Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 21

iJqHl) UrCSS The Times-Herald Saturday, September 16, 1989 Religion Joseph Pryweller Broadcast news Re The California Raisins gyrated their way through the grapevine to the toy store. rage rom 1 ad-land. products stores TV commercial moving into toy By JIM BENSON Los Angeles Daily News LOS ANGELES Commercials no longer just sell products. They are the products. Those annoying interruptions in favorite programs have taken on a life of their own, and a form of their own: dancing raisins, ugly dogs, long-eared creatures that destroy home-delivered pizzas.

They have become big sellers, too. Since the California Raisins gyrated their way through the grapevine for the first time in late 1986, the California Raisin Advisory Board has generated $6.5 million in licensing revenue. Of course, the name of the game in merchandising the commercials themselves is product identification. Spuds MacKenzie is an instantly recognizable character. Think of that party animal, and you think of Bud Light.

Glance at those obnoxious Noids on store shelves, and Domino's sure hopes pizza comes to mind. Spot one of the raisin characters, and it suddenly becomes cool for children to eat shriveled grapes. in to V-' ,1 rt A Staff photo by VALENDA CAMPBELL and they have found advertisers are not the only people who will pay for their handiwork. As anyone who has traipsed through a toy store lately can attest, it is getting increasingly difficult to avoid the Noid, the California Raisins, Spuds MacKenzie or any number of ad-land refugees. They are there on a shelf alongside Cadaco's Adverteasing, the game in which players match slogans with brands, and Rhino Video's "Commercial Mania," a collection of TV ads from the 1950s and '60s.

Down the aisle can be found a Bull Shannon "Night Court" puppet, a Bugs Bunny tie, a talking Ed Grimley doll and a Pee-wee Her --or rM. i. At In this corner, Hot 103 takes on Power 94 Hampton Roads already is in the midst of some fierce radio battles. In one ring, it's the war of the rock stations; in another, two Top-40 oldies stations fight for dominance. But a battle that has grabbed far fewer headlines is about to heat up.

It matches urban-contemporary stations WOWI-FM (102.9), known as Hot 103, against WMYK-FM (93.7), known as Power 94. Radio stations WOWI and WRAP-AM (1350) were sold this week to Philadelphia-based Ragan Henry Broadcasting, which has bought WOWI for $8.3 million and WRAP for $1 million. At last count, Henry owned 28 stations, making him the largest single radio owner in the country. He's known as someone who comes in, improves his stations and then sells them for a higher price. Henry recently sold Richmond station WMXB for $23 million, more than double what he paid for it 14 months ago.

Expect the same improvement from Henry's new Norfolk-based properties. "We'll begin some aggressive marketing and fine-tune the programming already in place at both stations," said Donald Kidwell, the Richmond-based divisional vice president for Ragan Henry Broadcasting, two weeks ago. Both stations need the help. Although it is the fifth most-listened-to Hampton Roads station according to July's Arbitron ratings, WOWI's share of the audience slipped by more than a point from April's ratings. And WRAP, which attracts a younger audience, never has been a contender.

Although rumors have been circulating that WRAP, one of Hampton Roads' older AM stations, will begin playing soul oldies after the sale is fi- nal, Kidwell denied that would happen. Meanwhile, powerful Power 94 has made its own move. The station, which changed to its present format in May 1988, has crept up in the ratings to within shouting distance of WOWI. Power 94 this summer has added two new on-air personalities. Kris King came from a Detroit station to take over the 2-6 p.m.

slot, and Sonny Andre came from West Palm Beach, to handle the 6-11 p.m. show. Whatever else happens, the urban-contemporary battle will sizzle this fall. Tape splices Rock sale: Broomfield Communications has agreed to buy low-power, Chesapeake-based rock radio station WOFM (92.1) for $3,075 million, current co-owner and General Manager Jim Hunt said. FCC approval is expected by the end of November.

The buyers, based in Decatur, plan to continue WOFM's quest to increase its power to 25,000 watts from 3,000 watts now and to preserve the station's new-music, progressive-rock format, Hunt said. The station has attempted for the last two years to get FCC and city-government approval to increase its signal. When the work is complete, the station should be clearly heard all over the Peninsula. The power boost could make WOFM a rock-radio challenger to WNOR and WAFX. "Although I hate to give it up, the new owners will be able to give the station more financial support than we could," said Hunt, who added that he was pressured by his two partners to sell.

"It will be best for the station." Up In the morning: WTKR will start its early-morning news show at 6 a.m. Monday. The show is called "News 3 Daybreak." It's anchored by reporter Glenn Corey and will feature reports from military reporter Please see News, C4 man Chairry Chair, all available at prices that are out of the allowance range of almost anyone under the age of 21. And, naturally, they're selling like crazy. One explanation for what has been called "the snap, crackle and pop culture" is that the admen are catering to the deferred childhood whims of a now-affluent generation of adults.

This is a generation that visits Mrs. Fields when it wants milk and cookies like Mom's. It is the generation that listens to one of the many oldies and classic-rock stations in Los Angeles for the music it grew up with. It is the generation that has enabled adult toy stores to flourish. at age 7.

