Dear Ace: What’s all this I hear about a new call-in radio show for local newshounds?—Runov Atdamouf
Runov: Finally, Charlottesville has something it lacked for as long as Ace can remember: a community sounding board for all of our fair city’s most frustrated, angry and outspoken laymen. What’s that? Oh, it’s just Ace’s editor reminding Ace of a certain back page known as The Rant. But Ace would remind said editor that reading The Rant is only half the fun. The true entertainment lies in listening to your fellow Charlottesvillians bleed their hearts, and now you can do it every day thanks to Newsradio 1070 WINA’s brand new live, local drive-time show “Char-lottesville…Right Now,” on the air from 4pm to 6pm every weekday.
The show is hosted by awesomely named Coy Barefoot, who, having written for this very publication, is no stranger to groundbreaking local media. Barefoot plans to interview local personalities and feature regular guests like Delegate David Toscano, UVA astronomy professor Ed Murphy and Daily Progress political writer Bob Gibson. Dude, no invite for the Ace? What gives?
Barefoot told Ace that the show is all about fairness, civility and respect (although the hour Ace caught was mostly about commercials). Regardless of the opening day jitters, Barefoot is excited. “Charlottesville is ready for this,” he says. “We are going to set an example for the nation of what talk radio could be. It’s a very accessible, easy format for a lot of people to take part in a community discussion. My job is not to tell people what to think, but to ask the right questions.”
One of Ace’s questions is, Would this show have happened even a few years ago? After all, back then WINA was still a li’l radio station owned by Char-lottesville’s Eure Communications. In October 2004 owner Brad Eure sold WINA and its two sister stations, WWWV (3WV) and WQMZ, to Detroit’s Saga Communi-cations. It’s just another example of how our tiny town is blowing up on the media landscape. What’s next, a 24-hour local news TV station?
All this gives Ace a brilliant idea: “Ask Ace…Right Now.” Live Ace on your radio. You call in, Ace puts you down. Sounds like a can’t miss program if you ask Ace. Woah—“ask Ace.” That was weird. But seriously, keep those calls coming.