THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, January 1, 1995                TAG: 9412290172
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST           PAGE: 12   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: John Harper 
                                             LENGTH: Long  :  109 lines

THE `HARPER INDEX' FOR 1994: THIS WAS HOT ON THE OUTER BANKS

It was a very good year, 1994, for entertainment on the Outer Banks.

A group of dedicated musicians practiced as the Outer Banks Symphony Orchestra in hopes of presenting a spring l995 concert.

The Theater of Dare's sparkling fall production of Neil Simon's ``Barefoot in the Park'' played to near sell-out crowds.

In the world of rock 'n' roll, one of the premier purveyors of southern rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, played the Port O' Call Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills. Ocracoke's Molasses Creek released a second album of original songs called ``Ocracoke Island II.''

In the movie houses, Outer Bankers enjoyed the same movies that the rest of America loved. The big winners were the family films: ``Forrest Gump,'' ``The Lion King'' and ``Speed.''

Outer Banks readers joined America's new quest for spirituality in buying books by James Redfield and Betty Eadie.

The Arbitron Co. released two radio surveys in l994. The Dare County survey, released in the spring, showed WVOD as the most-listened-to station. A summer survey of nine counties in northeastern North Carolina had WRSF-Dixie 105.7 as the top-rated station.

With all that said, here's the year-end edition of John Harper's Index, a list of the most-watched, most-read and most-heard selections from a variety of Outer Banks entertainment providers:

MUSIC

Radio Shack

Nags Head

Steve Girkin

1. ``The Sign,'' Ace of Base

2. ``Smash,'' Offspring

3. ``Tuesday Night Music Club,'' Sheryl Crow

Waves Music

Nags Head

Jenny Shane

1. ``August and Everything After,'' Counting Crows

2. ``Smash,'' Offspring

3. ``Purple,'' Stone Temple Pilots

Radio Shack

Kitty Hawk

Jim Wilhelm

1. ``Smash,'' Offspring

2. ``The Sign,'' Ace of Base

3. ``Purple,'' Stone Temple Pilots

RADIO REQUESTS

WERX-Rock 102

Edenton

Brent Todd

1. ``What's Up,'' 4 Non-Blondes

2. ``All I Wanna Do,'' Sheryl Crow

3. ``Airplane,'' Widespread Panic

WRSF-Dixie 105.7

Nags Head

Randy Gill

1. ``Don't Take the Girl,'' Tim McGraw

2. ``I Swear,'' John Michael Montgomery

3. ``Baby Likes to Rock It,'' Tractors

MOVIES

Colony Cinemas

George Richardson

1. ``Forrest Gump''

2. ``The Lion King''

3. ``Speed''

Carolina Video

Kitty Hawk

Don Brown

1. ``Jurassic Park''

2. ``Mrs. Doubtfire''

3. ``Speed''

Movies, Movies

Kill Devil Hills

Ray Morgan

1. ``The Piano''

2. ``Philadelphia''

3. ``My Life''

BOOKS

Island Bookstore

Duck

Martha Monroe

1. ``The Chamber,'' John Grisham

2. ``Cruel and Unusual,'' Patricia Cornwell

3. ``Ghost Beach,'' R.L. Stine

Manteo Booksellers

Manteo

Steve Brumfield

1. ``Embraced By the Light,'' Betty Eadie

2. ``Celestine Prophecy,'' James Redfield

3. ``In the Kitchen with Rosie,'' Rosie Daley

Buxton Books

Buxton

Gee Gee Rosell

1. ``The Shipping News,'' E. Annie Proulx

2. ``Celestine Prophecy,'' James Redfield

3. ``Outer Banks,'' Anne Rivers Siddons by CNB