That was it! This works:-

foreach (keys %NewRFactorAverageHash) {
    $RScale = $NewRFactorAverageHash{$_};
    $F = 0;
    $BBEL = 0;
    $AR = 0;
    $VL = 0;
    print ("original key is $_\n");
    @LaL = split (/$;/, $_);
    print ("new key is @LaL\n");
}
[download]

BTW, notice I replaced "new key is $LaL" with "new key is @LaL"...the original post was a typo.

Thanks again!

-Fiddler42

Interestingly enough, the $; variable on my system (Debian GNU/Linux, Perl 5.10.0) is 0x1c, the ASCII FS (file separator) character. Who'da thunkit?