A Change of Tune at WAGE Radio?
Host, Director, Manager Are Ousted in Shake-Up

By Arianne Aryanpur
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 3, 2007

The general manager, news director and afternoon host at WAGE-AM (1200) were fired last week, in a shake-up that caused some longtime listeners to worry that Loudoun County's only radio station might be moving away from local programming.

Paul Draisey, host of "The Drive Home" program, said station officials told him Friday that he was being taken off the air as part of a restructuring by Potomac Radio, a Rockville-based company that owns WAGE and other East Coast stations.

"They just said they were making some operational changes and 'sorry and we appreciate what you've done,' " said Draisey, who began working at WAGE in 1971 when he was a freshman at Loudoun Valley High School. He said he was not given further details.

Draisey said that General Manager Dave Scarangella and News Director Tom Jon also were fired and that Ron Kitzmiller, host of "Good Morning Loudoun," left voluntarily.

In a brief interview Tuesday, Brian Edwards, the station's new director of operations, confirmed the personnel moves but said that WAGE was not planning significant changes in format and would continue to provide local news and sports coverage. He also said programming at WAGE would remain English-only, unlike the multicultural format at Potomac Radio's other D.C. area station, WUST-AM in Falls Church, which offers programs in Chinese, Spanish and Amharic, among other languages.

Edwards said a reporter should contact Potomac Radio Vice President Alan Pendleton for more information. Pendleton did not return calls.

According to a news release that WAGE issued Tuesday, Pendleton has replaced Scarangella as general manager.

The release said the station had added the "The Wall Street Journal This Morning" during morning drive time, a show that features Journal reporters and editors. "Further enhancements to the station's program schedule will be added in the next few weeks," the release said.

The changes come less than two years after the Rockville company bought WAGE from Granville T. "Gerry" Emmet, a New Yorker who purchased the station in 1979.

WAGE went on the air in 1958 and was described by William Stubblefield, one of its early owners, as "middle of the road in music -- no hick stuff, no rock and roll, nothing longhair."

It became a classical music station in the 1960s and '70s but carried many local features, such as farm reports, Sunday church services and broadcasts from local fairs.

The station eventually switched to a 24-hour news, talk and sports format. In recent years, it has featured nationally syndicated programs -- such as "The Dennis Miller Show" and Fox sports talk -- and such local programming as broadcasts of high school football games and a Saturday morning rock-and-roll show.

On "Good Morning Loudoun," Kitzmiller, Jon and others would discuss news and entertainment topics, often with a local twist. For example, when the TV show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader?" made its debut, Kitzmiller brought in Loudoun teachers to pose elementary-school questions and see how much the radio hosts remembered.

"Loudoun is very fortunate to have a community-oriented radio station, from what the government did last night to who won the ballgame. And that's the way it's been for years," said former WAGE announcer Bill Torrey, who is Draisey's half-brother. "Who knows what the format is going to be now?"

Draisey, after starting at WAGE as a DJ, was promoted to news director, assistant manager and general manager. He returned to WAGE this winter after a brief hiatus to become host of "The Drive Home." He said that being told last week of the restructuring was "like hearing of a death in the family."

Scarangella did not return a phone call, and Kitzmiller and Jon could not be located for comment.

Bill Harrison, president of the Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum, worked with Draisey at WAGE in the 1980s when Harrison hosted an educational program about agriculture through the county's extension office.

"Paul was really the voice of Loudoun County, and it's shocking because he's been part of the institution for a long time," Harrison said. "I thought that if they were going to make a change, it would have happened back when they had that change of ownership."

Office manager Sandy Mauck and Loudoun Extra columnist Eugene Scheel contributed to this report.