Wavelength: Baltimore's Public Radio Journey

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When Maryland went into lockdown at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the region’s public radio stations were deemed ‘essential businesses.’ The staff at WYPR, WEAA, WTMD, and WBJC had a challenge on their hands: How do you stay safe and, at the same time, maintain a service that’s now more crucial than ever?

In this episode, radio makers talk about navigating the pandemic. They also look ahead to the future of public radio in a rapidly changing media landscape.

Production and support for this podcast was brought to you in part by PNC Bank.

Episode Transcription:

Gov. Larry Hogan: I have issued a proclamation declaring a state of emergency in Maryland.

Maria Broom: This is Wavelength: Baltimore's Public Radio Journey, from Your Public Studios, a monthly podcast series made possible by PNC Bank.

I'm your host, Maria Broom.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan issued that state of emergency on March 3, 2020. That morning, the first three cases of coronavirus had been confirmed in Maryland. We know all too well where things headed from there. Within two weeks, schools and libraries were closed, large gatherings were banned, and state employees were ordered to work remotely, if possible. Restrictions were mounting, and on March 23, Hogan took to his podium again, this time with a sweeping announcement.

Gov. Larry Hogan: This morning, I have enacted an executive order which closes all non-essential businesses, organizations, establishments, and facilities in Maryland, effective at five o'clock today.

Maria Broom: Among those businesses deemed essential by the governor: radio.

LaFontaine Oliver: So for us here at WYPR, the pandemic created a pretty interesting situation where we had to pretty quickly pivot and become what many of us call “first informers.”

Maria Broom: Your Public Radio President and General Manager, LaFontaine Oliver.

LaFontaine Oliver: Yes, we were going to maintain our normal programming schedule, but we would also inject into that as often as as appropriate information that quite honestly became life saving information

Danyell Irby: The general manager and I, LaFontaine Oliver, met and said, “What can we do to give our audience the news of the day, sans a firehose, in a calm, cohesive manner?”

Maria Broom: WYPR Executive News Director, Danyell Irby.

Danyell Irby: Because remember, there was so much coming out about COVID-19 then, there were rumors, there were rumors mixed with facts. And so that's when we decided to start up the podcast, The Daily Dose, as a compilation of our news teams reporting at the end of the day, and again, in a calm and cohesive fashion for our audience.

Aaron Henkin, hosting The Daily Dose: It's Friday, March 27. I'm Aaron Henkin. City council candidates scrambled to campaign in the midst of a pandemic. Teachers gear up for a long school shutdown, and scammers try to exploit an already bad situation. It's The Daily Dose brought to you by WYPR.

LaFontaine Oliver: People needed a place where they could go and get well researched, nuanced information that also did not sensationalize the situation. And that was not that was not easy for us here at WYPR.

Danyell Irby: There was no aspect of life or business that COVID-19 wasn't affecting. And so I think a lot of it was adrenaline and eagerness to do factual reporting, and to get it out to our audience. And I think that was our main driving force then. And of course, figuring out how we're all going to do that remotely.

LaFontaine Oliver: Folks found ways to record news spots from closets in their homes. We had to make investments in equipment and technology to allow for much more remote broadcasting than I think any of us ever thought would ever be necessary or possible. But it all I think worked out pretty well when you consider that we were able to maintain a high quality, daily, 24/7 news service that pivoted and really began to focus on that life saving information, especially during those early days of COVID when, you know, lives were being lost at a rate that no one was prepared for.

Dr. Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead: People were afraid, and we knew that the worst thing for WDA to do as a voice in the community is to not be on the air at a time when our community is most frightened, feeling very alone, not sure of what to do or who to trust.

Maria Broom: Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead is the host of WEAA’s daily live talk show, Today with Dr. Kaye.

Dr. Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead: We made the commitment to stay live as long as possible. So we would actually go into the studio, our general manager at that time, Malarie Pinkard-Pierre, cleared everyone out and only had people come in with routines. You have to wear your mask, go into your separate areas, so we can continue to bring the news. We tried to do all of our work from home. They purchased all this equipment, so that way I was at my kitchen table at that point, my son was helping me, but we tried to stay on to bring the live show every day. When the system kept collapsing, and it was really unnerving for people, for me to be on the air now go off and come back on, we then moved back into the studio. But we continued to stay live every single day. It was really challenging and emotionally draining to do so.

Maria Broom: Emotionally draining, yes. But also important. Dr. Kaye says that it's in these moments of crisis that public radio shines the brightest.

Dr. Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead: When every state in every county has their own different story, because it impacts everyone differently, you look to the public radio station in your community to bring you the truth about what's happened. Proximity matters. People were, they were concerned about COVID-19 in Seattle, Washington, but I want to know, is it here, and if it is here, what do we do? Don't tell me that they're closing parks in Texas. What about right here in Patterson Park? Do I need to be concerned? And this is what we did. We took the international, national focus and we really narrowed it to take it through the lens of Baltimore City and then through the lens of Maryland to help people make sense of it.

Taped broadcast from an episode of Today with Dr. Kaye: Welcome to Today with Dr. Kaye. I'm Dr. "Kaye" Wise Whitehead. I'm joined now by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top leading expert on infectious diseases. Dr. Fauci, let me begin by thanking you for your leadership, for your wisdom, for your steady hand during this very difficult time. And we truly appreciate you sir.

Dr. Anthony Fauci: Well, thank you for saying that. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Dr. Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead: So we're gonna talk about the impact of COVID-19 on the African American community…

Dr. Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead: We were able to secure getting Dr. Fauci as the first time he sat down with a Black radio station, because WEAA, We Educate African Americans, that's what our call letters stand, for but the first time he sat down to speak about COVID-19, specifically as it impacted the Black community, because early on when COVID first hit, there was a lie going around that Black folks couldn't get COVID. So part of the work we were doing was to counteract that live particularly when you saw the way it disproportionately impacted our community.

Maria Broom: While news stations like WEAA and WYPR scrambled to cover the story of the pandemic, public radio music stations had their own set of challenges.

Same Sessa: The pandemic hit events the hardest.

Maria Broom: When social gatherings were banned in venues shut down, Sam Sesa was in charge of live events for WTMD, including Baltimore's popular First Thursdays concert series. Sam's job as he knew it, evaporated before his eyes. So he had to pivot.

Sam Sessa: We took First Thursday's digital, we turned them into virtual First Thursdays, which became these really cool live streams on Facebook that we did that got a really great reception. We were pleasantly surprised by how many people tuned in and some of the performers that we could get because it was actually in the end easier to get some of them because all they had to do was record a video. They didn't have to come here and take time and book a hotel, you know, all that logistical mess that comes along with playing a live show for a nationally touring band. But I think one of the signature things that we did was we made a short documentary. And it turned out to be better than we could have possibly expected because because of the pandemic, all of these bands that we wanted to get were already in town because they couldn't tour. So we had Snail Mail, Beach House, Dan Deacon, Future Islands, like all these big Baltimore bands, we were able to get them and interview them for the documentary,

Clip from Do Whatever You Want, All the Time: Seattle in the early 90s, you had grunge in New York in the early 2000s, post-punk, but the beauty of Baltimore is there is no genre tying everyone together. There's not a sonic through-line in this town.

Sam Sessa: It's called Do Whatever You Want, All the Time, named after this album from this Baltimore band Ponytail, and we feel like that title is a perfect way. That's the perfect beat for the vibe in the scene.

Clip from Do Whatever You Want, All the Time: Baltimore music shows are like Spotify playlists- there literally can be anything.

Maria Broom: While WTMD found new ways to support and celebrate the local music scene, long running music station WBJC kept the light on for fans of classical music. As a part of Baltimore City Community College, the radio station was one of the few operations that remained staffed in person. WBJC’s Jonathan Palevsky remembers realizing that he and his colleagues were, in fact, essential workers. The governor was expecting them to report for duty.

Jonathan Palevsky: And we did, and the support people came in occasionally and the on-air people worked as they normally worked, which was great for us, frankly. I mean, that was, that was a blessing and I was so happy to have the luxury of doing our regular job. We were very careful. We, all of us both in our private lives and our radio lives. We maintained social distance. We wore masks when we needed to wear masks. We didn't go out, we were all very careful so that none of us got sick or got any each other sick, and during the whole period of time, one person got COVID post-vaccine, and he was, he was not seriously affected. And he was back to work in 10 days. And we were determined to be there. And we were there. And we maintained our regular service and we played music that was an incredible comfort to many, many, many people. And we were very proud of that. And people responded both financially, and also emotionally.

Maria Broom: Whether it was music programming or the news of the day, WYPR’s LaFontaine Oliver says the pandemic was a reminder to public radio to honor its roots.

LaFontaine Oliver: Overall, I think WYPR and many of the other stations embraced the spirit of the Communications Act of 1934, which talked about the fact that, you know, broadcasters were to operate in the public interest, convenience, and necessity. And I think the health pandemic created immediately for all of us a situation where it was important for us to think about what our community needed from us in that time, which was, quite honestly, access to accurate, relevant, timely information during a period where there were a lot of unknowns.

Maria Broom: You're listening to Wavelength: Baltimore's Public Radio Journey. Coming up, we fast forward to the present, and cast our gaze to the future. What's next for public radio in the years and decades ahead? What are the challenges on the horizon in a rapidly changing media landscape? More in a moment.

Maria Broom: When LaFontaine Oliver looks to the future, he reminds himself of one of public radio's greatest strengths: connection to community.

LaFontaine Oliver: We are truly the last locally owned, operated, and governed media, really, in our country. And that's really important and that ties us to our community in ways that I think, are really powerful and are going to continue to offer us opportunities, if we prioritize that connection to community and that means listening to our community. That means reflecting our community, that means finding ways to let our community into the work that we're doing and have them do that work alongside us.

Wendy Williams: The knowledge that you get when you listen to public radio, you're going to learn something.

Maria Broom: Wendy Williams worked at WEAA in the 1990s.

Wendy Williams: When your community rallies around you and when your community depends on you, you become the voice and the conscience, I believe of your community.

Lamont Germany: I know the need is greater than ever.

Maria Broom: Lamont Germany was a student volunteer at WEAA when the station first went on air in 1977.

Lamont Germany: The information that is needed in a society in which there are so many varied sources for information, and the frankly, the credibility of that information is questionable. You need the foundational information conduit that public radio has provided and continues to provide. And because I believe the need is there and stronger than ever. I think public radio's going to be here, despite the current landscape, I think in many ways, it makes the need even greater than it's been in the past.

LaFontaine Oliver: You know, I've been thinking a lot about this, this concept of being a bridge, being a bridge between communities, being a bridge between different opinions and different thoughts. We are in some ways more divided than we've ever been, and I think the role of public media, both from a news and journalism perspective, and also from the perspective of music presentation is that we can serve as a bridge between communities. We can find ways through our content to bring people together, to have people see that, yes, we have differences, but that we share so much in common and, you know, part of that currency that we have in doing that, it is in fact built around trust. And I think that's really, really important as some communities continue to, to grow further apart is, you know, who's going to be that bridge to bring communities together? And I think for a long time, public media has done that. But I think we can do even more in that area. And I think if we do, we will be rewarded by our community with their support, with their trust. And I think that's important to our future as well.

Gary Levine: Everything that WYPR does now you can listen to right from your digital device in your car while you're on a walk. So my adage is, if you have a quality news organization, you have to deliver it in any possible way that they can get it

Maria Broom: Gary Levine is a WYPR Board Member. He's also an unapologetic tech geek. Gary loves what he hears on WYPR, but like more and more listeners every day he doesn't necessarily hear it on the old fashioned airwaves. WYPR’s Andy Bienstock understands that digital streaming and podcasts are now essential vehicles for public radio content.

