The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 38

LIVING Wednesday, Oct. 22, 1997 The Atlanta Journal The Atlanta Constitution Noncommercialism rampant at Tech's WREK lilt ON RADIO MIRIAM LONGINO RICHARD ELDREDGE Dylan called sellout in Athens lthough his fans contend that Bob Dylan (right) has never Mi sold out to the "establish would boost morale, something positive to show we are proud of what we're doing." "Live at WREK," which is available at Wax Facts and Tower Records, is the result. HAS ELTON HEARD THIS? 99X (WNNX-FM, 99.7) has taken Elton John's Princess Diana tribute, "Candle in the Wind 1997," to a new, some would say hilarious, level. The song apparently has become the alternative station's generic tribute to deceased celebrities. The Morning show first subbed in new lyrics in a flat, down-to-business voice to honor Mother Teresa footsteps will always fall here along Calcutta's greenest Now the late John Denver has had his moment.

Sample: "Your candle burned out long before your hairstyle ever did." Disc jockey Jimmy Baron admits the idea was his. He's gotten a few complaint calls but says 99X intends to continue the new eulogy practice "until the station is struck by lightning." FOOTBALL FRENZY: If you're looking Even in radio, there are still the young and idealistic. As most Atlanta stations look for ratings and big bucks, WREK-FM (91.1), Georgia Tech's student-run station, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a new CD described as "in keeping with the station's dedication to unbridled noncommercialism." And it's not kidding. "live at WREK" is a compilation of performances aired on the station by a mixture of artists ranging from Zen Pusher Gasoline to Wheeljack. It's being sold at cost and "the station will not profit financially from its sale," says producer Hormuz Minina.

That's especially notable considering that Minina also says the station "hasn't seen a considerable budget increase since 1974, due to our refusal to adopt a more popular format." Minina said WREK was funded at $30,000 in 1974, and its current budget is $31,000. The compact disc was created after a brush with corporate America. Earner this year, Minina says the station was approached by the Georgia Tech Athletic Association and asked to air Tech football and basketball games. WCNN-AM (680), which is managed by WSB (750 AM), has exclusive rights to the games but suffers after dark, when its power drops to 10,000 watts. (WREK's signal is 40,000 watts.) WSBWCNN reportedly offered to make a contribution to a Tech foundation and provide internships for students if WREK would air the games.

The students in charge balked, fearing that accepting the money would jeopardize WREK's noncommercial standing with the Federal Communications Commission. However, Marc Morgan, general manager at WSB, says, "All of this was still in the discussion stage. Our legal counsel obviously advised us there was nothing wrong with this relative to FCC rules, but it never reached a point where a decision was made. We never would have done anything to jeopardize anybody's license." "Everyone said we should have done it," Minina says. "The mood at the station was so low we decided to come up with an idea that 300 scores from around the state, from small schools such as the Miller County Pirates to AAAA giants like the Lowndes County Vikings.

The show then broadcasts final numbers and highlights to 50 other radio stations across Georgia. Despite the volume of reports with which Davis deals, there are few glitches though there was a big one during last year's called and said Thomasville had beaten Americus, and I made a big deal about how disappointed I was in Americus," Davis says, laughing now. "My heart sank when I picked up the paper the next morning and we were wrong." Davis will follow the prep season down to the finals in December, when he'll broadcast live from the Georgia Dome. MOVING UP AND OUT: Program director Chris Marino has earned a national reputation as a leader in the burgeoning "Americana" radio format, steering tiny WMLB-AM (1170) in Cumming from an obscure rural outlet to Americana Station of the Year. But now he's leaving.

Marino has accepted a position as editor of the Americana charts for the trade publication the Gavin Report and will be moving to Nashville. His replacement is 20-year-old David Stone, who's been a disc jockey at New South 106.1 (WSTE-FM), a country station in Gainesville. LANDING ELSEWHERE: It looks as if most of the talk and information shows that used to air on WQXI-AM (790) before it became The Zone have landed at other outlets. Elizabeth Wright's program "Unified Solutions" is now on WGUN-AM (1010) from 11 a.m. to noon weekdays (re-broadcast at 8 p.m.).

Wright says her purpose is to offer listeners "solutions to problems they face in everyday life," a mixture of self-help and information. Typical topics: "Get a life Without Sacrificing Your Career," "The Joy of Failure" and "Prescription for Nutritional Healing." E-mail: mlonginoajc.com try ment" during his three decades as the voice of America's conscience, he's had no trouble selling out the Classic Center in Athens for his Oct. 28 show there. In two hours flat. The 3,200 tickets, priced at $27.50 ($21.50 for University of Georgia students), went on sale at 10 a.m.

Friday, and by noon the opportunity to snag seats was, well, blowin' in the wind, i Not to worry. The Classic Center announced Tuesday that the singer-songwriter has agreed to a second show Oct. 29. And the word on Dylan's current live set list? In addition to both Well-known and obscure tunes from his vast 1960s, 70s, '80s and '90s catalog of originals, Dylan is doing several tunes from his new fclbum, "Time Out of Mind" Columbia). It's currently No.

