Kiro-Am Rules Morning Drive; Limbaugh Feasts

Ho-ho-ho and, as David Letterman might ask, where the hell have we been? On assignment for the last month, working on a top-secret project.

Let's get caught up.

Morning strive: News-talk-Limbaugh station KVI-AM (570) has overall been eating the ratings lunch of news-talk KIRO-AM (710) lately. But one "daypart" in which KIRO-AM still decisively rules among information stations is morning drive. KVI's morning news block just hasn't been able to crack the dominance of KIRO's Bill Yeend and Jane Shannon.

Said KVI program director Jim Casale: "I've been here almost four months now and have made a real effort to reach out to the listeners. Over and over again, in the mail, in the faxes, on the comment line and in coversations inside and outside the station, they tell me, `We are listening to KVI nonstop, from 9 a.m. to midnight.' "

That means many otherwise-loyal listeners are being awakened by, and getting their news from, other sources until Rush Limbaugh hits the air at 9.

So rather than try to beat KIRO at its own all-news game during morning drive, KVI on Jan. 2 will counter-program, emphasizing what it does best, conservative talk, and mixing it with news. Kirby Wilbur, who until this week was holding down the 9 p.m.-to-midnight shift, will move into the morning-drive slot to oversee what Casale hopes will be a light-on-its-feet, reactive - maybe even investigative - talk show.

"Every morning we'll be going with the news momentum," Casale said. The present morning voices, including Seattle radio veteran Dick Curtis, will stay on.

Wilbur was chosen in part because he is "extremely likable, an important quality in morning radio," Casale said. Indeed, even Democrats seem to like Wilbur because of his general civility in the heat of political battle.

Trade winds: After 15 years with independent KSTW-TV (Channel 11), weekend meteorologist Dave Torchia, who also teaches atmospheric science at Pierce College near Tacoma, has retired from the airwaves. His last day was Sunday.

Replacing him for now will be Nick Walker, the former weekend weather guy at KIRO-TV (Channel 7). After 14 years with the station, Walker was let go by KIRO several weeks ago. For weekends, Channel 7 had hired Andy Wappler, son of weekday weathercaster Harry Wappler, for the obvious gimmick of having wall-to-wall Wapplers.

Walker, who hopes to stay with future CBS affiliate KSTW, might have set some kind of record by working for three TV stations in the same market in about a month. Between KIRO and KSTW, he spent time doing the weekday-morning weather at KOMO-TV (Channel 4), filling in for George Siegel, who, by the way, will leave KOMO next month to pursue an anchor job elsewhere.

Replacing Siegel will be Todd Johnson, who comes to KOMO from KAKE-TV in Wichita, Kan.

Cast of thousands: There are plenty of other names to catch up on since our last installment:

-- Dennis Kelly has joined news-talk KIRO-AM (710) and KIRO-FM (100.7) as news director. He hails from Bellevue but worked most recently at KXL-AM in Portland.

-- At KOMO-TV (Channel 4), Glenn Elvington, whose background primarily is photography, is now the D.C. bureau chief, and we failed last month to note the arrival here of a new reporter, Farland Chang, who came from WTXF-TV in Philadelphia.

-- At KING-TV (Channel 5), in the wake of the firing of weekday-evening co-anchor Barry Judge and the promotion of former weekday-morning co-anchor Dennis Bounds, former stockbroker Bob Sellers now holds down the morning job with Julie Francavilla. And reporter Allen Schauffler is now co-anchoring on weekends with Lori Matsukawa after the recent departure of Brendan McLaughlin, who went to be weekday co-anchor at WFTS-TV in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla.

Also having joined KING are reporters Rhondella Richardson from WJAR-TV in Providence, R.I.; Kerri Kazarba from WJLA-TV in D.C.; and Chris Ingalls from WHIO-TV in Dayton, Ohio.

Seattle Times electronic-media reporter Chuck Taylor can be reached at 464-8524 or on the Internet at ctay-new@seatimes.com.