THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 27, 1995 TAG: 9512270260
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines
THEY AREN'T Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, or Jack Klugman and Tony Randall.
But even Neil Simon would be hard-pressed to come up with an odd couple that's more fun than Jeff Allen and Gigi Young, co-hosts of ``The More Music Morning Show'' on WAFX-FM.
Does this sound like a sitcom or what?
Get a guy from Jersey - no, a dark-haired, married, father-of-a-teenage-daughter, Jewish guy from Jersey who's worked at more than a few stations. The kind of good-natured schlub who shows up for work in a Georgia football sweatshirt, jeans and pricey sneakers. He's a wisenheimer, but not enough that it gets under your skin.
Then get a petite blonde, a looker who lives with her dogs near the Bay, lifts weights and dresses to kill - at 4 in the morning. Cream-colored blouse, skirt, hose and heels; pine-green, double-breasted blazer. She's worked most of her career as third banana for one company; this is her first time as co-host in morning drive.
Put them on the air 4 1/2 hours a day.
``It works when there's no B.S., when there's an honest difference in the way we perceive things,'' Allen says. ``If you think of something and go ahead and say it, it works. If you hold back, it loses something. If I cross the line, fine. She'll stand there with her hands on her hips, and I know she's going to blast me.''
Move over Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar.
There's no waiting for coffee at the 7-Eleven. The drive out to the WAFX studio, in one of the Armada Hoffler towers near Greenbrier Mall in Chesapeake, is a snap.
It's 5 a.m. and Allen, 37, has already logged 90 minutes, checking the fax machine and news wires for material. Young, no age given, gets in around 4:15 to prepare her news report and, armed with a highlighter and razor blade, to pick through the papers for off-the-wall nuggets of her own.
Just before their 5:30 airtime, she's in Allen's office to go over a few: a man in Tennessee who wanted to be a woman so bad that he gave himself a sex-change operation with a machete, and a program for sex offenders that had been suspended because someone used obscene language.
``Who complained? That's what I want to know,'' Young says. ``Am I the only one who thinks this is funny?''
``I wasn't listening,'' Allen answers. He's found another item. A driver was booked for DUI; when the tow truck showed up, the driver was drunk.
``You can't get any dumber than that,'' he says.
Loose about sums up the tone of the show, which they've done at WAFX (106.9) for nearly 18 months, longer than any other morning rock team in the market. He's unflappable, running the board, taking phone calls, editing tape, adding soundbites and bantering with Young. She's . . . more animated, practically going through an aerobics routine at the mike if she isn't darting out of the studio to update the news.
When the breakfast biscuits are late, Allen says he just might not make good on a plug for the fast-food place delivering them. When they do arrive, he puts one of the delivery ladies on the air.
``Jeff is definitely the timekeeper,'' Young says. ``He keeps the forward momentum.''
Crunch time is around 7:45. The commute is in full bore, and Joe Sweeney, just Sweeney to listeners, has traffic reports. A two-month member of the crew, he also does sports. They've got to get in the weather and David Letterman's Top 10 list. Sometime around 8, it's ``Battle of the Sexes,'' a daily, on-air contest pitting male and female listeners.
And there's the music - make that ``More Music'' - a steady diet of rock hits from the '60s, '70s and '80s.
``The other day, we actually played Letterman on time,'' Allen says, laughing, ``and a listener called in to ask why we hadn't run the list.
``Sometimes we have to make an hour 65 minutes, but it all gets done. If you do morning radio strictly by the book, by what the consultants say, it can work against you. You lose the edge.''
The formula works. In the most recent Arbitrons, WAFX was No. 10 in the morning among listeners 12 and up and No. 5 among those 18-34 and 25-54. Not bad for any station, but especially one whose format is built on the familiar. Those numbers have been steady, too.
``We want the show to be entertaining, but we never lose sight of the fact that people listen for the music,'' Allen says. ``It definitely has a place in the market.''
That piece of the pie could get bigger as longtime rock leader WNOR-FM (98.7) and alt-rocker WROX-FM (96.1) spend more time sniping at each other. WKOC-FM (93.7) also alienated some listeners last fall when it dropped its morning show and picked up Howard Stern.
Allen and Young have a couple of other things going for them as well. They're likable - their rapport is sharp and the camaraderie is genuine. They even hang out together.
``I generally defer to Jeff, then hate him later,'' Young says. ``He allows me the latitude to be funny. I still don't think of myself as funny.''
Allen, the first morning guy on the old Fox in the late '80s, was doing OK in radio sales when WAFX made its pitch. The problem? He was working in Richmond, he'd been fired from his on-air job at a rival station and he wasn't hot to get back behind a microphone.
``They kept saying, `Don't make waves. Talk about the music.' That's not my style. When (WAFX) called, I thought, `Why would I go through this again?' They made it comfortable. Now, I've bought a house here. I'm in deep.''
Young's new job simply meant moving to a neighboring studio. The decision, though, wasn't that easy. She'd done the news and sound effects for years at sister station WNOR.
``Yes, I was anxious,'' she says. I had no idea what they wanted at the time, when they asked if I would like to co-host.'' She wasn't sure until she met Allen over dinner.
``I don't think we'll ever get used to each other,'' Young says. ``It's always a learning process. That's what makes it work - we're so different.''
Allen has a different spin, saying, ``We enjoy each other a lot more when alcohol is involved.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Motoya Nakamura, The Virginian-Pilot
WAFX's Jeff Allen and Gigi Young are one of the area's hottest
morning duos, attracting an audience of great age diversity.
by CNB