10 on Billboard's Top 200 list, outselling son Jakob Dylan's Wallflowers album "Bringing Down the Horse," currently at No. 40. For information, call 706-357-4444. for the action of Georgia high school football and can't be on the 50-yard line, you might want to tune in to WGST(640AM, 105.7 FM). At 10:30 every Friday night, the newstalk station sets aside regular programming for "The Georgia News Net- Davis work High School Scoreboard" with Jeff Davis.

Davis and crew are as frenetic as running backs as they cull about R.E.M. back at work Also on the Athens front: Yup, that was Michael Stipe spotted in the Classic City recently, where the guys from R.E.M. are back at work writing material for a new album, due in 1998. After a year off the road, the band will reDortedlv head into a DOONESBURY By Garry Trudeau California studio in February under the guidance of producer Pat McCarthy, who engineered the band's "Monster" CD. Meanwhile, bassist Mike Mills has stayed busy scoring the film "A fVinl Drw Plare stnm'nix Vinre term urn jOAAf ViASf lic! A PRINK, KZTy XJSNTJ xmi-TWSOTIS ffi MONWUT I UlgllUI J.11C1AJ31 VVU11U and Joey Lauren Adams The movie, a love story set for release in April, will also feature a song by R.E.M.

written specifically for the film. Christiane's fan That blur seen at Hartsfield International Airport Monday night? Actress Morgan Fair-child dashing to her in-town hotel in time to catch her guest said. "Reporting from all those hot spots would be fascinating. I actually bumped into her in my lobby in New York. She was very gracious.

I told her I was a big fan. She told me she was a fan of mine as well. I have no idea whether that's true or not." Familiar face Nope, Wynonna Judd hasn't bought shares in the Hard Rock Cafe chain. That was local drag performer Jeff Jordan "in character" as the country singer Tuesday night at the rock 'n' roll shrine downtown. Country radio station Y-106 hired himher to host its listening party for Judd's new album, "The Other Side," released Tuesday.

"She's unbelievable," Y-106's Toby Lyons told us of Jordan's uncanny resemblance. "Besides, Wynonna is in Nashville debuting the album there." Incidentally, Jordan is best known to local club kids as "Polly Dart-on," his homage to, oh, you know. Volvo winners Congrats to Barclay and Eric Mutz of Garden Hills. The couple, expecting their first child, already had been test-driving the Volvo V70 All Wheel Drive Wagon in anticipation of their new arrival when they got word last week, they're getting one sans those annoying monthly payments. The Mutzes won the brand-new Volvo V70 Atlanta magazine was giving away with its October issue.

Eric, a radiologist at Emory will sell his Jeep to make way for the new Von Furstenberg's classic dress has the '90s all wrapped up, too shot on the NBC sitcom "The I Naked Truth." got in just time to see it!" Fairchild told its. The former star of "Flamingo Road," who's better known to Generation viewers as Chandler Bing's hormonal mother on "Friends," is in town shilling for American Movie Classics' new offspring cable channel, Romance Classics. Although she's got an upcoming guest stint on the CBS drama "Touched by an Angel" play a pushy society Fair-child's dream television job is drama of another sort. "I'd love to be CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour," she 3 1 SHORTTAKES Diana tribute due on Dec. 1 FROM NEWS SERVICES London A Princess Diana memorial album by some of the biggest names in music will go on sale in Britain on Dec.

1 to raise money for her favorite charities. The full lineup of singers will be kept under wraps until next week, but stars known to be involved include Paul McCartney, George Michael, Eric Clapton, Sting, Annie Lennox and Peter Gabriel. Some are recording new tributes to Diana, who died Aug. 31 after a car crash in Paris, while others have donated existing tracks or rerecorded their hits. The album which will go on sale in the United States on Dec.

2 is expected to raise millions of dollars for the Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Fund. The album was the idea of entrepreneur Richard Branson, who wanted to make sure the music industry worked together to provide one tribute instead of competing ventures. Branson's holdings include Virgin Atlantic Airways and V2 records. FORSYTH QUITS, AGAIN: Author Frederick Forsyth has announced not for the first time his decision to retire. The 59-year-old thriller writer, whose best-selling works include "The Day of the Jackal" and "The Dogs of War," said his latest novel, "Icon," is to be his last.

"I do not want to write any more political thrillers," he said. "Nothing else interests me. There are no other subjects that need to be covered the Cold War is over." The revelation, made in an interview with a Swedish newspaper, is not exactly a new one. In 1995 Forsyth admitted he was fed up with writing books. Last year he said he was planning to quit after completing a two-book deal.

