THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605080045
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
SHE'S THE BABE. The Fabulous Sports Babe of the Global Babe Radio Network. ``Da Babe.''
Who is she and what does she look like?
Thanks to ESPN2, you can now see an hour of ``The Fabulous Sports Babe Show Starring The Fabulous Sports Babe on the Global Babe Radio Network.''
The Babe, like the Wizard of Oz, has come out from behind the curtain.
She's there for all to see on Cox cable Monday through Friday at 1 p.m. (except today, when her show is pre-empted for time trials from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Wednesday Babe show will instead be seen at 4 a.m. Thursday).
Hear The Babe talk to listeners who call 1-800-SAY-BABE.
See The Babe dressed in denim, wearing dark shades, as she sits before the microphone in what she calls her ``trailer-haven studio in the middle of Petticoat Junction.''
It's radio on TV.
E! Entertainment Television also does radio on TV nightly at 11, airing portions of Howard Stern's nationally syndicated radio broadcast (heard locally on WKOC-FM in morning drive time).
The union of radio and TV runs deep.
WHRV-FM in this market airs the Charley Rose television talk show daily at noon. It's seen on WHRO at 5:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. WVAB in Virginia Beach broadcasts CBN Headline News, a staple of cable TV systems throughout the United States. When Tom Snyder is doing his late, late-night talk show on CBS television, the CBS radio network also broadcasts it - but not in the Hampton Roads market.
And there's a local radio personality (Tony Mercurio of WGH) hosting a TV show on WPEN at 6:30 p.m. Saturdays.
Radio on television. Television on radio. Radio voices on TV. It's a marriage made in heaven, says Nanci Donnellan, who is in her third year on ESPN Radio as The Fabulous Sports Babe. (WGH, the jock-happy station in Hampton Roads that refers to itself as ``The Score, 1310,'' carries The Babe's show from noon to 2 p.m. daily.)
Having her radio show on ESPN2 for an hour a day is a tremendous boost - a marketing breakthrough, said Donnellan long-distance from Bristol, Conn., where she does her show from a studio that's a mobile home on blocks.
``Cable reinforces what I do,'' she said. ``It enhances the experience of listening to The Babe.''
ESPN2 records the 10 to 11 a.m. hour of Donnellan on radio, slips in film or tape clips and graphics, and puts it on cable at 1 p.m. with a three- to four-minute introduction by Donnellan.
Sometimes it's newsy. Sometimes it's a rant against ``the Billys and Bubbas'' who call with dumb questions or comments.
A radio show on television is nothing much - people sitting in a cramped studio talking into a microphone. How exciting is that?
``The people really don't want to see me tapping a pencil on my desk and staring into a microphone,'' said Donnellan. So, her TV producers get creative.
They've installed robotic cameras in The Babe's studio that are forever on the move, focusing on the tons of sports memorabilia that surround her.
She's been on ESPN Radio since July 4, 1994. Last year, her show was heard in 144 radio markets. Today, it's close to 180. ESPN2 brought The Babe to cable television Sept. 19, 1995.
Hers is not just another sports-talk show, said Donnellan. There's less discussion about the mundane of sports - why the manager brought in a relief pitcher when he did, for instance - and more chat about the issues of the day.
``The Babe is here to show the listeners the way. My job is to be an observer who delivers an informed opinion. My job is to talk about the terrible behavior of some of the overpaid athletes. My show transcends the typical sports talk show,'' said Donnellan.
She has been at this for more than 15 years. You can listen for a year and not learn much about her. As for the personal questions that come winging in to her on The Babe fax machine, and never get answered, Donnellan said: ``Who I am off the radio really doesn't matter. All that matters is what I do and what I say on my radio show.''
For years, her callers wondered what The Fabulous Sports Babe looked like. ESPN2 stripped away the mystery when the cable channel hitched up with the Global Babe Network last September.
``For loyal Babe listeners, that date in September held the anticipation of the day the curtain opened in Oz, revealing the previously unseen wizard,'' said Mark Mason, general manager of ESPN Radio. by CNB