Andy Bienstock: Radio listening habits are changing, the way people consume media is changing, and public radio is having to change with it. And we're trying to keep up with it. Radio numbers are still good. I mean, good heavens, COVID was a flaming disaster for listening. But numbers have pretty much returned to pre-COVID levels. So I think the future is, I wouldn't say shiningly bright– there's a lot of questions in the future, but I think the future is bright for public radio.

Dr. Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead: I think one of the biggest challenges that public radio is going to face in the years ahead is the increase in noise.

Maria Broom: Again, Dr. Kaye at WEAA.

Dr. Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead: In the old days, radio was your only option in the car. Those days are gone. And so I think for public radio, finding a way to cut through the noise to make it so that your show or your station or the work you're doing is so essential, it becomes what we call “appointment radio.” The way everybody's used to say, “I'm gonna go watch the Cosby Show.” “I'm gonna go watch Seinfeld,” like it was appointment television on Thursday night for the lineup. How do you make it so your radio show becomes appointment radio, that no matter what else is going on during the daytime? I've got to tune-in at this time because there's essential information that I'm getting.

LaFontaine Oliver: We will all continue to embrace the on demand future that is how do we make our content available when people want it, how people want it, on whatever platforms they may roam on. But the thing that will stay consistent hopefully for all of us, is what I like to call that high thread count of content, whether it is the presentation of music, arts, culture, whether it's the presentation of news and information, that emphasis on going the extra mile, taking the extra step, doing that with a certain level of rigor and intentionality is going to hopefully continue to set us apart and connect us to our community.

Judith Krummeck: We like to say when we have fundraising that you are the public in public radio, and I think that sense that people can be, certainly in our case, sponsors of the arts. I think that is one of the really, really strong calls.

Maria Broom: Judith Krummeck is the weekday evening drive time host at WBJC. She says the listeners who support her station appreciate consistency.

Judith Krummeck: They absolutely know what they’re getting because they've been getting absolutely pure classical music since 1986. And we've been around so long that they trust us, and that sense of ownership. It's interesting if they call the station, perhaps they want to hear about a piece of music they heard, the pride that you hear from them if they say “I am a member.” It's just that sense that they can actually contribute to the community that we have here in Baltimore in some way. And I think that's a very strong call of public radio, whether it’s talk or music.

Dr. Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead: As a public radio station, we rely on our members to give money.

Maria Broom: Dr. Kaye says when she first started at WEAA, the big question was, how do we get the community to give?

Dr. Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead: Well, I come from the Black church, and I know the research that shows that the Black community is actually the largest giving community in America, but we tithe more, we give to groups more, we give a lot of money. So to, in order for people to say, “I've got to give my $5,” for example, to WEAA to Today with Dr. Kaye, then it has to be an essential part of their life. It has to be appointment radio, and they have to have what I always say on the air, some skin in the game.

Maria Broom: For LaFontaine Oliver at WYPR, the future of public media in general hinges on a radical idea, an idea that stations haven't executed that well up to this point, but it may be their saving grace.

LaFontaine Oliver: I believe firmly that public media and our industry overall gets stronger when we learn from each other. So this may be wishful thinking, but I'm hoping that there's more collaboration in our future, across stations, across formats. We strengthen ourselves and we strengthen our connection to the community and our ability to serve when we start to work together. I also think the future of public radio in Baltimore really hinges on all of us, thinking about how we can attract and retain a younger and more diverse audience. I think it's vital to our future. I think it's vital to our public service models. I think it's vital to even our financial and our business models. And then I guess finally, I think the future of public radio is about, it has to be about community. It has to be about us strengthening our relationship with our family of communities here in Baltimore so that we continue to find more ways to be important and relevant and in more aspects of the lives of people here in Baltimore. And I think that's really critical to our success.

Maria Broom: You’ve been listening to Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey from Your Public Studios. I’m Maria Broom.

Production and support for this podcast and WYPR’s 20th Anniversary was brought to you in part by the PNC Bank.

Jamyla Krempel is the executive producer of Wavelength. Anne Kramer is our producer. Katie Marquette is our audio editor. Production and engineering support by Spencer Bryant. Research and production assistance by Maddie Bristowe.

You can learn more about the podcast and listen to other episodes in this six-part series at wypr.org/wavelength.

I’m Maria Broom. Thanks for listening.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This episode of Wavelength explores local public radio stations’ coverage and response to the Baltimore Uprising following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody.

Production and support for this podcast was brought to you in part by PNC Bank.

Transcript:

[WEAA newswrap] Beverly Burke: Taken from the day’s headlines, national attention is turning to Baltimore as the justice department looks into whether police violated the civil rights of a man who died after he was arrested. Baltimore Police arrested Freddie Gray on April 12. He died from a spinal cord injury a week later. Six Baltimore police officers have been suspended while the investigation goes forward.

Maria Broom: This is Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey from Your Public Studios, a monthly podcast series made possible by PNC Bank. I’m your host Maria Broom.

You just heard the voice of former WEAA host and anchor Beverly Burke. On this episode, we’ll hear how local stations covered the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in police custody and the subsequent uprising.

Gray suffered a severe spinal injury in the back of a police van on April 12, 2015. He died a week later. Baltimore radio stations devoted newscasts, hour-long shows, and online stories to Gray’s death and how it was impacting our city.

Former WEAA news director Carla Wills and former WEAA General Manager Michele Williams say the station’s coverage plans evolved the day of Gray’s funeral, April 27.

Carla Wills: The dean of the school at the time, who was Dewayne Wickham, also a veteran journalist, had decided that we, because we were WEAA, needed to be at the funeral of Freddie Gray.

Michele Williams: Carla Wills, Marcellus Shepard “The Baseman”, Sean Yoes, Marc Steiner, Anthony McCarthy, Martha Jews, we all were contributing because everyone had a position on the field. If this was your home, you already had a position on the field even though you may not be active at that moment but if this is your home, then you already have a perspective about when things like this happen. You have a point of view. We cobbled together equipment and with Carla’s direction and guidance, we went out and figured out if we have three of these, we can put a person here. If we have one of these, we can put a person there. We didn't have a lot of equipment, but our chief engineer, Ed, at the time made sure that we could get sound back to the studio.

Carla Wills: We thought we were going to just do maybe an hour or two of the funeral. We're talking with Beverly Burke outside of the church. She was our news anchor at the time.

[WEAA live coverage] Beverly Burke: We are going to be bringing you the commentary inside and outside of the program going on today. You’re inside the Marc Steiner Show. And Marc, as I bring you into this, let me just tell you that after the arrivals of Jesse Jackson and several other dignitaries as I saw come into through this particular entrance…including NAACP City President Tessa Hill Aston, everyone really carries a very somber look. This morning’s news as you probably will recall, pointed to comments made by justice department people and Congressman Elijah Cumings about the coming investigation. Everyone wanting this to be a day of peace until a report is released and that’s supposed to happen later this week.

Carla Wills: And we ended up covering all 4 hours. And then afterward, along with talk inside the studio, that was moderated by Marc Steiner at the time.

[Live coverage] Marc Steiner: So anyway, still here in the studio with Dominique Stevenson and D. Watkins and we’ll get some final thoughts here I guess as we’ll be rounding out here in a few minutes, maybe we can get a call or two if we can but if not, we’ll just come in here. Ya know, this is–I’m glad, first of all, that the station made the decision to cover this funeral with such depth for all this time. From our show at 10 in the morning and all the way going through the funeral starting at 11, now going on 2 o’clock and we’re still here because other media is not doing this and people need to hear and feel what’s going out in front of the community which is really very critical at this point.

Michele Williams: Sean Yoes went to the funeral. And he did a magnificent job.

[Live coverage] Sean Yoes: The burden of injustice is heavy in the city. It’s palpable, I believe. I don’t think that’s hyperbole. I think it’s very real and unfortunately, I don’t think that people have a lot of answers as far as what to do next, where do you we go to now? And I think there’s a lot of pessimism as well. People thinking that it’s inevitable that this type of scenario will repeat itself. That is, that is–it’s a sad commentary but I think it’s a very real commentary. I wish I could shed more of an optimistic light on the situation, but I would be disingenuous if I did, I think.

Michele Williams: And our phones were blowing up. We had to open up our streaming lines. And, you know, because of that, that's a technical thing. But all of a sudden you’ll hit a wall and no one else can get in. And we had to expand and open all of that because we sort of became a repository for emotion and comments and people.

Carla Wills: Beverly, she had gone up toward Mondawmin–and I'm trying to remember why, this is after she had stopped–she calls me and she says, it looks like something's about to go off here. And so I'm on the phone with her. And then we bring her back on the air and she's describing what's happening.

[Live coverage] Beverly Burke: The mall itself is closing and I am really watching as cars are leaving the parking lot. Like I said I’m positioned in front of Target and they’re heading out to the exit that leads to Liberty Road. Again nothing has been disclaimed. I have seen a couple of helicopters overhead. The strange thing is that I’m not seeing any patrol cars, no city police cars, not one. And I’m not even seeing anything allegedly unmarked. But I am seeing people getting in their cars and they are leaving. Marc Steiner: Beverly Burke, thank you for all your coverage today and we’re [intelligible] to know what you’ve seen at Mondawmin Mall and so we want to be very clear as we end our program today that, that–nobody knows what’s going on. These are all kind of rumors floating. Beverly Burke: They are rumors, yes. And we want to be clear about that. Marc Steiner: I just want to make sure people are not in a panic and don’t get into a panic over this because we just do not know exactly what’s going on. WEAA will fill you in with updates as the afternoon goes on.

Carla Wills: And nothing had really blown up yet but she knew things were kind of simmering. And so at that point, you know, we were like, there on the ground when it was starting to unfold. And then I'm like, All right, Beverly, I'm a little concerned. Maybe you should get out of there. And she left. But then we had a student journalist. And this is the other important thing about WEAA, you know, its partnership with the students because it's housed at a university. We had a student who we ended up sending down because he lived in the area and then he would call with updates and we had him on the air. He actually now works at WBAL television. So shout out to Tramon Lucas. But it was just like we were there on the ground the whole time as the situation unfolded and followed it all evening.

Maria Broom: When listeners tuned to WEAA and WYPR, they found the stations providing coverage like they had never done before, and collaborating like they had never done before. Michele Williams, former WEAA GM and now WYPR Director of Underwriting, explains a station partnership that was formed not long after Gray’s death.

Michele Williams: We had a conversation with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and said, hey, you know, can you help us? And they did come and help us and paired us with WYPR.

Carla Wills: We knew we needed to do more and like I said, we didn't necessarily have the infrastructure. WYPR, of course, had a far more robust infrastructure as far as its news department. And, you know, we were like, yeah, you know, and WYPR was like, you know, honestly, we don't have the same kinds of relationships in the community that WEAA has. So if we partner, we could probably do more together as far as, you know, really covering this situation. And so we had one of WYPR’s reporters was often reporting with us on our evening public affairs programs. And then, you know, we had people who would speak at WYPR’s–on their programs. And so it was really a moment that we saw the power of this media, especially when the community is involved. I mean, not just–it's not about giving voice to the voiceless. It's about passing the mic. You know, people aren't voiceless. They just don't have the platform.

Maria Broom: WYPR News Director Joel McCord says he recognized that the news team needed to respond to the moment.

Joel McCord: Well, at the time, you know, as we were concentrating on more on long term deep dive kinds of stories, we didn't have connections in the police department that would have helped. So I was more interested in looking into the, the kinds of conditions that created a Freddie Gray and his relationship with the Baltimore Police Department or maybe even, you know, the relationship of a good part of the city's population with the police department. But then as tensions escalated, as the day of the funeral approached, you might remember the violence near Camden Yards downtown, around the time of, of an Orioles–Red Sox game and the eruption. After the funeral, that's when I said, well, you know, we can't we, we can't take time to do these deep dives. We actually have to be out there covering it. Chris Connolly was our state house and political reporter, he was living in West Baltimore. So I had him covering the action that night that the CVS was burnedat Penn North. And Mary Rose was out the next day.

