THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 27, 1995 TAG: 9503250033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
WHEN I SEE people on TV with their fingers curled around a coffee mug, I figure it's going to be a casual hour or so. In the case of two early-morning shows on WAVY and WVEC, I figured right.
On ``WAVY News 10 Saturday Morning,'' which signs on for 90 minutes at 6:30, host Andy Fox is as loose as one of those Slinky toys.
Fox and weather guy Jim Lawrence sip their way through the hour-and-a-half of news, weather reports such as day-trip forecasts, sports, chats with people having breakfast in local diners and stories from the World of Weird.
Since signing on a few weeks ago, ``WAVY News 10 Saturday Morning'' has managed about a 2 rating, which is pretty good against such formidable competition as ``Backyard America'' and ``Dumbo's Flying Circus.''
One Saturday not long ago, Fox remarked that his hair is turning gray, and asked viewers how he can stop that from happening.
Milk and molasses, said a woman who called the Channel 10 Morning Line.
Over on WVEC, Jimmy Ray Dunn and Rhonda Bentley clutch coffee mugs, too, as they settle into their chairs to co-host the ABC affiliate's new wake-up hour, ``Good Morning.''
Bentley is unbelievely perky at 6 a.m.
I wonder. . . is she really a wind-up doll? If we ever meet, I'll look for the key in her back.
The third locally produced show to premiere in recent weeks also runs in the morning, but WGNT's ``On Cue'' is no wake-up call. ``On Cue,'' which airs Sundays at 11:30 a.m., is a TV magazine striving to be hip, cool and in touch. Gerald Walsh ties it all together with help from Eric Worden.
Memo to Walsh: If you want to know how to do a way cool show in this genre, and get it right, catch ``Buz TV'' on WTKR Saturday nights at 11:30.
On ``On Cue,'' there's a good dose of what's-happening talk. Walsh has recruited Nancy Chapman of that what's-happening publication, Port Folio, to run down the entertainment calendar with Worden.
``On Cue'' is a stew pot of featurettes, from a rundown of the top videos, to a Channel 27 version of ``Love Connection.'' I caught Walsh when he brought together a 25-year-old paramedic named Eric with a 28-year-old college professor named Michelene.
``I like older women,'' said Eric.
Mini-criticism of Walsh: He acts at times as if he's trying to top his guests. Take a deep breath and let them talk, Gerald.
All three of these shows have a common denominator: Radio guys.
Worden, who looks as if he's modeling the hot new Kato Kaelin 'do, hails from The Coast while Dunn used to be the morning guy on Eagle 97. Stan Verrett, who steps in to do a sports report when Lawrence isn't giving a boating forecast or when Fox has finished his bit with psychic Peggy Brouchard, is also from radio.
Best thing about ``WAVY News 10 Saturday Morning'': Fox's conversation with people downing the ham and hash browns at such eateries as Sorry Sara's in downtown Hampton.
Channel 13's morning team is reasonably bouncy, too. Dunn and Bentley have been threatening to whip up something in the kitchen on their set, but I haven't seen so much as burnt toast. She does ``Weather in a Nutshell.'' Dunn calls in a traffic reporter (``No backups on 564''), nuzzles with pets thrust at him by studio guests and engages in the smallest of small talk with Bentley.
All three of these locally produced shows need a coat of polish.
But even with the splinters showing, the shows on WAVY, WVEC and WGNT are welcome. They show me that the bosses at the three stations are willing to take a chance on local programming that goes beyond 30 minutes of news, weather and sports. I wonder. . . will Eric and Michelene have a second date? by CNB