Tuesday, November 28
 Bring on the bike shorts: The Tour of Shenandoah grows up and becomes the Tour of Virginia, upping its competitiveness and adding Charlottesville to its list of cities. |
I want to ride my bicycle
For four years, the Tour of Shenandoah was billed as a development race for cyclists ages 25 and younger. Now, the race looks a bit more competitive. The Rocktown Daily News Record reports today that the newly dubbed Tour of Virginia “will branch out of the Valley into two new cities, Lynchburg and Charlottesville, and into the Allegheny Highlands.” This expansion means more attention from sponsors and USA Cycling, which added the Tour of Virginia to its National Race Calendar for 2007. The minimum budget for the 2007 tour is set at $125,000, which beats last year’s budget by $30,000. Drivers: Expect up to 150 Lycra-loving cyclicts to pedal through town in April.
Wednesday, November 29
 Gray TV General Manager Roger Burchett has reason to smile—thanks for Comcast’s arrival, Charlottesville Newsplex stations will get better channel placement on stations 2,3,6 and 9, hopefully raising ratings and revenues. |
Good news for newscasters
The Charlottesville Newsplex announced today a change that looks like an insignificant detail, but could have a huge effect on the local TV market: Its four stations will nab prime real estate (channels 2, 3, 6 and 9) when Comcast launches its new cable lineup in January. The positions should go a long way toward helping the stations grab viewers from the Richmond affiliates of ABC, CBS and Fox—a welcome break for the Newsplex, which recently contributed to its Atlanta-based parent company Gray Television Inc.’s 44 percent dip in third-quarter net income compared with the third quarter of 2005. Local couch potatoes have yet to comment.
Thursday, November 30
Road test failed
The UVA men’s basketball team has gotten off to a stellar start so far, knocking off then-No. 10-ranked Arizona at the snazzy new John Paul Jones Arena. But during their first game out of those cozy confines, UVA blew a late lead yesterday while playing at Purdue, losing after Purdue hit a floater with 0.7 seconds left for the final score, 61-59, leaving fans ready to whine about it today. Returning to the JPJ on Sunday, however, the team scored their first conference win of the year, 67-62, giving N.C. State its first loss of the season and making Wahoos happy.
Friday, December 1
Charges don’t fly
The website of former Albemarle High School student Chris Soghoian is back online and updated, and the FBI filed no charges against the academic for making a fake boarding pass generator. Soghoian, a computer science Ph.D. student at Indiana University, had his computers, passports and other possessions confiscated after the Feds found the boarding pass generator on the student’s website, slightparanoia.blog spot.com. Soghoian says he was trying to show that IDs should be checked at all airport checkpoints. While the FBI didn’t appreciate Soghoian’s, um, helpfulness, they couldn’t prove he had criminal intent. On his site, Soghoian wrote, “The Feds…fundamentally disagree with me on many subjects—the role that researchers, academics and common citizens take in studying, criticizing and pointing out the flaws in our security systems.” Yeah, man, the FBI can be so uptight.
Saturday, December 2
Plowed under
Maybe the UVA men’s soccer team got spoiled by the unseasonably warm weather in Charlottesville: Playing in St. Louis a day late because of snow, the Cavaliers got walloped today 4-0 by UCLA—a team they beat earlier in the year in a home game at Klockner Stadium. Still, the loss in the semifinals of the College Cup represents UVA’s best postseason showing since 1997.
Sunday, December 3
Blog about town
A Google alert today drew our attention to a blog post on Charlottesvillian Rob Hagy’s Family Law Blog. Hagy, a regular blogger himself, noted C-VILLE Weekly’s “Ask Ace” column about how many darn bloggers we have in Charlottesville. Bloggers blogging about Ace writing in C-VILLE about the profusion of bloggers blogging? Oh, how meta can it get?
Monday, December 4
 What’s in the garage? Charlottesville radio group’s new station, 106.1 The Corner, adds garage rocker Steven Van Zandt’s radio show to local airwaves. |
Nobody puts The Corner in the corner
“Different is good,” say the speakers when the dial stops at 106.1 FM. And Charlottesville’s “The Corner” may live up to that tag line with a new addition. According to a press release from Shore Fire Media, “Little Steven’s Underground Garage,” hosted by Little Steven Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and HBO’s “The Sopranos,” plans to prove at 10pm tonight that different is loud, too. Van Zandt’s show brings classic and avant-garde rock to nearly 200 U.S. cities. The Corner is exactly where 106.1 is putting the radio market in Charlottesville: After the October, 2004, sale of the Charlottesville Radio Group, which includes WINA and 3WV, from Brad Eure to Detroit’s Saga Communications, the company got busy upgrading, redesigning WINA’s website, for instance, and adding Coy Barefoot’s progressive politics show.