WTAN to fill four hours with 'Imus in the Morning'

By PAMELA DAVIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 28, 2000

Starting Monday, WTAN-AM 1340 will air Imus in the Morning from 6 to 10 a.m. For the past month, the talk station has aired only the first hour of the syndicated show because of prior obligations.

Since announcing in March that his station will carry the New York-based Don Imus show for a contracted two years, co-owner David Wagenvoord said he has received about 300 e-mails and loads of phone calls from local Imus fans wanting to know more about the station.

WTAN's signal goes 45 air miles from its tower in Clearwater. It reaches Hudson to the north, Longboat Key to the south and Brandon to the east.

"I think it will make the station," Wagenvoord said. "(Airing Imus) will take us to a new level. No doubt about it."

Wagenvoord is now working on bringing the syndicated Tom Leykis Show to WTAN. Leykis, like Imus, is syndicated by Westwood One. The show would air from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Leykis was heard on WQYK-AM 1010 until last year, when the station dropped his show, and other general talk shows, for a sports talk format.

Imus stayed on after the format change but was pulled from WQYK-AM in January to make room for two local sports talk shows.

Earlier this week, National Public Radio launched All Songs Considered, its first Internet-only program at www.npr.org. The show offers musical selections enhanced with musician biographies, photos and quotes.

The beta version of the program has been up and running since January, attracting more than 50,000 users per month. It is put together by NPR News and NPR Online staffers, who use feedback from listeners. An NPR spokesperson said the program will run once or twice a month, depending on user input. All Songs Considered is expected to be followed by several more Internet-only NPR shows.

- Information from Times wires was used in this report.