DATE: Wednesday, July 2, 1997               TAG: 9707020098

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LARRY BONKO

                                            LENGTH:   78 lines

SOAP STAR, TWIN ARE REPEATING THEMSELVES

LOCAL TV NEWS and views to consider while you wait to see if Kathie Lee Gifford forgives Frank:

Hello, Deidre. Again. - NBC's soap queen, Deidre Hall of ``Days of Our Lives,'' will appear in Virginia Beach, live in person - and in full makeup and stunning wardrobe, too, I bet - on Saturday.

It's the fourth time that Hall, who plays Marlena on DOL, has visited for a luncheon and fan fest at Tandom's Pine Tree Inn. There's room for 140. Tickets cost $50. The event starts at 1:30. Call 340-3661.

Deidre's twin sister, Andrea Gengler, is behind what she calls this ``up-close and personal'' visit. Hall is promising autographs, out-takes from DOL plus a question-and-answer session. Ask her about the Stefano thing.

They love him. They hate him. - Among the 100-plus readers who responded to my column about the local early-morning news shows were several with mixed opinions about Jon Cash - the chatty weather guy on WAVY.

From Liz Hancock, Virginia Beach: ``Jon is as cute as a button. We love Channel 10's news.''

From Marcella Murphy, also Virginia Beach: ``I loathe Jon Cash. He is crass, dull and pompous.''

Diane Sonberg in Norfolk says she has to have her daily TV fix of Cash, adding, ``I'm a Jon Cash junkie.''

Bill Helfen in Virginia Beach say he hates what he hears on Channel 10. ``All that idle chatter. Why do they do it?''

The Infoline responses showed me this: WAVY's wake-up programming is most popular with readers - it also leads in the Nielsens - but Carol Hoffman of WVEC is the morning anchor the callers like most.

I loved the call from June Kissell, who recently returned to this area after five years in the United Kingdom. What's with all the chit-chat on local TV, she asks, adding, ``It's irritating and distracting. I don't like it.'' Amen, June.

New face - Who was that attractive, bubbly woman who recently sat in for Terry Meeuwsen on ``The 700 Club,'' which is produced five days a week in Virginia Beach? She's Lisa Ryan, a former Miss California. Her husband, Marcus, is studying at Regent U.

Hooray for WGNT - After posting darn good ratings with ``Moesha,'' ``Malcom & Eddie'' and ``Star Trek: Voyager,'' and selling the United Paramount network to viewers here, the folks at WGNT in Portsmouth were recently honored as one of UPN's top six affiliates.

The others are in Miami, Houston, Memphis, New Orleans and New York City. Come the fall, WGNT's syndicated schedule will include reruns of ``NYPD Blue'' and ``Walker, Texas Ranger.'' Channel 27 still hasn't replaced general manager Chris Pike, who left months ago.

Buffy alert - Come July 13, WVBT will air ``Buffy, the Vampire Slayer'' Sundays at 8 p.m. as well as Mondays nights at 9.

Because you asked - In reply to inquiries from several readers, Hampton Roads is the 40th largest TV market in the United States and the 33rd largest radio market.

Third and long - Can fall be far away even as we swelter? ESPN will give us the Virginia Tech-Rutgers football game on Saturday, Aug. 30.

Corporate cool - When LIN Television brought managers from 14 stations to Virginia for a meeting recently, the bosses slipped off the power suits, grabbed paint brushes and helped spruce up and furnish a shelter for homeless families in downtown Portsmouth.

And LIN chipped in with a $10,000 check, said Annie White-Guerin of the Portsmouth Area Resources Coalition.

The envelope, please - Rick Settoon, a producer with the Christian Broadcasting Network, won three awards at the 30th annual U.S. International Film and Video Festival in Chicago. In beating out some of broadcasting's giants, Settoon was honored for a short documentary about survivors of the crash of two airliners in 1977 that took 576 lives on Tenerife.

``It was a subject that gave me chills,'' said Settoon, who got the idea for the special when he was researching miraculous escapes. The feature was first aired on ``The 700 Club.''

Local producer Eric Allan Futterman recently won a regional Emmy for writing ``To Bear Witness: A Living Testimonial of the Holocaust,'' which was seen on WHRO, as did WAVY's TV traffic cop, Andy Fox, for his ``Road Rebels'' series. MEMO: Share your questions or opinions of local TV by calling me on

Infoline at 640-5555 and pressing 2486.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu