolina.
The network hopes eventually to attract 5 percent of that huge audience, but McNerlin is looking beyond that to satellite distribution of the network's programs. "This could very well turn into a national network," he said.
Listeners can contact PAR-FM at 951-9791 or at (800) 627-9747.
by CNB