THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 15, 1994 TAG: 9408130056
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
TODAY'S TV buzz:
Question of the hour - Are WTKR co-anchors Ed Hughes and Tom Randles doing a newscast at 6 p.m. or auditioning for ``Star Search''? Way too much happy talk, guys.
If you always wanted a TV show of your own, here's your chance - Starting later this week, Cox Cable of Hampton Roads is setting aside Channel 65 as a leased access channel. What it means is this: If you have the money to buy time on Channel 65, Cox Cable is obligated to put your show on cable just as long as it isn't too terribly gross.
Isn't this what the All-Accordion Marching Band of West Ocean View has been waiting for?
``The channel is being offered on a first-come, first-served basis to virtually anyone,'' said Larry Michel, Cox Cable's marketing and sales manager. An outfit named Consumernet is Channel 65's first customer.
Michel said the rates vary according to the time of the day you want to lease Channel 65. Call 497-1071.
I'm dying to see what pops up on the channel about 3 a.m. Saturdays.
It's about time that Cox Cable followed the lead of Newport News Cablevision and other cable operators in giving just folks a chance to do their own cable show. What I'd like to see is a free access channel.
Then everybody would have the chance to be famous for 15 minutes.
You got whose autograph where? - Denise Doucett, who teaches dance in Chesapeake, was in Manhattan not long ago making plans to dance in Tap-a-mania, which will be held in front of Macy's on Aug. 21.
Doucett and her three kids, ages 13, 8 and 6, will be among 6,200 dancers doing tap steps on the streets of New York. Incredible but true!
While in Manhattan, Doucett saw the hunk who stars on ``NYPD Blue.'' She asked for and received an autograph from David Caruso, who plays a detective named John Kelly.
Not long after that, Doucett ran into David Hyde-Pierce, who plays Kelsey Grammer's snooty younger brother on ``Frasier.''
Doucett bagged his autograph, too. Both Caruso and Pierce were nominated for Emmys. What did Doucett think of Caruso? ``He was nice and nice-looking.'' And Hyde-Pierce? ``He was nice, too.'' Nice how, Denise?
Reason No. 1 to tune in WAFX-FM - Soon after David Letterman moved to CBS to start his ``Late Show,'' CBS Radio began peddling Letterman's Top 10 list to radio stations throughout the United States. Make the list, and you're famous overnight. Locally, WAFX-FM broadcasts the lists daily at 6:05 and 7:35 a.m.
Station breaks - Over at the WVEC studios in Norfolk, they're congratulating themselves for being nominated for two national Emmys. One of the shows focused on teen pregnancy, the other on helping young viewers learn a foreign language. . . . WHRO has scheduled the premiere of its documentary about life in Hampton Roads in the 1940s and 1950s at 8 p.m. on Aug. 22, just in time for the station's summer pledge drive. . . . In reply to a reader's question about Howard Stern, the E! Entertainment cable channel carries his show - a telecast of his radio program - twice a night at 8 and 11. . . . Another reader asks what WGNT will do with the 10 p.m. time slot when Arsenio Hall's show ends its run on Channel 27 in September. WGNT will continue with a talk show at that hour. Starting on Sept. 12, Jon Stewart will be the host. You've seen him being cool on MTV. Stewart is a William and Mary grad who became a bartender after graduating. So much for academia.
More from the whatever-happened-to department - Several readers have called my Infoline number (640-5555, Category 3333) asking what's become of John Wilson who once anchored the news at WAVY. Wilson really made an impression on viewers in the 1970s. He was the best news reader to ever work in this market. Wilson is with WTVT-TV in Tampa, Fla., having recently switched stations there. by CNB