Class Reunion - Friday May 29th and Saturday May 30th
FRIDAY MAY 29TH AND SATURDAY MAY30TH
ON - AIR SCHEDULE
Friday
6a-10a Kevin Nicholas
10a-12 Mary Anne Zibanna Danna
12a-2p Loray Robinson
2p-3p Mike Bradley
3p-5p Bill McDonald
5p-7p John DeVincent
7p-9p Dave Sweitzer
9p-11p Carson
11p-1a Gary Mertins
Saturday
12m-2a Brian Mo
2a-6a Travis Jones
6a-9a Kevin Nicholas
9a-11 Mary Anne Zibanna Danna
11a-1p Loray Robinson
1p-2p Mike Bradley
2p-4p Bill McDonald
4p-6p John DeVincent
6p-7p Dave Sweitzer
News/Sports: (Mornings ONLY)
-Amanda Wilson
-Bill Nevin
-Lisa Colagrossi
Mary Anne Zbanadanna
Mary Anne Zban Buchanan graduated from Penn State University with a B.A. in Speech Communications. After an 8-year career in radio in first Uniontown, PA and then Morgantown, she opted to be a full-time mother and homemaker. Mary Anne was known to her VAQ co-workers as "the Z", "MAZ" and in the early days on air as "Mary Anne Zbanadanna". Upon rejoining the workforce in 2005, she has served in several different capacities with the non-profit organization West Virginians for Life and has also worked in temporary assignments for West Virginia University. Head of the Church and Society ministry at Covenant Evangelical Methodist Church, she is married to retired attorney and former State Delegate Mike Buchanan, and is mother to Kaitlin and Aaron, both students at WVU.
Loray Robinson
Although I still reside in Monongailia County, 7 years ago I found myself explaining to listeners I was just moving down the hall. In actuality, I was moving down I-79 South to our Corporate Headquarters in Clarksburg to fill the Mid-day slot on our newborn Adult-Contemporary Power House Magic 106.5 FM. I'm still there and loving every minute of it! Loray
Kevin Nicholas
Hey West Virginia! I was the guy you woke up with every morning from January of 1981 all the way to 1996. We had a lot of fun not only on-air on WVAQ... but at the literally "thousands" of weddings, class reunions, school dances and business functions we entertained at all over the state with WVAQ Musicshows. Am I in the pictures from YOUR wedding reception? LOL It's all good.
Since 1996, I've been here working for West Virginia Radio helping our commercial clients market their businesses. This is a good company to work for, and I still enjoy what I do. (However, I really miss getting up at 4:30 in the morning!)
I'm looking forward to hearing from listeners on the phone during the WVAQ Class Reunion Weekend... join me on the radio again... 6-9am both Friday and Saturday morning, May 29th and 30th. Amanda Wilson will be with me those mornings, and we'd love you to call and tell us what you remember from the 80's!
Kevin Nicholas, Your Nick In The Morning
Bill Nevin
Bill Nevin is director of communications for the West Virginia University Foundation, and an adjunct instructor in the P.I. Reed School of Journalism’s Integrated Marketing Communications graduate degree program.
In his role at the Foundation, Nevin oversees all areas of internal and external communication for the private fund raising arm of the University. Prior to joining the Foundation, he spent six years with WVU News & Information Services as assistant director and external communications manager.
A native of Ottawa, Illinois, Nevin has more than 25 years experience in broadcasting, having worked in news departments at radio stations in West Virginia (WVAQ/WAJR/Metronews), Illinois and Missouri. His undergraduate degree is in radio-television from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Nevin is currently the voice of the WVU Marching Band – the Pride of West Virginia. He also serves as public address announcer for men’s basketball games at the WVU Coliseum. Nevin and his wife Cindy live in Morgantown. They have two children, Ciara, 12, and Connor, 11.
