DATE: Monday, November 10, 1997             TAG: 9711080059

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Bonko 

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

RADIO AND TV STATIONS ARE JOINING FORCES

WHY IS Steve Thomas watching television at the same time he's talking on the radio? What kind of a radio station has a studio with TV monitors all over the place?

Why is Jon Cash, WAVY's wake-up weather guy, sharing what he knows about highs, lows and cold fronts with people listening to the radio station where Thomas works?

The answer to all of the above is corporate coziness, TV and radio togetherness.

WVNS (670) is a recently launched radio station - ``no talk, no opinions, we do news'' - which simulcasts WAVY's local news at noon and the dinner hour.

WVNS also makes use of the Local Weather Station on cable, which is produced by WAVY and its corporate daddy, LIN Broadcasting. Why is Steve Thomas of WVNS working in a studio with a bank of TV monitors in it?

They are his windows to the world.

The anchorman who pulls the midday shift on WVNS watches the weather station with one eye, WAVY's noontime news with the other. He also glimpses at quotations from Wall Street on two monitors supplied by the Bloomberg channel.

Through his earphones, Thomas hears Associated Press network radio, which WVNS uses to fill the bulk of its broadcast day.

When the phone rings in the studio where Thomas works standing up, it's likely to be Alex Dahn or Diana Gibson of Metro Networks ready to report on a bridge opening or a glue-sticky situation near one of the tunnels.

Metro with Candice Hunter, Mat Tihart and Brian Mitchell also covers local news and sports for WVNS.

If it's happening in Chesapeake or China, Thomas knows about it. And a second or two later, he's telling what he knows to WVNS listeners in a lovely baritone once heard on WLTY-FM, WFOG-FM and other stations hereabouts.

``This is the future,'' said Thomas of the marriage of TV, radio, satellites and computers.

The people who brought the future to today in this market are Pat Murphy and his associates at 4-M Inc. They put an all-news station (WVNZ) on the air last February in Richmond and then started up WVNS (offices and studios in Norfolk) with the support and cooperation of WAVY's general manager, Ed Munson.

Murphy has been dropping in on WAVY's noontime newscast to comment on politics. ``Doug Wilder pulls a lot of political power in Virginia.''

He didn't have to look far to find Munson and pitch the idea of WAVY's becoming involved with radio for the first time in 40 years. (When WAVY television signed on in 1957, so did WAVY radio at 1350 on the AM band.)

Heeding audience surveys, and the feeling in his gut that indicated radio listeners in this Top 40 market want news on demand, Murphy's group started WVNS. There was plenty of music and talk radio around here (WTAR, WNIS) but no radio with non-stop local, national and regional news.

WVNS signs off at sunset. Murphy expects it to be a 24-hour operation by early 1998. When it does, he'll plug into WAVY's early-morning local newscast.

Of the deal with WAVY, Murphy said, ``It's been a great partnership.''

Munson thinks it's neat, too.

He's spread WAVY's brand around like mayonnaise on toast, first in an association with The Daily Press in Newport News. Then came the Local Weather Station. More WAVY.

Now it's WAVY on the radio, which keeps Channel 10 in step with its ambitious rival WVEC (a partner in Local News on Cable with Cox Communications and The Virginian-Pilot). And what of the third big player in local news here, WTKR? WTKR does a 10 p.m. newscast for WGNT.

Ah, synergy. Ain't it great?

Murphy thinks he knows what listeners in this market want on the AM band based on his 23 years in this area, including time as a keep-the-big-boys-honest talk-show host on WNIS and WTAR. They want news to be there when they cut the radio on, said Murphy, and they want traffic and weather all day long, ``not just when they're commuting.''

So he gives them traffic and weather every 10 minutes on WVNS. At 25 and 55 minutes past the hour, it's business news, and there are local and national sports updates at the 14- and 44-minute intervals.

Using a radio term, Murphy said there was ``a hole'' in this market before WVNS opened its highly computerized and automated studios off Military Highway last August. Murphy believes the ``hole'' has been filled by a radio station where you can hear TV.

Jon Cash. The man is everywhere. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Huy Nguyen/The Virginian-Pilot

Pat Murphy, general manager...

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