ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997 TAG: 9704040026
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE THE ROANOKE TIMES
A free HBO and Showtime promotion this weekend will give Roanoke's Sharron Davies a national audience.
Every one of the 3.2 million subscribers to Cox Communications cable systems across the country will get a chance to see Roanoke's Sharron Davies this weekend.
"That's a lot of eyeballs," Davies said with a laugh this week. "Fortunately, I don't think about that at the time" when she's on the air.
Davies, community relations manager for Cox Communications Roanoke, will be a host for the Cox/HBO Freeview this weekend.
During the promotion, beginning at 4 p.m. today and running through Sunday, Cox subscribers around the country will get a free look at HBO and Showtime movie programming. In Roanoke, the promotion will run on the regular HBO channel, 20, as well as on channel 9, which the company identifies as WCOX.
Between movies, Davies will be encouraging viewers to call their Cox cable systems to sign up for the premium movie services.
She'll also be giving some general information about Cox, including its awards for customer excellence, upcoming technological advancements, and generally "a feel for what Cox Communications has to offer."
"Very often we think people know what we're doing," Davies said, but customers may not have heard about all the company's accomplishments and plans.
In a highly competitive environment, "we want to maintain the customers we have and keep those customers in the future," Davies said, by making sure the company's message gets to them.
"We want to say `here's the latest, highest technology - the best available in cable.'"
Davies will be appearing along with an overall host, an HBO spokesman, and a CNN entertainment reporter who will cut in with spots from Walt Disney World.
Davies got the job representing Cox after sending in an audition tape almost two years ago.
She is no stranger to on-air work. After graduating from Virginia Tech with a degree in communications in 1986, Davies went to work for WTOY radio in Roanoke, where she stayed until 1990.
She wrote, produced and hosted a minority affairs program on WBRA-TV (Channel 15) in 1989-90 before going to work for Cox. Besides working in community relations, she's hosted and produced a quarterly cable news program on the system.
Working with this national promotion was "an opportunity to increase my skill levels," Davies said. "Working at that level, they coach you and help give you direction. I was able to hone my skills and bring them back here."
"It was wonderful to have people working in the profession think well enough of you to let you go on camera in front of a national audience. ... I think the exposure will be good for Roanoke and good for Cox and good for me."
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Sharron Davies in the community relations manager forby CNBCox Communications Roanoke. color.