Mary Rose: I started going out and started collecting stories and honestly, truthfully, my life has never been the same. It was an unforgettable experience. My name is Mary Rose Madden, and I was a reporter and producer for WYPR for 15 years from around 2003 to 2020. People were furious. And, you know, calling for their city's leaders and this, you know, I'm walking around with my mic and I'm kind of introducing myself to people and saying, I'm, I'm here to try to, like, capture what's happening. And if you want to talk, I'm– I want to listen. And so this woman takes me by the shoulder and whips me around. And she's probably about maybe 50, 60 years old. And she's just, like, just full of emotion. And she just yells at me–

Protestor: “Where’s our mayor that ‘posed to be out here? Where she at? She ain’t here.”

Mary Rose Madden: ‘Cause Stephanie Rawlings-Blake hadn't been out. This woman, it had not slipped by her, you know, she was like, she should be out here. This is her city. But her friend took the mic, like, you know, was like I–you know, I've got something to say. So her friend was, like, crying, and she started saying–

Protestor: They hate us so much. We’re tired of it!

Mary Rose Madden: People were sharing with me these traumatic experiences of how they would be walking down the street to go to the corner store to get a cup of ice, and they'd be stopped by the police. And this is like a common occurrence. This is not a random thing. So stories like that, again and again and again. And little kids afraid to talk to the police. Parents afraid of their kids having interactions with the police. Not just on this night or at this time, but this is how they felt for years. And honestly, I'd been reporting on, like, issues related to poverty for years and years. So I'd done stories about jobs and homelessness and housing prices and rents and all kinds of stories. And this topic somehow never crossed my path. And I'm sad to say, it's something I never, I never asked about it because it's almost unimaginable that this would be happening to people. And, but it's just such a common part of their lives. And I had never, like I've never heard it. So in a way, it really, like opened my eyes as a reporter to like really trying to remember that there is so much you don't know. And no matter how many times you've gone out to this neighborhood or a certain community, there is still so much you don't know.

Carla Wills: We were always in the community. And so people who were community leaders, you know, were comfortable coming to WEAA and sharing what they knew about the community in their solutions and what we needed to have happen and what the issues were with the police and how the, you know, police were had a long standing, long, contentious relationship with many of these communities. And so, you know, it was a conversation and dialogue we'd already had before Freddie Gray continued through Freddie Gray and afterward and so I think that’s why we became a go-to source for this kind of information.

Michele Williams: You know, the two the two audiences that the radio stations serve, I mean, in any radio community and all communities have a radio community. You may not think of it that way, but specific formats serve different kinds of audiences and different kinds of people. We could infiltrate a lot better than WYPR could. It was whatever, whatever the station did, it was not going to have the same kind of sort of emotive feel that an African-American station that's talking to its community and that is really being looked upon to hold a beacon about this whole situation and try to guide the sentiment and the feeling that's happening. So it's not that one station is better than the other. They're just, you know, every every radio station has its sort of specialty. And it might be about music, it might be about the audience. It could be a combination of both.

Maria Broom: This is Wavelength. More in a minute.

Maria Broom: This is Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey. I’m your host Maria Broom. We’re continuing our exploration of station coverage of the Baltimore Uprising following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. Here’s former WYPR news reporter Mary Rose Madden.

Mary Rose: The day after the unrest was also like a really meaningful day. So Chris Ervin I had met, he had heard my stories, you know, from the the night after night of protests. So he calls me around 3:00 and he's like, Mary Rose, you got to come down here. Oh, we're out at North Avenue on the West Side, and there's like. Couple of hundred people out here. I'm like, okay, all right, you know what's going on? And he's like, well, we're it's like it's like a rebirth. And I was like, okay, all right. I grabbed my mic, I grab my kit, I’m like alright let’s go. And I get down there and it is like a rebirth there’s like everyone is out in the street and the sun is setting and there's like these, you know, everyone is like singing and praying and talking and trying to, like, sort out all the feelings and everything that they've learned in the past couple of weeks about their city and the news and just everything that they've, like, ingested. They're just like processing it now.

Lauren Haymen: This is a wonderful reflection of the core of Baltimore, where a community that’s actually unified for goodness and I think this situation that we have right here reflects that. Mary Rose: Behind her a brass band of six was just getting going with ‘When the saints go marching in.’

Mary Rose: There's like, saxophone players and drummers and incredible singers, and everyone is like, just taking a moment to, like grieve the death of this man and also what they've all been through. For years and years and also the like, explosion of emotion that happened the night before.

Rernard Parks: No, nobody here wants the violence to be going on. We from Baltimore City, we see enough violence going on. But at the end of the day we need to come together and it’s as simple as that.

Aaron Henkin: My name is Aaron Henkin. I'm a producer here at WYPR and I’ve been here since 2001. Obviously, when the unrest was at its most. Cinematic, shall we say. All of the media outlets nationally were hovering around in their helicopters, capturing the footage of the CVS on fire, the windows being broken, etc., etc.. The National Guard vehicles. I went down to the intersection of Pennsylvania North Avenue a couple of days later when the camera crews had cleared out. And what I saw was all of the locals who lived around there. Cleaning up the broken glass. Cleaning up the rubber bullets that were on the street. Boarding up the broken windows. And very openly grieving. In a very raw way. In the streets and communing with each other in confusion and horror about everything that was going on. And for Out of the Blocks, we did that special episode, obviously on very short turnaround. And the premise of that episode was that I just went to that intersection of Pennsylvania North Avenue and then just walk basically in spirals outward in the three or four block radius around there with–I remember I had a clipboard with me and front of the clipboard I wrote “local public radio reporter” and on the back of the clipboard I wrote “Let Your Voice be Heard.” And I just wandered around and just held my clipboard up and let people self-select to come talk to me. And people wanted to talk.

[Out of the Blocks “Priscilla” episode] Priscilla: My name is Priscilla, I live in this community. Aaron: What do you fear is the worst possible thing that can happen from here? Priscilla: No conviction, no justice, no trial. Just sit back and wait, world. The best is yet to come. And that’s scary and it frightens me. My mom lives in another city and state and um because I live right here at ground zero. I did tell her–me and my family–we might have to flee. If it comes to that. I’m actually kinda crying here. We might have to flee because of the fear in our community.

Aaron Henkin: People obviously had a lot weighing on them and a lot on their minds and. It ended up being an audio snapshot of a moment in time that obviously was poignant at the moment. But, you know, to listen to it now, this many years later, it's interesting how quickly that first draft of history actually becomes kind of a historical document. Everybody on the programming side at WYPR was trying to figure out how to contribute, how to help the conversation along in the wake of the unrest.

[Maryland Morning show] Sheilah Kast: On WYPR, Maryland Morning, that’s Chief Ganeisha Martin, she leads community relations for the Baltimore police department. I’m Sheilah Kast. We’re talking about how police can repair frayed relationships they have in some Baltimore neighborhoods.

[Midday show] Dan Rodricks: And welcome back to Midday everyone, Dan Rodricks here. Thanks again for joining us. In this hour, we continue our conversation on Baltimore’s Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood. The neighborhood where Freddie Gray grew up. A neighborhood–a part of town profoundly affected by poverty, unemployment, incarceration, drug abuse and violence.

Aaron Henkin: And, you know, Out of the Blocks was no exception. Our usual format takes us weeks, if not months, to turn an episode around. It's a very meticulous thing, but, you know. We did something very different in the immediate aftermath of the uprising. I think a week or two later on Out of the Blocks, we broke format again and did a special episode where we brought in musicians and poets here locally that we had known over the years and featured in various ways, because just like everybody else, this was on their mind and they were writing poetry about it, they were writing songs about it. And so we just turned over our episode for a week to anybody who is having a, you know, creative response to that traumatic moment in history as well.

Sam Sessa: My name is Sam Sessa. I started at the WTMD in 2006, as the host of Baltimore Unsigned, which later became Baltimore Hit Parade. And then I became full time at the station around 2015 as the Baltimore Music and Community Outreach Manager. And I'm currently the director of events for WYPR and WTMD. A week or two after the uprising, Kenny Liner who ran this program called Believe in Music at Living Classrooms reached out and said that he'd asked some of his children who I believe were 11,12, 13 years old. And they had lived in the neighborhoods where the uprising was happening. They were terrified by what they saw. And also hopeful about what it meant for the city that people were giving voice and really standing up for Freddie Gray and what they believed in. And so we had them write song lyrics. And he said, “Sam, is there anything we can do with these lyrics?” And so I reached out to Cara Sedalino, this Baltimore singer and songwriter, I said, “Can you set these to some music? Could you write a melody?” And she did. And it was incredible. It was called Believe in Baltimore.

“Believe in Baltimore”: “The city is where we live, the city is where we come from. Won’t let it crumble into mass destruction. The city is where we live, the city is where we come from. Won’t let it crumble into mass destruction. Who's gonna save Baltimore?”

Sam Sessa: And we thought, let's see how many Baltimore musicians we can get in the room with these kids to show them what it's like to record a song. And we got members of Future Islands and Celebration, Lower Dens, Chris Jacobs. Just some of the biggest musicians in Baltimore at the time were part of this project. And they all donated their time. And they came in and coached the kids and kind of helped them through the process. And it was so heartwarming. I knew a producer who worked for the Meredith Vieira show, and we were able to get the kids to go up to New York and some of these kids have never even been out of Baltimore before, to experience that and perform it live on national television. It was just such a wonderful byproduct of this very tumultuous time, and I was so thrilled that TMD could help contribute something to the conversation.

"Believe in Baltimore": “Now let’s stop the violence and bring the peace. We’re tired and injustice and wish our love to increase. We stand united for Freddie Gray.”

Sam Sessa: WTMD’s First Thursday festival, on May 1 of 2015, was the first big event that Baltimore city held after the uprising after Freddie Gray in, which was in mid April of 2015, so it was like two weeks after the uprising we had First Thursdays. And honestly, we were a little nervous about it. We didn't know how it would go. We didn't know if people would show up protesting at First Thursdays, which would have been a first for us. But it ended up being a really joyous and therapeutic coming together of our community. And I think it was really reaffirming for us that we are all in this together. And yes, that was really tumultuous and emotional and terrible, what happened in April. But that's not all of who we are as a community. I think it showed the power that music and art has to speak to people and bring people together.

Judith Krummeck: My name is Judith Krummeck. I am the evening drive time host for WBJC 91.5 FM, and I've been with the station since February of 1998, which makes it, I think, 24 plus years. We found during the Freddie Gray tragedy sort of what we had found really with 9/11 and then more latterly with COVID and the invasion of Ukraine, people tend to find that we are kind of like an oasis. You know, they get bombarded with this really terrible news and we do keep them abreast and we do, as I say, try to be sensitive about our programming around these issues. But it also can be sort of like a sanctuary just to, to have time to reflect on these things rather than to have them in your face all the time.

Michele Williams: When you step back and you saw the national coverage, it appeared that the whole city was in flames. And that just was not true. And that was you know, it was, it was a little bit offensive because that's that's not true. The whole world is looking at Baltimore like it's an inferno and that and then what didn't get necessarily showcased or told was how the people in the community sort of sheltered their community and their young and their old and put a barricade, human barricade between themselves and police presence. And the adults in the community stood together, arms locked and kept their community back and, you know, and stood down the police, like we got this, we got this. Just you stay over there. And it was just really, really so encouraging to see people that walk those blocks every single day, how much they love no matter what. You might think about my neighborhood. I love my neighborhood. And this is, this is a part of me.

