ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 28, 1997 TAG: 9702280053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
NOT ONE TO MINCE WORDS, Limbaugh substitute host Michael Medved called the decision to accept women at Virginia Military Institute "complete insanity.''
From a Carolina Panthers seat-cushioned chair in a studio just off Interstate 81, Michael Medved spoke to 20million people Thursday.
The Rush Limbaugh show aired Thursday afternoon from WFNR (710 AM) in Christiansburg.
Medved, one of Limbaugh's frequent fill-ins who also has a radio talk show based in Seattle, was in the area to speak at Washington and Lee University in Lexington on Thursday night.
WFNR was the closest station that carries Limbaugh's show and has a broadcast-quality digital line, said Karen Travis of Travis Broadcasting. Though the studio is in Christiansburg, the Federal Communications Commission license is for Blacksburg. So when Medved spoke locally, it was of Blacksburg.
But the show's first two hours had a national focus as Medved discussed President Clinton's fund-raising techniques and the public's lack of interest therein.
Medved then used the final hour on his national soapbox to defend the South and Virginia Military Institute's battle to keep women out of its cadet corps.
Like the man for whom he was substituting, Medved is not one for understatement: He called the decision to allow women to attend the publicly funded VMI "complete insanity," part of the "ongoing war against the South."
He even played a Limbaugh-staple parody, this one a commercial for "VMI Barbie."
The doll says things like: "I can't do that many push-ups," and "I don't want to wear my hair like that." It ended with: "Don't mess with VMI Barbie, or she'll see you in court."
Liza, a caller from Birmingham, Ala., thanked Medved for his "impassioned speech" supporting VMI. Seems several of the men in her family are alumni. She said her husband found the U.S. Supreme Court decision so painful, he turned his cadet photo to the wall.
To help make his pro-South point, Medved, co-host of the PBS movie review show "Sneak Previews," used state-by-state movie ticket-buying stats.
In the last six months, he said, nine Southern states, including Virginia, bought the fewest movie tickets.
That's proof, he said, that Southerners "reject the kind of values and madness that comes regularly out of the American entertainment industry."
That pricked the ears of Steve from Greenville, S.C., an actor as well as a Southerner. By defending the South and attacking Hollywood, Medved got "all over my good side," Steve said.
Travis, who, with husband, Bob, owns the station, said the three hours of national exposure won't likely mean much for WFNR.
"But it does mean something for the community, which means something to me," she said. "It shows the New River Valley isn't a shadow of Roanoke but has its own identity."
Still, the Travises are a pragmatic couple; they made the most of the opportunity.
First the practical: They hung a second WFNR banner to catch the lens of two local television cameras there to shoot Medved at the mike.
Then the creative: When Medved asked, during a commercial break, if the station's call letters stood for anything, Bob Travis thought quickly:
"Uh, yeah: For the New River Valley."
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON STAFF. New River Valley "dittoheads" had theby CNBchance Thursday to hear Michael Medved do the Rush Limbaugh show
from their home station, WFNR. color.