That contract was concluded this summer with the publication of "Icon," set in an unstable post-Yeltsin Russia in thrall to mafia gangs. In "exceptional circumstances" he might consider writing another political thriller, he said. Whether the exceptional circumstances might include a massive advance he admits his largest to date was in the region of $7.2 million remains to be seen. The news seemed to catch his publishers, Bantam Pr ess, on the hop. "Nice of him to tell us," a spokeswoman said curtly.

vi 1 flit? By Marylin Johnson STAFF WRITER Evelyn Helms is the picture of the perfect Diane Von Furstenberg customer. In 1976, she bought the hottest dress in America: a tan and white print Von Furstenberg wrap dress for $86, to wear to a 25th anniversary office party. On Tuesday, the 65-year-old Atlantan showed off a snapshot of herself in the original dress, then purchased the '90s wrap version a mosaic print in tones of pink and purple, for $190. "This dress makes me look and feel good," said Helms, who purchased the dress during the designer's appearance at Saks Fifth Avenue. Apparently, it's making women all over America feel good.

The revival of the dress a wildly popular 70s frock that Von Furstenburg admits she didn't like on herself the first time around has been a hit across the country. In fact, she wore one of her shirtwaist designs for a 1976 Newsweek cover story about the success of the wrap. The wrap's revival has been so popular that Saks, which carries the dress exclusively, in September canceled Von Furstenberg's last two stops on her nationwide tour Chicago and Atlanta until they received more stock. "The dress's popularity took me by surprise," said Von Furstenberg, 50, looking cool and chic in her brown and white Diane print wrap dress topped with a brown velvet coat. "But everything from the 70s is sacYed now.

And any age woman can wear it. It's sexy but practical. You can go to the office or party in it." This time around, twentysomethings as well as nostalgic baby boomers are snapping up the dress. Younger women express fascination with a dress that their moms might have worn. Student and first-time Von Furstenberg customer Juahl Ganaway, 22, was so excited to meet her idol that she thought she might faint.

Then she tried on the Diane print wrap dress and pronounced it "a classic, very simple, but so 70s looking." The '90s version of the wrap is done in a silk knit jersey. It's shorter and more shapely, with a streamlined collar. Von Furstenberg designs all her prints, including the most popular, called the Diane. The original cotton jersey dress came out in 1972. Over a span of four years, the designer sold more than 5 million pieces of the clingy style to suburban housewives, career women and such celebs as Betty Ford and Aretha Franklin.

After a good run, Von Furstenberg sold her business to another manufacturer in 1985 and moved to Bali, then Paris, where she started a publishing company. Five yeas later, she moved back to New JEAN SHIFRIN Staff It's a wrap: Diane Von Furstenberg (left) with Atlantan Evelyn Helms, who bought one of the original wrap dresses in the 70s as well as the updated version, which she wears here. CELEBRITY NEWS OUTSIDE ATLANTA Nicks had Joplin fever Long before Fleetwood Mac star Stevie Nicks bit the big time and opened for Janis Joplin, she was imitating the '60s chanteuse. "It was always Janis Joplin," Nicks' mother, Barbara Nicks, said of an adolescent Stevie spinning one Joplin record after another in her room. Barbara Nicks attributes her daughter's singing style to Joplin.

"She and Lindsey Buckingham opened for Janis in San Fran-; Cisco, and she was just so excited. She gave me one of Janis' jackets, and I have it in a closet here," she said. Fleetwood Mac's reunion tour plays Phoenix, the Nicks family's hometown, tonight. Rockers go rolling on Whether they're called the Rolling Stones or the Strolling Bones, those old rockers can still bring a crowd to its feet. In the sold-out crowd Monday night at Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts was 1 Carol Robicheau, who came with her 26-year-old son, Donald.

"He said, 'Mom, they're as old as you," the 50-year-old Ms. Robicheau 'related. "He's always wanted me to go to concerts, but I feel like a fool." Stones singer Mick Jagger, now a 54-year-old grandfather, bounded around the stage in a red jacket, while guitarist Keith Richards, a silver-haired 53, wore a floor-length animal print frock coat. Pumpkins to pay musician's widow The Smashing Pumpkins have agreed to pay $10,001 to the widow of a backup musician who died after shooting up heroin with a band member. Jonathan Melvoin of Conway, N.H., died in July 1996 at a New York City hotel, where he was sharing drugs with the rock band's drummer, police said.

The drummer, Jimmy Chambeiiin, 32, was arrested on drug possession charges and kicked out of the band. Contributing: Plott Brce, Rust DeVault, tAlriam Longino and news services. If you have an item, call 404-222-8S03 or 404-614-2749 or fax A04-526-S509. York and put together other successful ventures, including a cosmetics company and a line of silk clothes, sold on TV. By 1996, Von Furstenberg saw that other designers were making retro wrap dresses, and she got the urge to make her wrap again.

"After all, who better to do them than me?" she asked. "And my daughter-in-law, Alexandra, who works in the firm with me, and her hip friends in their 20s were buying the originals in vintage stores. It was time to bring it back." In spite of her other successful ventures, Von Furstenberg says she'll always be remembered for the wrap dress. "No matter what I do," she said, "if I murdered 12 people, it will still be in my obituary that 'she designed the wrap E-mail: buzzajecom i.