Carla Wills: National media were parachuting in and, you know, shoving their mics in the face of people. And, you know, it's just without really understanding what was going on on the ground and, you know, why Baltimore had its reaction. So I think WEAA has a really important role in media–and stations like it across the country because it is really part of the community and it takes that responsibility very seriously. And, you see how it can be effective when–in situations like that.

Maria Broom: Six police officers were charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Counts included misconduct in office, manslaughter, and one officer was charged with second degree murder. A judge acquitted three of the officers and Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby dropped the charges against the other three officers. Local public radio stations covered the trials, the decisions, and the community response.

You’ve been listening to Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey from Your Public Studios. I’m Maria Broom.

Production and support for this podcast and WYPR’s 20th Anniversary was brought to you in part by the PNC Bank.

Jamyla Krempel is the executive producer of Wavelength. Anne Kramer is our producer. Katie Marquette is our audio editor. Production and engineering support by Spencer Bryant. Research and production assistance by Maddie Bristowe.

Andy Bienstock is WYPR’s Vice President and Program Director. Michele Williams is the Director of Underwriting.

You can learn more about the podcast and listen to the stories and shows featured in this episode at wypr.org/wavelength.

New episodes of Wavelength are released on the last Wednesday of the month. Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review.

Thanks for listening.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Since WJHU was the precursor to WYPR and this is WYPR’s 20th anniversary year, indulge us as we focus on the station’s early years in this episode of Wavelength: Baltimore's Public Radio Journey. A lot went on…

Production and support for this podcast was brought to you in part by PNC Bank.

Transcript

MUSIC: "Dire Ghost" by Blue Dot Sessions.

Marc Steiner: It was 2001 and there was a general manager search going on, and there were three final candidates. And just as the staff was about to interview the candidates, we got a notice that the search had been called off–postponing it is what they said. So I knew something weird was going on. And so I called one of the vice presidents at Hopkins and said–who was overseeing the station–and I said ‘so you gotta tell me what's happening. This either means you're selling this station, or you're closing the station. So what's going on?’ He said, ‘it's not for publication, but we're selling the station.’

Maria Broom: This is Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey from Your Public Studios, a monthly podcast series made possible by PNC Bank. I’m your host Maria Broom.

You just heard the voice of former WJHU, WYPR, and WEAA talk show host Marc Steiner reflecting on Johns Hopkins University’s decision to sell WJHU.

Since WJHU was the precursor to WYPR and this is WYPR’s 20th anniversary year, indulge us as we focus on the station’s early years in this episode. A lot went on…

So, as Marc Steiner was saying, in 2001 WJHU was up for sale. Former WJHU jazz host Andy Bienstock and others pick up the story.

Andy Bienstock: Johns Hopkins had decided that we were not part of the university's mission and that it would be better to sell us to someone who did have a mission for public radio. We had other public stations come and look at us. I was on the transition committee at the time. And we were visited by WBUR in Boston, by WETA in Washington. I think from WAMU in Washington. We also knew that Maryland Public Television was interested in acquiring us. And of course there were lots of religious groups that wanted–that would have paid a lot of money to have us become a religious station. And to give the university credit, they made it clear that was not what they wanted to do. They wanted to keep it as an NPR station or as a public radio station. So as all this was going on, Marc Steiner was our talk show host at the time, and Marc started putting together a group to try and buy it and keep it as an independent radio station.

Marc Steiner: The only staff member that really joined the effort was a woman named Martha Ruski, who was then the marketing director for WJHU. And she and I formed the Maryland Public Radio Corporation, that was incorporated as a nonprofit. We knew we had to raise $5 million dollars and how we were going to do that was the question.

[“Hash Out” by Sunday at Slims begins.] Song courtesy of Blue Dot Sessions.

Marc Steiner: Hopkins would not let us use the membership list to raise money to buy the station so I had a list of 500, 700 odd people who I had been in touch with over the years who were listeners, maybe more even and I had that list of names and so I put that in our database and started writing everybody. So we–well the first people– two people who came in first: one was Bill Clark, the other was the Daniels family, and then was the folks at Town Creek Foundation. They supported it too. So we had this initial burst of serious contributions. And then we went after other contributions from, from listeners. And so we ended up with three quarters of a million dollars, which was not enough to buy the station. But it was a significant down payment. (laughs.)

Andy Bienstock: So Marc was put in touch with Tony Brandon, who was living in Baltimore and Tony had a string of commercial stations.

Tony Brandon: I’m Tony Brandon. I was the general manager of WYPR from 2002 to 2019. I had been in the radio business for probably at that time, 30 years. We had a family company that I was president of called American General Media, which owned 45 or 50 radio stations. I went to the president of the bank and told him of our intentions to attempt to acquire this station. He said he understood that it wasn’t part of our American General Media acquisitions, that it was totally independent and it was separate from that. But the bank would require personal guarantees to make the loan to a non-profit that was not to be owned by broadcasters who were seeking to make a profit. And we gathered together eight people.

Gary Levine: Bill Clark, of course Tony, Barb Bozzuto, Darielle Linehan, John Melnick, Charlie Salisbury and Albert Williams. I’m Gary Levine. I’ve been associated with WYPR from its inception.

Tony Brandon: And the 8 of us guaranteed $500,000 each. And the bank proceeded to make the loan for $5 million required to purchase the station.

Maria Broom: But on September 11, 2001, radio acquisitions, entertainment, travel, everything…stopped.

[Clip of Morning Edition] Bob Edwards: Good morning, you’re listening to special coverage of tragic events that have occurred today in New York City and in Washington D.C.

Maria Broom: That morning Andy Bienstock woke up and walked into his kitchen. Morning Edition was playing on the radio.

Andy Bienstock: Bob Edwards was the host back then, and he was talking about fire, a fire at the World Trade Center or an explosion at the World Trade Center. And, of course, there had been a terrorist attack there in the early 90s. And I thought for some reason, they were doing the story about that attack, and replaying it. But as I listened some more I realized oh no, this was today.

Bob Edwards: I’m going to go through just a timeline of today’s events as compiled by the Associated Press. Plane crashes into tower of World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan shortly before 9 AM eastern time. And then shortly after 9 AM eastern time, a second plane crashed into the second tower of the World Trade Center. President Bush, in Sarasota, Florida, earlier this morning, called the crash–crashes an apparent terrorist attack and a national tragedy.

Andy Bienstock: So I abandoned my radio and went to the television, and just sort of watched in horror for the rest of the day. Now, I grew up in New York, in Manhattan, so I knew people involved. My father who was elderly at that point, lived not far away. And my uncle was actually working at a place that wasn't too far from the World Trade Center. So it took a while, you know, on the phone with my father and making sure he was OK. And that was also Election Day in Annapolis, I guess it was our primary election here in Annapolis. I guess it was a mayoral election. And I remember going to the polls, and it was just quiet. Everyone, no one talking about anything. Everyone just in shock. No one talking about what happened because nobody wanted to talk about what happened or even understood it.

Maria Broom: This is Wavelength. We’ll be back in a minute.

Maria Broom: This is Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey. I’m your host Maria Broom. On today’s episode of the podcast, we’re talking about the transition of WJHU to WYPR, which officially started on February 1, 2002.

Marc Steiner was one of the founders of WYPR and became the Vice President for Broadcast and Production when the station began.

He explains what WYPR stands for and how it was actually his second choice for call letters.

Marc Steiner: I said, ‘Well, we're the Maryland Radio Corporation. So we can just be like Maryland Radio Corporation, that'd be the WMRC.’ And I stopped and it was this dead silence and Martha stopped and looked at me and went ‘Marc.’

Valerie Williams: I said that.

Marc Steiner: Oh you said it, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. My wife just reminded me she's the one who said it. She is right. I get times mixed up. I always do. Thanks, Valerie. (laughs.)

Valerie Williams: You came home all excited.

Marc Steiner: I came home all excited, saying, ‘we came up with the call letters WMRC.’ And she looked at me and went ‘Marc, how do you spell your name?’ And I said ‘Oh, shit!’

Valerie Williams: No, you said ‘Mar-shit.’

Marc Steiner Mar-shit. (laughs) So then a little brainstorming session we just came up with, you know, the whole line we're giving people was that this was gonna be a community owned station, and it belonged to the people of our listening area. So we came up with it's your station, isn't it? Right? It's your public radio station. So why YPR. So that was how YPR came about instead of naming it after myself. (Laughs.)

Aaron Henkin: My name is Aaron Henkin. I'm a producer here at WYPR, and I've been here since 2001. When we switched from the call letters WJHU to WYPR, I remember our morning announcer at the time. Great guy, Tom Olsen. And we had a–we took a pool, I think, here at the office for how long it would be that first day when we were supposed to be WYPR for him to mess up the call letters and say WJHU. I think it took about an hour and a half before he said the wrong call letters, but he eventually got it into his head. And, you know, we all became WYPR together.

Andy Bienstock: Tony became General Manager and I became the Program Director of WYPR.

Tony Brandon: As it turned out immediately after closing in 2002 February 1, we had a fund drive and it was enormous. And it was one of the biggest fund drives the station had ever had.

Andy Bienstock: Our membership grew immediately. I think the story of, sort of the little guys who took over the station was a great story. Keeping it as local ownership was a great story. And I think frankly, a lot of people didn't want to give money to a wing of Johns Hopkins, and were more willing to give an independent station money.

Gary Levine: The best part of the pledge drive to me was to be able to listen to listeners and what and how much they loved the broadcast, how much they loved the journalism and all the on air hosts at WYPR and NPR. This is Gary Levine. I've been a board member at WYPR for 10 years now. My affiliation with WJHU started with me becoming a fan of All Things Considered and Morning Edition and deciding in our business to become an underwriter at WJHU. Deborah Davis was our administrative assistant and she worked with my brother and I for many years. When it came time for us to part companies with her, she immediately applied at WJHU and was hired as a membership director. All I can say about Deborah is that she was the heart and soul of the station. She was brilliant when it came to meeting the members' needs and encouraging them to give and be part of all of the fund drives and all of the events, Deborah attended every one of them. I miss her terribly.

Tony Brandon: We re-organized our underwriting department and brought in a woman named Carla Truax she did a phenomenal job of convincing local businesses to underwrite on the station.

Carla Truax: I'm Carla Truax, I was VP and underwriting Sales Manager for WYPR. And was there for 18 years. There were 13 of us that were part of the full time employees as WYPR which was a very small group of people. But there was a real spirit, there was excitement. Loved going to work because there was so much to do. We were in a sense, starting a new station. And it was a wonderful feeling. The one thing we didn't understand at that time, or I didn't understand, was how passionate our listeners and our underwriters and our members were about public radio. I mean, we said that all our time, all the time in our sales pitch. But I mean, we'd walk into a meeting, and they would just tell us, they would tell us more about the station than we knew. I mean, they listened constantly. So that was all exciting. And we were so well received, and then we kept adding other programs, other events that we could sponsor to our portfolio and sales. And that really helped. Yes, we still had to watch money, but it was letting us add more people and then more product.

Andy: When you work for Johns Hopkins, you know your paychecks are not going to bounce. You have a pension plan, there's a lot of pluses for working for Johns Hopkins, even when you work for an organization that Hopkins isn't paying a lot of attention to. And we went from that to, you know, as a business, almost living paycheck to paycheck. We had to, you know, every two weeks the payroll was due. We had to grow like a small company finding its way. We kind of felt like we were pirates. I mean, there were only us in the building. We had this entire building to ourselves all of a sudden, and we could imagine new things. We could come up with new ideas. It was ours. There was really no one to say no anymore. Hopkins had gotten pretty good about saying no, we can't afford to do that. No, we can't afford to do that. There was no one to say no. We just had to figure out how to pay for it. If we could pay for it, we could do it.

