THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 22, 1995 TAG: 9506220070
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
DON'T ADJUST your radio. Don't reach for the Visine.
KROX-FM, a new modern-rock station down in Austin, Texas, and WROX-FM, the newish modern-rock station here in Norfolk, have logos that look a lot alike.
The reason has nothing to do with coincidence.
101X, which signed on a few weeks ago, is owned by Sinclair Communications, the same company that runs 96X and WNIS-AM locally and three stations in Richmond. But its Austin acquisitions - eclectic KGSR joined the fold last month - might be the piece of the pie with the ripest plum.
While the stations are in a smaller market than Hampton Roads (52nd vs. 33rd), the upside is considerable: Austin is the state capital, the University of Texas is there and it's a boomtown rated by industry execs as the No. 1 mid-level market in the country.
Figure in the city's musical standing - home to a range of artists from Willie Nelson to Bob Mould, site of PBS' long-running ``Austin City Limits,'' host to the highly regarded South by Southwest showcase - and it's easy to see why main man Bob Sinclair feels as if he has the keys to the candy store.
``We've got the alternative franchise locked up in the new-music capital of the country,'' Sinclair said this week in his fifth-floor office at Norfolk's Dominion Tower.
Negotiations began last November. KGSR, with an across-the-board playlist encompassing Patsy Cline, Santana and Live, had been around several years. KROX, though, was built from the ground up after Sinclair purchased a permit owned by another man for a 1,000-foot tower with 100,000 watts.
Ownership and format aren't the only Hampton Roads connection. Sara Trexler, a familiar voice to local listeners, is 101X's program director. ``It took her about two seconds to accept the job,'' Sinclair said. Her assistant is L.A. Lloyd, former nighttime guy at 96X.
Trexler, who was instrumental in getting much-missed WOFM off the ground, did a stint at WNOR, hosted a talk-show at WNIS, then moved across the hall to WROX. Right now, she's got a juggling act going in Austin, working morning-drive, holding auditions and programming, programming, programming.
She's also an amateur musician, having played bass in several local outfits, so a hotbed such as Austin is made to order.
``It's scary that it's this perfect,'' Trexler said. ``This is pretty much my life right now, and it needs to be. Literally, it's like having a newborn. When it wakes, you feed it. After this, motherhood will be a snap.''
101X has a sizable leg up on the home boys in broadcasting range, reaching as far south as San Antonio and just short of Houston to the east. But that will soon change. WROX's new tower, a 740-foot job going up next to its 500-footer in Cape Charles, is just about completed.
It could be in operation by Monday, and will sharpen reception considerably in the south end of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Portsmouth, Sinclair said.
The bad news is it will probably be only a marginal improvement for listeners in downtown Norfolk, where 96X's signal gets interference from WWDE and WNOR. The station is still awaiting FCC approval to install a low-power translator - a relay of sorts - on top of its Dominion Tower tower. by CNB