Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 26, 1993 TAG: 9301260163
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER and CHUCK MILTEER STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
K92 SLIPS AGAIN IN RATINGS
The most turbulent year in more than a decade of Roanoke-area radio concluded with yet another shake-up.Arbitron's newly released fall 1992 ratings survey of the Roanoke-Lynchburg market held very good news for album-rock WROV-FM (96.3), but very bad news for former top banana K92 (WXLK, 92.3 FM in Roanoke).
Country-music WYYD (107.9 FM) remained atop the heap, and light adult contemporary WPVR (94.9 FM) maintained its position as No. 3 in market share among all listeners.
But 'ROV rocketed into second place, while K92 continued to tumble and finished fourth.
"I've been happier," said Ashby Coleman, K92's new operations manager. "We had a feeling the ratings were not going to be where we'd want them."
Coleman said the ratings drop was not a surprise, but he thought the station would be able to hold onto No. 2.
Indeed, less than one percentage point of market share separate No. 2 and No. 4.
Coleman blames K92's drop on the increased popularity of country music and changing demographics.
The station's poor ratings were the reason for the major shake-up at the station in early December, Coleman said, when he was brought in to replace chief programmer Russ Brown.
Coleman, son of station owner Aylett Coleman, will continue to oversee the station operations, but will relinquish the program director's duties to Chris Taylor, who joined the station last week.
Taylor, most recently music director at WAVA-FM in Arlington, will also take over the on-air slot vacated by the departure of David Lee Michaels, who left the station last week.
Michaels had been program director under Brown, but was relieved of his management position when Coleman joined the station in December. Coleman would not comment on Michaels' departure. K92, which was the region's top-rated station for more than a decade until early last year, has changed programming management five times in just over two years.
K92's troubles, along with the huge popularity of country music, have given WYYD the opportunity to emerge as a dominant No. 1, with about 60 percent more market share than its closest competitor. The fall survey was the fourth straight to put WYYD on top - each time by a wider margin.
That leaves the rest of the stations scrambling for No. 2 - this time with WROV the winner.
General Manager Mike Slenski attributes WROV's success to consistency among its on-air personalities and programming. The station has also benefitted from being the only major station in the market with no direct competition.
Competition seems to be a major obstacle for newcomer V-Jams (WVLR, 105.3 FM in Roanoke). The Lynchburg-based urban contemporary twin stations showed a decrease in market share and dropped to 10th place. While WROV has the album-rock niche to itself, V-Jams has three competitors for an urban contemporary audience that is about the same size. Among those rivals is Lynchburg's WJJS (101.7 FM), which finished No. 8.
"I don't know if it's a confusion thing or what happened," said V-Jams' Sly Collins. "We're lacking in identity." The station signed on in September with a brash attitude and as-yet unrealized predictions of quick success.
Adult-contemporary station WSLQ (Q99, 99.1 FM) maintained its position as No. 5, followed by Roanoke-based country music station WJLM (J93, 93.5 FM), and news-talk station WFIR (960 AM), the top-rated AM station in the region.
\ ARBITRON RATINGS\ Roanoke/Lynchburg audience share, listeners 12 and older\ \ Spr. '92 Sum. '92 Fall '92\ 1. WYYD 18.8 17.4 16.2\ 2. WROV-FM 8.6 7.7 10.0\ 3. WPVR 8.3 10.3 9.5\ 4. K92 14.3 12.1 9.3\ 5. WSLQ 4.7 7.2 8.3\ 6. WJLM 6.0 5.3 6.3\ 7. WFIR 4.6 3.9 5.1\ 8. WJJS 5.3 4.7 4.2\ 9. WSLC 3.9 3.5 4.1\ 10. V-Jams .8 4.3 3.5\