Aaron Henkin: So here was the WYPR brand new radio station, and suddenly it's trying to figure out who are we going to be? How are we going to be different? How are we going to be more alive than we were as WJHU? And so it was a time when if you had a good idea, you were invited to try it out. It was a time of rapid prototyping. New programs, big and small, were popping up all over locally, all over our programming clock. And at that time, Lisa Morgan and I had been talking about creating a cultural show for WYPR that was going to be sort of like, you know, the local public radio stations’ version of the City Paper. And we're talking more and more about this and The Signal was pitched by me and Lisa right at the right time, right at the right place. And they said, ‘Go for it.’ The Signal's original name was A Very Special Edition of The Marc Steiner Show, because basically the way we pitched it was like, ‘Marc, you can take a Friday, a month off because we'll make this special sort of cultural magazine show,’ which he thought, ‘Oh, nice for me. Sure. Go for it.’ And so originally it was a once a month show. And then, you know, we got better at turning it over faster and faster. And before long it was a new weekly show. So, yeah, I'm always going to be grateful to Marc and Andy and the way they just welcomed new ideas with open arms at that time.

Bob White: Bob White here. Station’s senior producer, one of several. And also on-air talent. I was real optimistic about the new direction of the station and talk about doing local, you know, vignette programs that were 5 minutes long and getting underwriting for that, which we did do. So there was just this growing process that kept on manifesting itself. And these were some of the things that led to me getting more involved in production and producing shows and individuals. For me it started off pretty much with Radio Kitchen, Cellar Notes and my friend and colleague Anirban Basu started producing his Morning Economic Reports and his Your Retirement show. Mario Armstrong’s Digital Cafe, Sky Watch, Mutual Perspectives, the late P. M. Forni Commentaries. And then we had a lot of health commentaries. There was a lot of people, of course, that were guests on the former Marc Steiner Show and which segwayed and became Midday. And the original host was Dan Rodricks. Probably some of my favorites–the late Valerie Harper and Carrie Fisher. Valerie Harper especially surprised me when she was here. She had just finished being interviewed by Dan for Midday. I was in the café, our little cafeteria and green room, and I was bending over in the refrigerator to grab a water and she tapped me on the back and she said, ‘Hi. We haven't met yet I don't think. I'm Valerie.’ And I felt like saying ‘No shit.’

Andy Bienstock: We did Morning Edition. Then we had The Diane Rehm Show. Then we had our local talk show with Marc Steiner at noon.

[Clip of the Marc Steiner Show]Opens with the theme music. Marc Steiner: Hello I’m Marc Steiner and welcome this hour.

Andy Bienstock: And then we had NPR’s Talk of the Nation in the afternoon. And we had All Things Considered. It was more network programming, less local programming. And early on, we added another talk show, it used to be called Maryland Morning. We brought in Sheilah Kast to do that program.

[Clip of Maryland Morning*]Opens with theme music. Sheilah Kast: Welcome to Maryland Morning, I’m Sheilah Kast. You're with us on takeoff as we launch this new show this morning. I’m here in the studio with Tom Hall, our arts and culture contributor and with Nathan Sterner, our director and engineer and the local host for WYPR for Morning Edition*.

Andy:So that was our first big programming investment in addition to growing the new staff. Bringing in Fraser Smith, and Sunni Khalid to the news department.

[Clip from news stories] Fraser Smith: Children at risk shouldn’t be on their own. They’re strong, resilient, and hopeful. They’re a treasure. And they’re being saved every day by people you’re never likely to hear about. Sunni Khalid: Now if the international community seems poised to send a peacekeeping force to Darfur to end the suffering. But even if a mission succeeds, Al Khalifa says many refugees must face the reality that it may be many more years before they can return home.

Marc Steiner: Mary Rose Madden who had been one of my producers, became the news producer for the station.

Mary Rose Madden: Last year Dr. Andres Alonso, the CEO of Baltimore City Schools, said school transportation would be a priority this year.

Marc Steiner: Then we brought in a whole bunch of print journalists who had never really done radio before.

[Clips of news stories] Joel McCord: In a report issued last fall, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said the health of the bay had gone down over the last year. Whether that condition improves or not depends on how effectively the bay states manage their sewer plants, farm fields, streets and lawns. I’m Joel McCord reporting for 88.1 WYPR. Melody Simmons: I’m Melody Simmons reporting in Dundalk. Inside the Steelworkers Union Hall in Dundalk, a new kind of education is going on. Retirees of Bethlehem Steel, whose ages range from the mid 50s to the 80s, are learning just what it will take to make ends meet after they’ve experienced two hits to their financial security. Art Buist: A little after 6 PM tomorrow, the call to the post for the Preakness will be sounded. A band will play “Maryland, My Maryland.” And the second jewel of the triple crown will be run in Baltimore for the 129th time. I’m Art Buist reporting in Baltimore for 88.1, WYPR.

Maria Broom: The station’s programming was about to enter another period of change in 2008. The Marc Steiner Show which was heard on 88.1 since 1993, was canceled. Why? Well, there are differing opinions about what led to the end of Marc’s tenure at WYPR.

Tony Brandon: Marc was a big voice, big talent, very smart guy. I always liked Marc but we saw a little bit different vision for the station and we decided to part ways in about 2008.

Marc Steiner: When Tony says there were different visions, the vision was that he wanted to be in control and didn't want to share the control. And so it was easier just to get rid of what I was doing as vice president and then it was easier just to say we don't really need you here anymore.

Andy Bienstock: We had protestors out front, people banging bongo drums. We had regrettably activists trying to disrupt the membership campaign. It was pretty crazy but one of the things you know in radio and it’s especially true in public radio–it’s about content more than personality in public radio and we weren't changing the content of what we were doing. We were changing a major voice in what we did, and we were sort of changing his way of looking at content, and that was going to hurt. You know, Marc is a vital voice in Baltimore, and a tremendous personality, and probably one of the greatest idea people I've ever been around. He comes up with ideas in his sleep, just brilliant. Brilliant that way. I miss Marc, and Marc did a good job. It might have been time for him to leave. He's certainly done really well on his own and gone out and done great things. And I think it was important for the station to get its own identity as WYPR and not any one's place.

Maria Broom: Dr. Jason Loviglio is Associate Professor of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He’s written about this period in WYPR’s history and says there was intense public reaction to Marc Steiner leaving WYPR’s airwaves.

Dr. Jason Loviglio: Marc Steiner was fired on a Friday. The following Wednesday, the community advisory board for WYPR called an open meeting, a kind of town hall, at a large auditorium space at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Hundreds of people gathered. I didn't interview them all but the unanimous sentiment seemed to be real outrage at the firing, and a real sense of confusion about what it meant for the future of the station. What struck me the most was that you had hundreds of Baltimoreans physically together, hundreds sharing stories at an open mic, one after the other about the ways that the station and in particular Marc’s show had framed their lives in Baltimore and that there was a tremendous amount of emotional gratification from sharing in real time, together in community, what it means to be part of a community. And so for someone who studies radio, having the invisible audience, visible, tangible, palpable, right there was remarkable. But I think everyone in the room felt it, that there was this opportunity to reflect on the importance of radio, the importance of radio that is local, the importance of radio that is local and community-focused. One of the most common refrains I heard that evening was, ‘it's not about Marc,’ which was to say that they understood themselves to be part of a community drawn together through a certain kind of programming and drawn together through a particular idea of what public institutions owe to their communities. And to the extent that Steiners’ show imperfectly, but often, served that understanding of community, it was worth fighting for.

Marc Steiner:And it was worth it, I mean, look, we created something really really wonderful for this community and I think–that to me–was really important. Am I happy how things turned out for me? No. Am I happy how the station turned out for this community? Yes. And people have done brilliant and remarkable work at that place. Some of the small programs that we began, some of the news department we started are really important parts of the listening world for the state and all that’s really important. So no, I wouldn’t–I wouldn’t have changed anything, perhaps I would’ve fought this thing more strategically when I was in the midst of it.

Andy Bienstock: We brought in another host for the midday show after a small period. And we brought in Dan Rodricks and Dan made it his own very, very quickly.

[Clip of Midday with Dan Rodricks] Opens with theme music. Dan Rodricks: I’m Dan Rodricks and this is Midday. Clip ends with music.

Andy Bienstock: Things settled down. I mean, people, if people are only listening to you, for one person being there, you've got a problem. You know, it's like when Howard Stern left, people used to listen, just for Howard Stern. People love Marc, and people loved Marc, and they loved Marc's show. But as long as we were doing good radio, people would stay with us. And they did.

Dr. Jason Lovigilio: One of the nice things that persists on WYPR today partly as a result of the fact that some of the folks who produced The Marc Steiner Show are now making their own shows, podcasts and broadcasts on WYPR and because of all the other, more recent talent that has been drawn to the station, and part of national transformations in strategy and in access to public media, has been that there's just been this Cambrian explosion of voices and diverse perspectives.

Bob White: We were certainly blessed with a lot of good radio people, especially those from the production and hosting side of life. And there was a lot of respect for what we were doing from our colleagues and other stations locally. Plus, the listenership was there and we knew that. And these people became, you know, avid listeners of this radio station, and we are blessed to have them.

Gary Levine: What Tony and Marc and this whole team put together were local journalists, local reporting. You know, it’s one thing to have national programming but as we all know local news is diminishing even more now today but back then there weren’t too many radio stations doing local news. It was radio, it was newspaper and television. But as far as public broadcasting, as far as our listeners were concerned, they weren’t getting really good local reporting and that’s where Tony and Marc began to build this station.

Tony Brandon:By and large the radio station did exactly what we said it was going to do, it was going to be a service to Baltimore, to carry out a mission of education and enlightenment of people, to be truthful and journalistically pure. I think we accomplished a lot of that. We had some bumps in the road along the way like any small business does but we did OK.

Maria Broom: You’ve been listening to Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey from Your Public Studios. I’m Maria Broom.

On the next episode, we’ll hear how stations covered the death of Freddie Gray and The Uprising. Plus, we’ll explore how digital technology helped stations grow their audiences.

Production and support for this podcast and WYPR’s 20th Anniversary was brought to you in part by the PNC Bank.

Andy Bienstock is WYPR’s Vice President and Program Director. Michele Williams is the Director of Underwriting.

You can learn more about the podcast at wypr.org/wavelength.

New episodes of Wavelength will be released on the last Wednesday of the month. Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The 1980s and 1990s were a time when many local radio stations were coming into their own. Building, reorganizing, working out the kinks. It was also a time when many stations changed formats. You’ll hear more about that on this episode.

Guests:

Dr. Baruti Kopano
James “Big Jim” Staton
Isisara Bey
John Wesley
Jonathan Palevsky
Andy Bienstock
Ellen Beth Levitt
Bob Benson
Jim Armstrong
Wendy Williams

Production and support for this podcast was brought to you in part by PNC Bank.

Transcript

MUSIC: "Dire Ghost" by Blue Dot Sessions.

MARIA BROOM: This is Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey from Your Public Studios, a monthly podcast series made possible by PNC Bank. I’m your host Maria Broom.

The 80s and 90s were a time when many local radio stations were coming into their own…building, reorganizing, working out the kinks...It was also a time when many stations changed formats. You’ll hear more about that on today’s episode.

Last month we looked at how stations provided opportunities for emerging talent in 70s. That’s also true about WEAA in the 80s says Dr. Baruti Kopano , chair and professor of Morgan State University’s Department of Multiplatform Production. He says the ability to get hands-on experience prepared a future generation of media professionals, several of whom you may be familiar with.