1 Shaham made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic in 1982, the same; year he returned to America to studyr His career was assisted by two surprise moves when he was asked to fill in for violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Itzhak Perlman. Two seasons ago, he performed with The Virginia Symphony when Menuhin was forced to cancel because of a shoulder injury. With a week's notice, Shaham played works by Ravel and Bruch, and officials here were so impressed they immediately engaged him to open this season. Filling in for Perlman was a bit more abrupt. Shaham was pulled out of English class one day in New York and asked to play two concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra for Perlman, who had an ear infection.

He took three days off from school. "Perlman's daughter and I attend Juilliard together, so I've played at his house," says Shaham. In Norfolk, Shaham will play a concerto by 19th-century composer-performer Henri Wieniawski, a work he's also scheduled to perform with the Royal Philharmonic. Upcoming this year are performances with the New York Philharmonic. "I like to think my playing is changing," he says.

"I'm reading through the repertoire, and I have a much clearer picture of it in my mind," Noid, Spuds win the adult market Los Angeles Daily News LOS ANGELES Perhaps it seems strange that the same people who buy albums of ad jingles are the very same yuppies who zap, time-shift and do everything else imaginable to avoid commercials on TV. But, hey, sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't. Let's face it; more people know the words to the Armour Hot Dog theme dogs, Armour hot Just imagine what will happen this fall when they get their own Saturday morning cartoon show on CBS, "The California Raisins." A variety of dancing-raisin commercials and merchandising tie-ins already have boosted raisin sales by 20 percent, which translates to about $70 million additional income for the inaustry. The public's appetite for commercial-related products now extends to the advertise-ments themselves.

When this past spring a New York record producer released "TV Toons: The Commercials" a collection of the 55 classical commercial jingles the album sold more than 100,000 copies in just three weeks and appeared on Billboard magazine's chart of top sellers. The nostalgia-packed album ranged from Brylcreem's 1946 jingle, "A Little Dab'll Do Ya," Lowenbrau beer's 1980 campaign, "Here's to Good Friends." In between are Kellogg's Rice Krispies' "Snap, Crackle, Pop" campaign from the 1950s; Cracker Jack's "Candy-Coated Popcorn, Peanuts and a Prize" from 1963 and Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" from 1971. Please see Toys, C2 dogs, what kind of kids eat Armour hot dogs? than "The Star-Spangled Banner." The hot dog tune is a lot easier to sing, too. "TeeVee Toons: The Commercials" obviously is aimed at the ever-growing number of people who find themselves humming Choo Choo Charlie's Good Plenty song at work, singing "Meow, meow, meow, meow" as they tackle the Stairmaster at the local gym or anybody who knows everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee. The advertising and marketing people, it seems, have discovered a new market as advertising and marketing people are wont to do Michael Tiknis symphony's executive director E9 The Virginia Symphony will perform at 8:30 p.m.

Friday and Sept. 23 at Chrysler Hall, St. Paul's Boulevard and Brambleton Avenue, Norfolk. Tickets are and are available by calling 380-0040. If WTVX II Young violin virtuoso shuffles playing engagements with school The Virginia Symphony looks ahead to next season By DAVID NICHOLSON Staff Writer il Shaham.

travels these days with a violin in one hand and a bookbag in the other. The 18-year-old artist, who will perform with The Virginia Symphony Friday and Sept. 23, is shuttling between the Juilliard School of Music and Columbia University on New York's West Side. Even world-class violinists have to attend college, and Shaham enrolled as a Columbia freshman last week. He's taking advantage of a joint program between the two schools.

"I'll be taking math, humanities and languages, all the usual things," Shaham said in a telephone interview. "I don't have to decide on a major until later." Until then, he's majoring in violin. Shaham has been studying at Juilliard since age 11 and performs with major orchestras throughout the world. He played in Germany and Italy this summer and will take advantage of a school break in January to perform in several Scandinavian countries. Shaham was born in Champaign-Ur-bana, 111., in 1971, then returned to Israel with his parents two years later.

His parents encouraged his playing Shaham's brother and sister both play piano and he began studying at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem By DAVID NICHOLSON Staff Writer "ORFOLK Like fashion designers, symphony executives are always planning a season ahead. While concert-goers are anticipating The Virginia Symphony's opening concerts Friday and Saturday, Executive Director Michael Tiknis is trying to find the orchestra a new Peninsula home a year from now. Hampton University is closing down Ogden Hall for renovations for the 1990-91 season, leaving the symphony and other arts groups without a place to perform. "I don't like the prospect of losing the place the orchestra sounds best in," says Tiknis, referring to Ogden Hall's superior acoustics. "Where are we going to play?" Finding a suitable hall is just one of the challenges faced by Tiknis, who was hired last month as the symphony's new executive director.

In the coming months, he'll be turning his attention to a host of financial and marketing problems that orchestras here and across the country are facing. The orchestra is saddled with a $500,000 accumulated debt and has raised about $3.3 million toward its $4 million endowmentcapital campaign. Both financial activities have been Please see Season, C4 Inside C2 "Uncle Buck's" Jean Kel ly is a pretty but pouty "teenager on the move. C2 Al Paeino's screen absence ends with the new thrilling squirmer movie "Sea of Ix)ve." C3 Television males sink from bimbos to dimbos..