Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 104

V0 3 Country still king of Austin airwaves in fall ratings he fall Arbitron radio ratings report has come out, and the interesting irony is that with all the talk about talk radio and its political influence in last fall's midterm elections, in A Austin there was very little movement in the ratings for talk radio, and country music still reigned supreme. Of course, KASE-FM was still the king; although KASE dropped a point since the summer, it still had a six-point lead over its next nearest competitor in the fall overall ratings. KASE has been No. 1 in the ratings so long that it's only a dim memory when anyone else even offered a credible challenge. General manager Ron Rogers has gone gray, and operations manager Bob Cole has gone from portly to lanky since KASE came in second.

Put that together with sister station KVET-FM, and this powerful country combination accounts for 20 percent of all listeners in Austin. It's hard to come up with enough superlatives to describe this performance. When you're trying to define "market just say Meanwhile, country newcomer Kick 92 (KIKY-FM) languished in a tie for last place with less than half a point in stations (88.1) Conlocal 837-8801. temporary radio KUT (90.5) NPR news, information, eclectic music. 471-2345.

(88.7) Jazz, blues, 836-2887. (94.7) KPTY Top 40. soulf. (89.5) Clas- 5789. sical.

476- (95.5) Soft KKIMJ and easy. (90.5) NPR news, 390-KKMJ or (800) MAJIC 95. (96.7) ContemKHFI porary hits. 390- KHFI or (800) 750-KHFI. KVET music.

(98.1) Country 444-KVET, 390-KVET. KUTZ (98.9) Current rock. 390-5665 or (800) 992-ROCK. KASE (100, music. SIC 390- KASE or (800) 950-KASE.

(101.7) ChrisKOKE tian. (800) 593-5464. KPEZ rock. (102.3) 390-5000 Classic or (800) 369-4102. KEY I from (103.5) the 0 Oldies '50s and '60s.

390-5060. KGSR reggae, (107.1) Folk, blues and jazz. 390-KGSR. Austin American-Statesman Austin American-Statesman any demographic group. Majic 95 (KKMJ-FM), which suddenly found itself all alone in the adult contemporary market, surged ahead more than a point to claim second place overall and cracked double digits in the coveted 25-54 cate- gory.

Contemporary hit KHFI-FM continued a three-survey tum- ble, dropping almost two points in the overall ratings to third place, while holding onto second place and double digits despite a three-point fall in its target market of young adults. KHFI's new competition, Party 94.7 (KPTY-FM), fell a point overall after its recent format change but held steady with young adult listeners. The talk audience was surprisingly flat in the fall survey. KLBJ-AM continued to lead the other talk stations with as wide a margin as KASE had over the rest of the field. But, although KLBJ gained a point over the summer, the station was still a full point behind its spring numbers.

KVET-AM continued showing a poor ratings performance, after the second-ranked morning show with Sammy Allred and Cole goes off the air at 10 a.m., and KVET-AM and -FM go their separate ways. Christian infor- KNNC (107.7) Alternative rock. 930-KNACk (5622). (107.9) KFAN Blues, rock, country music. (210) 997-2197.

am stations KILB.J talk, UT News, sports. 836-0590. KIXL (970) information, Christian talk shows. 447-KIXL. KFIT All gospel.

328-1060. KTAE try, (1260) easy Coun- listening. 352-3631. (1300) News, KVET talk. 390-LIVE.

Soul, KJCE oldies. (800) 3-MOTOWN. KELG (1440) national InterTejano. 453-1440. KUOL (1470) Christian Spanmusic and talk.

(210) 781-5528. (1490) Talk. KFON 390-KFON. KTXZ hits, CO traditional Tejano favorites. 834-1560.

50 a 30 mation station KIXL-AM had its best book of the year, less than half a point behind KVET. KFON-AM was dead in the water: tied for last place. The competition continued to be close in a fragmented rock market. Album-rock KLBJ-FM led the pack of five rock stations by less than a point. Classic rock Z-102 (KPEZ-FM) was breathing down KLBJ's neck, while adult alternative KGSR-FM was only one-tenth of a point ahead of hit-rock Rock (KUTZ-FM).

New rock KNNC-FM held steady with its small but loyal audience. Oldies 103 (KEYI-FM), which changed format from adult contemporary to oldies when oldies Froggy 94 changed to adult hit Party, suffered a onepoint decline overall and was even harder-hit in its target audience of older adults. Seventies music Hit 93 (KHHT-FM) was flat overall but gained a point-and-a-half with both young adults and older adults. Solid-gold soul KJCE-AM was down slightly overall and with its older adult target audience but lost a point-and-a-half with younger listeners. Hispanic stations KKLB-FM, KTXZ-AM and KELG-AM were all down slightly.