DR. BARUTI KOPANO:We look at a person like an April Ryan, who most people know her as a White House correspondent. An African American woman who was my classmate, we were classmates at Morgan. Literally we sat in the same classes together. She spent time at WEAA. We look at a person we can find in the D.C. market now on air–that’s been on the air for many years–Earl Fisher. Earl Fisher was on WEAA when I was at WEAA. A lot of people don’t know this but the playwright and filmmaker Dave Talbert also had a stint at WEAA. WEAA recognized that we want to train our folks to go out all over the world. And I just really want to emphasize that historic role and how important it was to providing us quite frankly with some of the most important media players even today. It was not uncommon for commercial program directors, mostly program directors, but commercial radio station program directors to tune into WEAA to find out who's the next person that’s ready out of that station.

BROOM: As Dr. Kopano mentioned, he was a Morgan State University student and in 1985, he got his shot to go on the air.

KOPANO: WEAA announced that it was having quote on quote try-outs. This was my first semester at Morgan. And I guess back in the day they just put up flyers or something along those lines before all the digital stuff was here, that’s what we did. And indeed I went out to the audition and these were all undergraduate students and I knew most of the folks who were there. And a few of us were offered positions and I was blessed to be one of those who was offered a position on-air, immediately. I was an on-air announcer, I had a show, it was one day a week. It was called The Last Radio Show from 7 PM until midnight. And it was an eclectic taste of music, but it was mostly music-based, jazz-based, format. And then also I was the producer of some special content based on some of my interests. So one of the things I did was produce a radio feature, a long form radio feature, a documentary on Malcom X. And I was a board op for the Left Bank Jazz Society along with other folks. I wasn’t the only one, there were many of us who board opped. The Left Bank Jazz Society was one of the most famous jazz organizations on the East Coast and they were really committed to preserving the music and culture of jazz. So WEAA extended an opportunity to The Left Bank Jazz Society members to come in and not just play the music but to talk about the music. Sometimes to invite those folks who actually were producing the music on, into the studio, on the phone to talk about. So it was no thing for us to see a Gary Bartz to come in or to call in and talk about what was happening in the jazz scene. The Grio we called her, the incredible storyteller Marie Carter Smith, I had the privilege of being a board operator for one of her shows. A spellbinding opportunity to listen and grow.

BROOM: WEAA listeners could also tune in during the 80s to hear James “Big Jim” Staton play the blues and “oldies” on Blues in the Night and Turning Back the Hands of Time. “Big Jim” tells the story of how he got his first break at the station in 1985.

JAMES “BIG JIM” STATON: I was working at the Arch Social one night and this lady walked up to me, she came up on stage and she said “How would you like to go to work for WEAA?” And I thought ‘Lord, this woman has had too much to drink.’ [Laughs] And I said “OK.” And she said “Well, we can’t afford to pay you any money, we don’t have any money, but I’m asking you if you would volunteer. So I said “Sure.” I just wanted to get people to hear me and what I did and everything. So I went in there Tuesday night and worked with Joe Lee and at the end of the night he said things went well. Friday night, they called me and said “My DJ can’t come in tomorrow morning so can you come in?” I said “No, I don’t think I have enough training yet.” They said “Yeah, you can do it, I know you can do it.” So I went in that Saturday morning and after the show was over, the other DJ, I don’t know, he never come back. That was my beginning. I stayed there from then on. I went on for 32 years. I was there every Saturday and later on I moved up to Thursday nights with the blues so I had a special blues show that I played and I played the blues the last hour of my Saturday morning. And of course I had to put a little gospel in there so I put a little gospel in there. But most of all this music I was playing was like oldies. I liked the oldies so I played the oldies. Starting out there with BB King and Guitar Slim, Buddy Guy, all those guys.

BROOM: Big Jim’s show ended in 2017. He says he still hears from people who say they miss it.

STATON: I really had–got joy in people coming up to me saying “Hey man you really put on a nice show and my grandparents–I remember my grandparents, my mother and father they sit around and they loved that music man and my mother still living and she just loves to listen to oldies and everything,” you know. So that was my pride and joy.

MUSIC: OC Smith, "If the World Would End Tomorrow"

STATON: I go to Double T twice a week for breakfast and people come in and say “Man I sure miss you.” I had a theme song that I go off with every morning. I would start off every morning when I go off I would go off with a song called “It’s All Over Now.” And then I would play “Big Mabel Stay As Sweet as You Are.” And then I would play OC Smith, “If the World Would End Tomorrow.”

BROOM: Isisara Bey was a host at WEAA from 1980 to 1985. Her show was called Daybreak Delights and it featured a wide range of content.

ISISARA BEY: I was the first show on the air so when I got to the station it was completely dark and I was turning everything on and I remember feeling in the dark people listening. So I started the show in the morning from 6 to 6:15 doing a guided meditation and affirmations. And then I would start with the music. And our format was music, breaks for news, and then PSAs. But the other thing I did too in the morning was I would have a couple of interviews on. I had someone come on and interview about different things around psychology: How to have difficult conversations, how to have more patience, tips on raising kids. And I also had someone come on and talk about holistic healing things that one could do at home. Either treatments you could find in your kitchen that you could use for things or herbal remedies because natural healing, metaphysics was part of my own personal avocation so I enjoyed weaving it into the show as well. We were really experimental in some ways. We were able to convey a wide range of African American musical styles from gospel to reggae to jazz to R & B. I remember playing one of the first hip hop songs when I was on the air there.

BROOM: John Wesley was working in Community Relations at WEAA in the late 80s. He remembers it as a time when the station solidified its position as a community asset.

JOHN WESLEY: One of the things that I built on was the fact that WEAA radio was the best source of informing the African American community, in particular of issues of importance that were immediate. Et cetera, et cetera. And I used that by showing that when we were doing programs on hypertension, hypertension, high blood pressure, lack of stress, poor diet, we could show from our ratings that those were some of our most listened to programs. So the role that WEAA played as a voice of the community to a population that did not trust a lot of sources of information. That piece of it alone, and then the other thing is the education piece, the education piece. I mean, an example: Jesse Jackson ran for president twice. He ran in 1984, and he ran again in 1988. When Jesse Jackson ran for president in 1988, there was also an African American sister who ran for president: Dr. Lenora Fulani. Now what we did on WEAA, and only we could do this. We actually had, and I had Jesse to call in and because nowhere had Jesse Jackson and Lenora Fulani, two African Americans running for president been together at any place in the country. So, I invited Jesse to call in to be my guest on the show. And he didn't realize that, Lenora Fulani was in the studio with me. So the first time the both of them talked to the country simultaneously was at WEAA together. So how, how does Morgan work? That’s the kind of thing that public radio can do when the community and the radio station works together.

BROOM: Over at WBJC, station leaders decided to stop carrying NPR programming and transition to an all-classical format. Longtime BJC program director Jonathan Palevsky says some listeners were not fans of that decision.

JONATHAN PALEVSKY: It was really funny because we took a lot of phone calls and a lot of people were upset. But NPR was so well served in the market. WJHU which became WYPR they were doing NPR, WETA was doing NPR, WAMU in Washington was doing NPR, so we had two Washington stations plus two Baltimore stations and we thought, you know, why don't we just go for the classical music market? And it was the general manager Kerry Smith's decision. And he had a good thought–his thought was basically look, why fight with WYPR because we were classical music, jazz, and NPR and they came on the air as classical music, jazz, and NPR. So you know, we would rather switch than fight as they say. So we decided and the reason we could do this is that he had an on air staff that had an expertise in classical music. And classical music is a very efficient and not very expensive format in contrast to NPR which is very expensive. So we decided that we would go with classical music at the time. And we became an all classical music station I think December 1, 1986 and have never looked back since.

BROOM: We’ll be back in a minute. Stay with us.

BROOM: Welcome back to Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey. I’m your host, Maria Broom. On this month’s episode, we’re looking at changes to local public radio in the 80s and 90s.

Starting in the late 80s, several stations transitioned from being student-run to having professional staff manage operations.

Andy Bienstock, Vice President and Program Director for WYPR was working at what was then WJHU in 1986. He says there were signs that the station was about to evolve into a news and talk format, which it ultimately did in 1995.

ANDY BIENSTOCK: When we went on the air in 1986, the original general manager who passed away a few years ago, a wonderful guy named Dave Cray, and his remit was to turn this into a major producer of public radio and make this into a major news studio. So when we began in 1986, we had a 6 or 7 person news team. We did a half hour newscast every night. And we had a big dish in the back because Dave brought in Bill Siemering, who is one of the resident geniuses in the public radio system, he brought in Bill Siemering to devise a documentary program which was called “Soundprint,” which we would distribute, and we were going to distribute much more than that. We were going to become a major player. That ended a few years later, there were changes at Hopkins campus, budget was cut, and a lot of people were laid off, but that was the idea in 1986.

BROOM: Ellen Beth Levitt led the news department at WJHU from 1987 to 1988. She says this was a time when other local stations were reducing their news coverage.

ELLEN BETH LEVITT: When Johns Hopkins University had a budget deficit and they made a significant cut to WJHU, so the decision was made to eliminate the news department, and that’s why I left. But while being there, it was really fantastic. We had a six person news team with people who specialized in different areas, such as the arts, and we had a great opportunity to tell some really good stories. We had a half hour block every afternoon, five days a week from 4:30-5:00 and so we had a great opportunity to tell some local news stories as well as cut-ins during “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.”

BROOM: Longtime radio personality Bob Benson first came to Baltimore in 1950. One of his first stints in radio was as a volunteer announcer at WBJC. He was a weekend host in the mid 1990s at WJHU and remembers his time as a period of experimentation.

BOB BENSON: Nobody ever really told me what to do, what music to play, I could play whatever I wanted, and I did, and I played a lot of unusual music and sometimes historic recordings and stuff like that. I think that most people who really enjoy music enjoyed listening to what I did because it was so different from what is usually done on public radio. You know, Beethoven's symphonies and Brahm’s and stuff like that, not that I have anything against them, I played them on occasion, but I did unusual things. People seemed to like it, and we raised a lot of money during their fundraisers and all that. And then JHU became, they decided to go all news. So then I was out there, but I did have a number of very happy years with WJHU.

BROOM: As stations began to hire professional staff, volunteers were heard on the air less and less. Towson State University owned-WCVT became professional in 1988. Jim Armstrong, who was on staff at WCVT, WBJC, and several other stations, reflects on the loss of volunteer opportunities.

JIM ARMSTRONG: At the beginning, both public and commercial radio stations leaned on volunteers, one to keep their costs down. You know, free labor and cheap help, that kind of stuff. But yeah, there weren’t a lot of broadcasting schools around, so, you know, it was a lot of on the job training. Insurance companies and lawyers and, you know, FCC rules and regulations and, and those sorts of things came on and that kind of knocked volunteer opportunities back as far as on-air is concerned. And as more of the upper management, that is especially at universities, began to understand what a marketing tool the radio station could be, began taking it over. You will find a lot of radio stations, [W]YPR included, that were started at universities who then began to understand it was a marketing thing, and you know, we got to get the right people in, we can't use students because they don't know what they're doing. You know, they might play something that upsets people. And so the opportunities for students began to dwindle, the opportunity for volunteers on-air began to dwindle.