Gary Mertins
Gary Mertins was the night jock on WVAQ from 1981-1983. Maybe best known for his famous "top tracks tournament", a bracket game (much like the NCAA basketball tournament) where he pitted bands and artists against each other and listeners voted for the winner at 10pm each night after hearing their music. Gary started at the radio station working under Hoppy Kercheval in news for WAJR during his freshman year of college and was hired full-time shortly after that. Upon graduating WVU, Gary moved into the sales department at WVAQ. He married his wife Kelly in 1985 and moved to Charleston to take over sales for the Metronews Radio
Network. Since then he's managed stations in Charleston, WV; Burlington, NC; and of course back to Morgantown where he presently manages WVAQ. Gary and Kelly reside in Cheat Lake with their two boys; Tyler, a
sophomore at WVU and Cole, a graduating senior from University High School.
Network. Since then he's managed stations in Charleston, WV; Burlington, NC; and of course back to Morgantown where he presently manages WVAQ. Gary and Kelly reside in Cheat Lake with their two boys; Tyler, a
sophomore at WVU and Cole, a graduating senior from University High School.
Amanda Wilson
Since 1986, Amanda Wilson has been looking for something as good as her hometown radio station, WVAQ. She started her radio career at WVAQ in the early 80s co-hosting a little show with Kevin Nicholas and doing news with Hoppy Kercheval. It was a career that took her all the way to 1010 WINS in New York City and finally, out of the radio business all together.
After working at WVAQ, she searched long and hard for another radio job that could top it. She started out in Charleston, thinking the capital city could fit the bill. No such luck. She moved on to Ohio where she spent 14 years trying to recreate the WVAQ magic at a radio station in Canton. In spite of high ratings and many successes, Amanda realized she was in the wrong place yet again. Pittsburgh was her next stop, and there, she did a morning show with Jimmy Roach, one of her radio idols in high school. Jimmy was a great guy, Pittsburgh a great city, but none of it could compare to WVAQ and the razor wit of Kevin Nicholas. Time to make it really big, Amanda thought, so off to New England she went.
There, she co-hosted a number one show in the big city of Providence, Rhode Island and she managed a six-state news department, anchoring news in every major city in New England. She made lots of friends and did OK, but something was still missing. One day, a program director from 1010 WINS in New York City called her for a job interview. They wanted her to anchor the news, and they would have paid her just enough to share a one bedroom apartment with 85 other people somewhere in Jersey and take the subway to work in Manhattan at 2am every day. Oh, and no benefits
Amanda got wise then. She packed up her whole life and moved back to West Virginia where she got a good job at an advertising agency and waited patiently for her chance to return to WVAQ. May 29th, 2009, that day arrives!
Bill McDonald
After college, worked briefly at WKST, New Castle, PA; WGRP-FM, Greenville, PA; WBCW, Jeannette and WVSC-FM, Somerset, PA. (None of those stations, as well as my college radio station, still exist with the same call letters or frequencies. So, not a great track record up to that point!)
After college, worked briefly at WKST, New Castle, PA; WGRP-FM, Greenville, PA; WBCW, Jeannette and WVSC-FM, Somerset, PA. (None of those stations, as well as my college radio station, still exist with the same call letters or frequencies. So, not a great track record up to that point!)
I applied to a station in Wheeling, WV. Somehow, that tape and resume wound up in the hands of Dale B. Miller. I headed to Morgantown and never looked back. I started as afternoon jock in 1982, and stayed until 1989, by which time I had added the duties of PD and MD of WVAQ as well as OM for WAJR & 'VAQ.
I was APD/MD at oldies 3-W-S in Pittsburgh from 1990-2001. In 2001 I took the position of OM and Christian Talk WORD·FM/WPIT·AM, also in Pittsburgh.
My wife, Alice, and I have been married since 1980. We have one daughter, Melanie, who was born while we lived in Morgantown in 1984. She's now a certified music Therapist working at a health center near Memphis, TN. (She's also now around the same age I was when I worked at WVAQ, which is weird for me!)
