DATE: Monday, October 13, 1997              TAG: 9710130061

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   61 lines

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...PAUL ``CUBBY'' BRYANT, FORMER VIRGINIA BEACH RADIO DISC JOCKEY?

Paul Bryant was just an 18-year-old senior at First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach when he got his first job as a disc jockey, working for WGH STAR 97 in Virginia Beach in 1989. He initially went by the nickname ``Bear,'' after the legendary football coach Paul ``Bear'' Bryant, but because of his young age, he was quickly tagged ``Cubby'' instead.

Paul ``Cubby'' Bryant is still playing Top 40 hits for radio listeners, but he's doing it in New York City.

Bryant, who is 26 and single, took a job working as afternoon disc jockey and music director for WHTZ ``Z100'' in New York in April 1996.

The station is the No. 1 Top 40 radio station in the country.

Before that, Bryant spent six years at KRBE radio in Houston, another Top 40 station. He worked a variety of shifts there and was music director his last four years.

He moved to Z100 when Tom Poleman, his program director in Houston, took a job in New York and asked Bryant to join him. Poleman named Bryant music director and hired him as an afternoon disc jockey.

The job has been quite a challenge, Bryant said. Z100, which had been the No. 1 station in the Big Apple at one time, had dropped to No. 20. But since undergoing a major overhaul, it is now ranked No. 7 in the city overall and is the nation's foremost Top 40 station.

``It was tough to leave Houston; I had really become attached to it. But it's everyone's dream in the music business to work in the No. 1 market,'' Bryant said. ``And it was such a challenge to try and resurrect such a legendary radio station.''

Plus, Bryant said, he's getting opportunities there that he wouldn't get anywhere else. For instance, he hosted a national radio show from backstage at the Grammy Awards. His recap of the awards program and interviews with the winners were broadcast across the country.

Bryant's career in radio began after his frequent calls to Virginia Beach DJ Jeff Moreau landed him an invitation to the WGH station.

``I called him and bugged him all the time, asking him what it was like to be a DJ. He could tell I was really interested and serious about it and invited me to the station one day.''

Moreau hired Bryant as an intern. He also let him play with the equipment and make practice tapes. One of the tapes made it to the program director, and in no time Bryant was working as a nighttime DJ while attending school during the day. Bryant took the job in Houston a few months after graduating, when the station changed its format from Top 40 to country.

Bryant said he has two more years on his contract in New York but hopes to stay a lot longer.

``The way things are going, I couldn't be more excited and entrenched. But I tell you, I love Virginia Beach. I think my ultimate goal would be to settle down there someday.'' MEMO: Whatever Happened To . . . appears every Monday, and we welcome

your suggestions for people and subjects to update. Dial INFOLINE at

640-5555 and press 7878 to leave a message for Jane Harper. ILLUSTRATION: Paul Bryant is an afternoon disc jockey and music

director for a New York station, WHTZ, the country's No. 1 Top 40

station.

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