BROOM: In 1991, WCVT became WTMD. Jim was TMD’s program director at the time and tells the story…

ARMSTRONG: Not only did we change call letters, we changed programming. And that was a whole ‘nother thing, you know, because the students used to run the radio station and the university, it caused an issue that brought the, the university under the FCC’s radar. And that was what prompted the switch to hire a program director and change the format. There’s still some people around who hate my guts because I changed the format at the station. When they let me change the programming when we switched from [W]CVT to [W]TMD, and at the time, it was a lot of, it was a rock station pretty much. In fact, their slogan was “From Bach to Rock” because they had, they had rock and roll programs, they had classical music programs. A lot of the early public radio stations had, even [W]BJC had weekend programs that were designed for ethnic programming. So there was an Irish show, there was a polka show, there was a folk music show, and [W]TMD also had those shows on as well. Some of those shows were more popular than the normal programming through the week. And so when I changed the programming, the weekday programming from rock and roll, where every student did whatever they wanted to do, you know, didn’t always understand ramifications for some things. Like there was one student who was taking music from YouTube and playing it on the air, and we got a cease and desist order from that. So we decided to change the format through the week to a contemporary jazz format. We call it the smooth jazz format and named it “The Breeze.” It was, it was great. It was the first smooth jazz station in the market because Morgan [State University] was on at the time, but they were doing more traditional jazz. And that was great for as long as it lasted, when we changed formats to a Triple A format, because that's what public radio was moving towards at the time.

BROOM: In 1990, Wendy Williams—not the radio and television gossip host—started as WEAA’s development director and became acting General Manager in 1992. She says the station grew during the early 90s.

WENDY WILLIAMS: Now at that time, I would say we had about 5 staff, and then I began to bring on staff because as I learned about public radio, I decided we needed to expand. So I brought in a marketing director, we had a membership director when I was there, we had a news director of course, because of the rich, you know, history of news there at WEAA. So we were able to really begin staffing the station. And so what I decided is that we want to be, we want to show the university, at that time, that we’re able to be funded, you know, a little bit independently. Of course we had a budget that came from the state of Maryland. But like other public stations, we were also dependent on membership support. So my goal was to really create a vibrant and strong membership department, and I also wanted to go along with that and create an underwriting department because I had learned that you could actually go out and sell underwriting in public radio. Who knew?! So I was the first person to establish that, the first general manager to establish underwriting and corporate support at WEAA. And it turned out to be an untapped mine that was really on the verge of really, really blossoming when I was there.

BROOM: As I sit here recording this in a studio with all digital components, I’d like us to take a minute to explore the vastly-different technology and resources available during the 80s and 90s. We’ll hear from Wendy Williams, Ellen Beth Levitt, and then Jonathan Palevsky.

WILLIAMS: This was at a time where there wasno computers or databases to capture member data on. We kept everybody’s information on a card file in a box. So everything was pretty much done by paper, I mean, you know, and nothing was automated at that time, everything was live at that time.

LEVITT: When I started there, we were using typewriters, of course, to type out our news stories. The general manager came into my office shorty after I started there and he said, “We’re going all computer.” It was sort of like learning how to fly the plane while you are flying ,if you know what I mean.

PALEVSKY: When I came we were playing LPs still. When I came, cassettes were still around, and we even had this vacuum machine to clean LPs which was hilarious. You would spray water all over the LP and then this machine would suck it all up, I mean, it was insane. And CDs then came in and CDs were the most exciting thing in the world. And when we moved here, we were burning our own CDs for interviews and putting them on CD, and now everything, everything is on the computer. Now the computer is the device. Oh my gosh, oh, and editing editing tape with razor blades, which I did for years and years and years and I'm sure you did too. I never cut myself, amazingly enough. I mean, editing tape with razor blades and grease pencils, and and I will say you really learn how to edit ,and then editing on computer was such a ,such a breeze and so much faster and you could do so much more and you didn't have pieces of tape hanging around the studio everywhere. It changed radically. Incredible changes in audio.

MUSIC: "Dire Ghost" by Blue Dot Sessions.

BROOM: We’ll discuss more changes to public radio in the early 2000s on our next episode. You’ve been listening to Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey from Your Public Studios. I’m Maria Broom.

Production and support for this podcast and WYPR’s 20th Anniversary was brought to you in part by the PNC Bank.

Andy Bienstock is WYPR’s Vice President and Program Director. Michele Williams is the Director of Underwriting.

You can learn more about the podcast at wypr.org/wavelength.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

View Details

WBJC, WCVT, WEAA, and WJHU have a lot in common: the era in which they were founded, voices that were heard on more than one frequency, and all of their roots run back to local academic institutions. On this episode of Wavelength: the evolution of student stations in the 1970s.

Guests and voices heard in this episode:

Lamont Germany

Steve Curran

Sandi Mallory

Clint Coleman

Jud French

Maria Broom

Edmund Newman

Dr. Jason Loviglio

John Patti

Jim Armstrong

Stu Lumsden

Isisara Bey

Paul Hartman

Ward Kemp

Thank you to John Patti, Joe Evelius, Steve Curran and Stu Lumsden for sharing airchecks with us for this episode.

Correction: John Patti is incorrectly cited as the voice of the WBJC sign-on at the 4:24 mark. If you recognize the voice, please let us know by emailing podcasts@wypr.org.

Transcript

Lamont Germany, WEAA: When I finally got to college, there was a radio station being born on campus so I, along with a lot of other students at the time, walked in the door and asked ‘What do I need to do?’

Steve Curran, WCVT: Everyday was an adventure. Every day was fun. Everyday was a challenge. Every day the fire bell rang, so to speak. You know, there was an emergency of some kind. But it was always fun, and it was always exciting.

Sandi Mallory, WEAA: You know what, it was the type of station that you felt like ‘I make a difference of what I’m doing.’

Clint Coleman, WBJC: I call it a spawning ground for really talented people. I wasn’t one of them (laughs) but I’d like to think that I trained quite a few.

Jud French, WJHU: You know, I felt like we were leaving a lasting legacy to the community.

Maria Broom, host: This is Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey from Your Public Studios, a monthly podcast series made possible by PNC Bank. I’m your host Maria Broom.

Over six episodes, you’ll learn the origin stories of WYPR, WTMD, WEAA and WBJC, and hear how they became trusted sources for news, music, the arts, and more. Plus, we’ll look at what’s next for local public radio.

As you’ll discover over the course of this series, these stations have a lot in common: the era in which they were founded, voices that were heard on more than one frequency, and evolutions in programming and call letters. And all of their roots run back to local academic institutions.

Dr. Jason Loviglio, Associate Professor of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, stresses the importance of college radio.

Dr. Jason Loviglio: College radio is such an important story, and it’s not as well told as it should be. It was such an important proving ground for so many people who’ve gone on to become journalists on-air, personalities, talent, in radio, television, and other media. College radio had the virtue of being accessible. A place to experiment. But it also had the great fortune of being able to invent formats that the current commercial and public landscape of radio wasn’t doing justice to. It just simply wasn’t enough new music, cutting-edge music being played on the air in most metropolitan areas. So not only were students learning on the job how to be real media professionals, but they were teaching the industry something and I think we may be in a similar moment with podcasting where a group of dedicated amateurs have helped to create something that has now been discovered by large corporate interests to be remarkably popular and incredibly valuable.

Maria Broom: We’ll hear more from Dr. Loviglio later in this episode and from station employees from the 70s who are going to tell the story of local college radio.

But first, let’s take it back to 1951.

‘Too Young’ by Nat King Cole was at the top of the charts. I Love Lucy was on many Americans’ television sets. The Korean War was in the news. And WBJC hit the airwaves. It broadcast classical music and arts programming from the campus of Baltimore Junior College, now Baltimore City Community College.

Before it landed at 91.5 on the FM dial, WBJC could be found on 88.1. Fast-forward to the early 70s and WBJC broadcasts a diverse mix of music and news. Here’s audio of a sign-on by then-host John Patti.

John Patti: This is public radio WJBC FM in Baltimore, Maryland operating on an assigned carrier frequency of 91.5 MHZ, FM channel 218 with an effective radiated power of 17,500 watts as authorized by the Federal Communications Commission. Affiliated with ABC and the National Public Radio network, our studios and transmitter are located on the campus of the Community College of Baltimore.

Maria Broom: Let’s turn the story over to two former WBJC employees: First, host Jim Armstrong and then, Director of News and Public Affairs Clint Coleman.

Jim Armstrong: I’m Jim Armstrong. I was formerly at WBJC, WCBM, KBIA in Columbia, Missouri, and WTMD here in Towson. Some friends of mine were part of the radio station WBJC then, and they had been on and operating and I was going to school at Baltimore Junior College. At that time, the school had a radio and television curriculum, so I started to get involved with them and hanging out there and at their radio station, which was a full studio but only broadcast to campus. And as I, you know, began volunteering at BJC–this was back in 1972. Back in those days, there were only a couple of paid staff. Most of us were student volunteers. And so one day somebody didn't show up because we were doing a program in the afternoon called Jazz in Stereo. And Brian McDonald, who was the program director at the time, looked at me, as you know, I'm standing around and he said, ‘Alright, you're going to do the show.” And I’m like “Wait, wait, what?” And that's how I got started.

Clint Coleman: Everybody worked. (laughs) Everybody worked. Everybody had a show.

[Soundbite of Clint Coleman WBJC aircheck.] Clint Coleman: This is WBJC, Baltimore. The radio station of the Community College of Baltimore.

I was not familiar with public radio when I got that job but I got familiar very quickly and fell in love. (laughs)

The learning curve was about doing more than just five minute newcasts. Which in commercial radio is about all you get. But in public radio you’re looking at a half hour newcast, you’re looking at a news, music and information program which is where I started there, and I had three hours to fill. (Laughs) and then they extended it to four hours. And I was doing interviews. For example, I got bombarded by the Iranian students who were enrolled at the community college. They hit me every other day with the kinds of atrocities committed by the Shah of Iran on the people of Iran. Years later, you find out really vividly in color what kinds of atrocities he in fact was committing and so you said, “Boy, I’m kinda glad I gave them that platform to express their views.”

Maria Broom: Many listeners will be familiar with music station WTMD. But before there was WTMD, there was WCVT. And before that, there was WVTS, a carrier current AM station which began operations in 1972 from the campus of then-Towson State College.

You’ll hear the phrase ‘carrier current’ several times in this episode. In a carrier current transmission, electrical wiring carries a low-power radio frequency signal which is then transmitted along electrical conductors. The transmission is picked up by receivers which are connected to the conductors or are placed nearby. Radios within a short distance pick up on the signal.

OK, now back to the story.

Steve Curran was music and program director at WVTS in 1974 when station staff and college administrators put together an FCC application to get an FM license.

Steve Curran: We went and met with our broadcast attorneys in their beautiful marble offices in downtown D.C. and walked through this application. And it was fascinating because I was certainly more on the creative side but–I had to buy a suit to go to this meeting–and we sat with these broadcast attorneys and they walked us through how we had to apply for this license and they did it for next to nothing which was amazing. And John McCarren was our faculty advisor at the time, and everybody has someone in their lives, in their student lives, that touched them or opened the door for them, and I think John McCarren opened more doors for more people that went on to do some amazing things because of his teaching method which was really to make sure that you understood the law, that you understood what a 3rd class license was, that you understood what you can and can’t say on the radio, and certain things about programming and timing, and 30 seconds and 60 seconds and all the increments that come with understanding how broadcasting works, but then aside from that, John just had a good soul, you know? He had that rare ability to really be able to step back and let us do what we did, and the truth is we had no idea what we were doing.

Maria Broom: But they knew enough because in 1975, the FCC license was approved. WVTS became WCVT, “The Communications Voice of Towson” and Steve became the General Manager. The station went on the air in 1976.

Steve Curran: WJZ had just gotten the very first satellite remote truck, and they went live to us when we signed the station on. Jerry Turner introduced us who was the main news anchor at the time, and it was really exciting because the president of the university, and he and I sort of held hands if you will and flipped the switch together at the same time on the air. And it was really fun and fantastic.

Maria Broom: Here’s what Steve sounded like on-air in the 70s.