Arbitron ratings, fall '94 Listeners Listeners age 12-plus age 18-34 KASE KKMJ KHFI KVET-FM KLBJ-AM KLBJ-FM KGSR KUTZ KEYI KPTY KHHT KNNC KVET-AM KIXL KJCE. KKLB KTXZ KELG KFON KIKY .13.7 KASE ...13.5 .7.9 KHFI ..10.8 .7.8 KLBJ-FM .9.3 .7.0 KKMJ .7.0 .6.5 KUTZ .6.8 .5.7 KPEZ. .5.8 .4.9 KVET-FM ..5.0 .3.6 KGSR ..3.9 .3.5 KLBJ-AM ...3.9 .2.7 KHHT .3.1 .2.4 KNNC ..3.1 .2.1 KEYI .2.5 ..2.0 KPTY ..2.1 ..1.8 KIXL .1.2 .1.4 KVET-AM ..1.0 .1.0 KKLB ..0.8 .0.7 KELG .0.4 .0.6 KFON .0.4 .0.4 KJCE .0.4 .0.3 KTXZ ..0.4 .0.3 KIKY .0.2 john herndon radio KINLE Christian music. KAZI gospel talk. KMFA 5632.

KUT KNCT tening (91.3) and Easy lisclassical. (817) 526-1406. KVRX (91.7 Stereo cable) 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. weekdays, 10 p.m.

to 9 a.m. weekends. 495-KVRX. KOOP a.m. (91.7 to 7 FM) 9 p.m.

weekdays, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekends. 472-KOOP. KIKY hits.

(92.1 1 Country 218-0111. KKLB (92 52. dance Tejano music. 390-5552. KHHT '70s 3 rock.

Hits 93. 390-5933. (93.7) Rock 'n' KLB.J roll. 832-4094. 30 February 2, 1995 ent Listeners age 25-54 KASE ...13.7 KHHT .2.9 KKMJ .10.1 KIXL .1.6 KVET-FM ..7.3 KJCE .1.5 .6.8 KVET-AM ..1.5 KLBJ-AM ...6.0 KNNC ......1.1 KLBJ-FM .6.0 KKLB .0.8 KHFI .5.0 KGSR .4.9 KELG .0.4 KEYI .3.7 KFON .0.4 KPTY .3.0 KIKY .0.4 KUTZ .3.0 KTXZ .0.1 fm Prepare to wield interactive 'Warcraft' by kevin virobik-adams special to the americanstatesman A USE Gaming can be a pain.

Both the arcade-style shoot-'em-ups and the strategy-style, discoverand-defeat-the-evil- Lords-type games all too soon become a boring chore with limited playability. Manufacturers have addressed that problem by adding a human element to the mix: They've started creating games that can be played against another human opponent via modem. Warcraft: Orcs and Humans by Blizzard Entertainment is a stellar example of this challenging form of interactive gaming. This is a real-time strategy game where players compete as the rulers of bands of either marauding Orcs or righteous Humans, dictating to each of their subjects where to go and what to do. For example, gamers choose to create Peons or Peasants who will mine gold and harvest lumber in order to build a variety of structures that allow the gamers to create new levels of combatants.

Exploring the playing field and battling foes while protecting towns and resources from attack keeps players busy. The first player eliminating the other player's troops and town wins the game. WARCRAFT computer Playing is against highly the addictive and offers several increasingly difficult levels, but the real fun in this game comes when you play against another human opponent, adding the spontaneity and unpredictability that only another warped mind can bring to the game. Also, Blizzard uses a special 'spawning' feature that allows two players to compete using only one copy of the game. CompUSA, 9503 Research Suite 300 (in the Gateway Square Shopping Center) is sponsoring a Warcraft: Orcs and Humans tournament with prizes for the winners.

Players will be paired randomly in a double elimination tournament. Opponents will have one week to play their match before moving to the next level. Signup for the tournament ends Tuesday; contestants must provide their owner's manuals as proof of purchase. Warcraft is available on DOS CDROM or on floppy disks (although not all of the animation or sounds are available on the floppy version). The game requires at least a 386 IBM-compatible machine with 4 megs of RAM, monitor and a mouse.

DIE bacle.