For my entire life, WBAL Radio, AM 1090, was the gold standard of local broadcasting WBAL where you went for talk radio the way it was meant to be. Timely. Thought-provoking. Local. Ron Smith was the Gold Standard of local radio, but he was far from the only one: Alan Prell, Alan Walden, Rob Douglas, Jimmy Mathis, Dan Joseph, Andrew Langer, and Jerry Rogers were among the locally knowledgeable hosts who talked about local issues and how they affected Maryland without falling into the trap of the nationally syndicated gobbledygook.
Sure, WBAL was the longtime home of The Rush Limbaugh Show. But it was the one syndicated (and profitable) show on a radio station that focused on locally-based, locally relevant radio.
Those days are over, as WBAL Radio unveiled a new lineup today.
WBAL has now completed the transition from a news station with meaningful, local, and thought-provoking talk to just another AM syndicator.
Sure, they remain the AM home of the Orioles and Ravens. Sure, they are maintaining C4 and Bryan Nehman in the morning (for now). And yes, they are keeping their award-winning local news department (for now).
But why would I even need a preset on the radio for WBAL if they are going to carry nothing but nationally syndicated garbage throughout the day?
Glenn Beck? His sell-by date was 20 years ago.
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton? Just two more national, MAGAfied talking heads regurgitating the same White House talking points.
Mark Levin? Why?
Lars Larson? Who the hell is that?
Don’t get me wrong, WBAL has been suffering a decline in listenability for a long time. It started back in the 2000’s when they started screwing around with Ron Smith’s time slot. After his passing, there has been a never-ending series of underqualified, undereducated, mostly Republican cheerleaders carrying water for the Trump Administration without understanding diddly about state and local issues.
I was a guest on one show several years ago, and I had to explain to the host how Maryland’s education system worked. And this host was supposed to be an “expert” on local issues including education.
The last listenable talk show on WBAL was C4, and they shifted him to mornings years ago. His show with Bryan Nehman is the last listenable aspect of WBAL’s talk programs.
I understand that the radio industry is in a tough spot right now, and media companies are looking to cut corners. But WBAL abandoned the last vestige of what separated them from WCBM and even WMAL. Instead of being “different than” those stations, they have copied their intellectually vapid, completely unstimulating and unlistenable brand of nationalized yelling-into-the-microphone radio.
In trying to sound like everyone else, WBAL made itself the one thing it never used to be: forgettable. That's not evolution; it's surrender, and Baltimore radio consumers are worse off for it.