THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310388
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Don Imus is history in Hampton Roads.
Nine months after picking up ``Imus in the Morning,'' WTAR-AM (790) has done an about-face. This week, the station yanked the veteran deejay's New York-based talk show, replacing it with local news, weather and sports.
Co-anchors Darryl Hosack and Suzanne Snowden took over the 6-to-10 morning-drive slot Monday.
WTAR operations director Randy Bliss said two factors figured in the decision. ``One, Imus' ratings never really happened. But probably more importantly, it didn't allow us to be local enough in the morning.
``Syndicated shows only allow a certain amount of time each hour for local inserts,'' he said. ``With Imus, the breaks weren't on a consistent basis.''
In the fall Arbitrons, released last week, ``Imus in the Morning'' ranked 17th, with a 2.1 share, among its target audience - listeners ages 25 to 54.
The station had high hopes last April. But in adding Imus, WTAR dropped its local morning show hosted by Pat Murphy, whose sharp-tongued jabs at state and local politicians attracted fair ratings and a devoted audience.
The move left Virginia's oldest radio station without a locally produced talk-radio program. Listeners have complained regularly since WTAR installed a special phone line in November, Bliss said.
``We did receive a lot of calls complaining about the content of the program - the raunchy humor, profanity and sexual innuendo,'' he said. ``Ultimately, any radio station has the right to determine what is best for the local community. We felt he had not found his audience.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Don Imus' New York-based talk show was replaced with local news,
weather and sports.
by CNB