[Soundbite of WCVT break with Steve Curran] Steve Curran: That’s music from Phlorescent Leech and Eddie who are two former Turtles and members of Frank Zappa’s group, a tune off their first solo album, “Feel Older Now.” Before that Jim Price, and “You Gotta Move.” Manfred Mann in about four minutes with “Meat'' from their first album, and we started everything off with David Bowie from the album Changes and Space Oddity. 10 before 10. You’re listening to WCVT FM in Towson. My name is Steve Curran. I’m with you till 1 o’clock. And a few messages here for you that a magic show for children six to eleven years of age will be held at the Pikesville Branch of the Baltimore Public Library at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 21st. It will be given by a professional musician and perhaps even a buzz. The professional magician’s name is Earl Canal and his company.

Maria Broom: But the station wasn’t done with the FCC yet. Stu Lumsden, who hosted a jazz show as a student, explains a rooftop test that WCVT aced.

Stu Lumdsen: We had been granted a license, but we were required to show proof that we wouldn’t be interfering. I think it was Steve, myself, maybe even John Fisher, John McCarron waltzed up to the top of the residence tower I think it was called, on the roof with a television of the day like a 19 inch television set and tuned to the stations nearest to where the FM band lies and I can’t remember, I used to know it by heart, and then looked to see, we were standing right under the tower so if it was going to be interference, it would be there. And then noted some small interference and then cut a piece of wire to one quarter wavelength of the 89.7 MHZ wave and attached it to the antenna leads on the television set and the interference went away. And then we all nodded, John had a big smile on his face and we left. (laughs)

Maria Broom: Dr. Jason Loviglio, Associate Professor of Media and Communication Studies at UMBC, says that securing FCC licensing was only one of the challenges that college station leaders faced.

Dr. Jason Loviglio: They had to assume a certain amount of legal risk for being in charge of content going out over FCC-regulated airwaves. They had to also navigate any number of complicated relationships with publishing and broadcast rights and music publishing and copyright interests, and so it was a proving ground for so many of the kinds of skills that would become important for media professionals.

Maria Broom: Remember how I said in the beginning that these stations have shared connections? Well in the early 70s, Towson State College and then-Morgan State College planned to share a radio station. But in 1977, Morgan State University got its own signal, WEAA, which stands for–

Lamont Germany: –We Educate African Americans.

Maria Broom: For Lamont Germany, a WEAA student volunteer at the time, the first on-air broadcast was one he’ll never forget, for a number of reasons.

Lamont Germany: They came on the air coincidentally on my birthday. It was January 10, 1977 when the station first came on the air and there was an excitement that was brewing all throughout the radio station, really all throughout the campus, they were waiting for the call from the FCC for about 2 or 3 days, giving them clearance to finally turn on the switch and go on the air. And the very moment the station went on the air, I was in the newsroom, preparing a newscast, and then-program director, now Congressman Kweisi Mfume was the first voice to actually go on the air and speak and I just remember the whole station stopped, everybody stopped what they were doing, watching Kweisi say the first words on WEAA created what for us was a path for many of us to pursue our media dreams.

I grew up in a radio family. My dad was a DJ in my hometown, Pittsburgh, and I wanted to just grow up being my father, doing what my dad did, so I would pretend to be on the radio with my tape recorder and when I finally got to college, there was a radio station being born on campus so I, and like a lot of other students at the time, walked in the door and asked “What do I need to do?” I started out as a student volunteer in the news department, eventually transitioned to the sports side of things.

Maria Broom: Sandi Mallory worked at WEAA during its first year on the air. She was tapped by radio legend and WEAA news director Larry Dean to work in the news department, but that’s not where she stayed.

Sandi Mallory: I came in, set up a tape for him, did a read out and he said “I’m going to hire you. I’m going to bring you on board as a news director.” So did I become the news director? No. Because Kweisi hired me to work on the air. He said “I’m sorry but if you work on the air in news, you’re going to have to come off the air in music.” I said ‘Hmm..Do I really want to come off the air in music? I don’t think so.” So I went and I told Larry, I said “I’m sorry. I’m going to go in the music dept with Kweisi Mfume and his group” and that’s how I started in music. And I worked on weekends, my show was called Weekend Sunshine.

Maria Broom: You’ve likely noticed that the majority of the voices you’ve heard so far have been those of men. Sandi said she arrived at WEAA after being turned down by other stations who were reluctant to put women on the air.

Sandi Mallory: Cause I went around, took my little tape and my little resume to all the stations that were available at that time. They said, “There’s nothing available for you here.” And that’s what it boiled down to. “There’s nothing available for you here. We don’t have any room for any women on the air.” There was very few women on the air at the time, maybe one or two at different stations. And I started at WEAA along with Alfrie Williams. She became the morning show host, and I became the evening show host.

Maria Broom: Isisara Bey was a WEAA morning show host from 1980 to 1985. She started as a volunteer in 1979 and was one of a few women at the station.

Isisara Bey: I didn’t really realize or remember that there weren't any other, for a couple of years, female on-air personalities at our station doing what I was doing. There were some women in the news department. And I was familiar with another woman who was at another station, not a public radio station in Baltimore, but I think because I was so enthralled with radio itself and the possibilities that I didn’t notice the gender issues.

Maria Broom: WJHU DJ Edmund Newman, who you’ll hear more from later in this episode, says while there were women on WJHU’s airwaves in the late 70s, the on-air staff was reflective of the Hopkins campus community.

Edmund Newman: There were a limited number of women on the campus at the time, I guess is the best way to put it. But our community members were mostly male and from people who were interested in playing sort of really alternative music at the time.

Maria Broom: Of course there were women working in Baltimore radio in the 70s.

There was Debyii Sababu, who was a morning show host at WEAA in 1977. There was Elane Stein, whose career spanned multiple decades, with stops on the AM dial at WBAL and WCBM. There was Jean Ross at V-103. And many other women working on-air and behind the scenes.

Here’s WJHU’s Edmund Newmund again, and WJHU Engineer and General Manager Jud French, who you’ll hear more from after the break.

Edmund Newmund: One of the interesting things that the university did insist upon was that we have someone to sort of watch over us so there was a woman, Irene Seamus, she was hired as sort of a secretary, kind of became a den mother to us all. She had worked at various radio stations and had worked at various radio stations around Baltimore and so had radio experience and somehow had the right attitude to deal with a bunch of crazy students who would come in and leave at a moment's notice and she helped us figure out what we were doing.

Jud French: I mean, if a student missed their on-air spot, she would jump in and take over the on-air spot. She did it all. The station program director was a woman, at the time. I was just sort of conscious of the fact that I had Irene in the office and Jody Patilla at my right hand.

Maria Broom: More on WJHU’s story and the evolution of local radio in a moment. Stay with us.

Maria Broom: Welcome back to Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey. I’m your host, Maria Broom. On this episode we’ve been focusing on the evolution of student stations in the 70s.

Johns Hopkins University-owned radio station WJHU, which is WYPR’s predecessor, first went on air in the 40s. And since then, there have been numerous iterations of the station. Paul Hartman, whose voice and name you may recognize from the WTMD show Detour, was a student in 1973 and remembers the first time he came across carrier current WJHU.

Paul Hartman: I lived in the dorms and I was taking my laundry to the laundry room, which is in the basement of the other dorm building. There were two dorms at the time, and there's a radio station down there. Oh, that's cool. All right. So, you know, obviously it was high priority because it's right next to the laundry. But I thought it was interesting and wanted to find out more about it. And I found that my student advisor, who was an upperclassman, had a show on WJHU at the time. And so he showed me how it all worked, and I thought, ‘Well, that might be fun to do, I like music.’ So it was all free-form. You could do whatever you want. And I had a whole bunch of LPs. That's what we used vinyl there and thought, ‘Well, you know, it's fun to share.’ It's like making a giant mixtape that people could listen to over the air. Now, of course, at that time, WJHU was a carrier current AM station. You could only hear it in the two dorm buildings. And occasionally across Charles Street in the apartment buildings there if you cranked up the power a lot but it had to be cranked back down when someone in the apartments complained that it was interfering with their favorite gospel station. Reception was spotty so you always tell people, ‘Well, if you can't get WJHU, move your radio closer to a light bulb’ because the AC wiring, as I understand it, was the antenna. So, you know, get it closer to the antenna. I know some people listened, but probably not a whole lot. And it depends when your show aired. If it was five or six a.m. I mean, what college student is up at that time? (laughs)

Maria Broom: Jud French arrived on Hopkins’ campus in 1976. He found a top-notch studio built by WJHU staffer Bill Gross. Jud says Bill was running the student station like a professional one but Hopkins students wanted control.

Jud French: There were a group of students, older upperclassman that said, you know, ‘This is not a student radio station. This is a guy that has been here for a long time and we think this should be a student-run radio station as a student activity and we don’t have a professional broadcasting program at Johns Hopkins and students should be able to participate to a greater degree and the community should,’ so they kind of took over the station. Put through a new constitution and reconstituted the organization and the gentleman that had been there for years and years was sort of ousted and it became a new entity but with students that were more political science science and humanities majors than they were radio station operators and so I found myself in an interesting position. And an English major ran for the position of chief engineer on the platform that he’s going to delegate everything to Jud French to do and when Jud has been with the station long enough because there was a requirement to be an officer, you had to have been there for I don’t know, six months. So when he’s been here long enough, I will step down, we’ll hold a special election and we’ll elect Jud Chief Engineer (laughs) and that’s what happened.

Maria Broom: Jud says several generations of WJHU staff organized to make the transition to FM, but it didn’t gain real traction until 1976. Jud was the chair of the FM conversion committee and student GM at that time and tells the story of how WJHU’s staff got the greenlight from Hopkins administration.

Jud French: What spurred this was the FCC had a docket item that was going to potentially eliminate 10 watt student stations or educational stations, I should say. And there was really only frequency left in the whole Baltimore crowded region and that was 88.1. So in January of ‘77, we had an initial meeting with Dr. Muller, the president, and came in with a two step proposal which was, we needed to create a 10 watt station right away to get the frequency and then later we needed to transition to a higher power. As it turns out, there was another FCC docket requiring higher power and eliminating the 10 watt stations as I said and so the president said ‘Let’s give it a shot.’ He asked for a cost and space estimate proposal and we met with him I think it was on a Friday and he wanted to meet with the management team on Monday, so my first all nighters at Johns Hopkins were not academic, they were producing a multi-page cost and space proposal with layouts and equipment lists and costs, which got delivered on Monday. And we got back a negative response. So I requested another meeting with Dr. Meuller and we met on April 11 and explained to him the urgency and showed him a consultant letter from someone we engaged and so I also came in with an alternative funding proposal which was less aggressive and had a couple of options and he accepted one for $15,000 worth of funding so that started a whole physical conversion of the station and transition to FM broadcasting. There are all sorts of fun stories, trying to get the application done and get it to the FCC. As students are want to be, we were at the very, very last minute for the deadline to get in the door for the FCC. We had a careening car drive through Washington D.C. down to the FCC, put a guy out on the corner at a phone to call the FCC and tell them we were coming, and then drove up to the door and I ran out and ran into the FCC and slid the application in at the 11th hour and 59th minute. (laughs)

[Soundbite of BeerNuts broadcast] And now for a special classical presentation from WJHU Baltimore. A live recording of Schubert’s “Symphony No. 8 in B Minor” as conducted by Peter Maag, earlier this spring in the newly-completed steelworkers hall in Waukegan, Illinois. (Murmuring) Good evening, this is Wolfgang de Pesimo speaking to you direct from scenic Waukegan, Illinois. Nestled among the rolling corn fields and hog troughs in the heartburn of the great american midwest. The hall in which I sit is literally buzzing with the frenzied excitement of nearly 5,000 expected music lovers. The great and the small. The rich and the poor. The refined and the boorish.

Maria Broom: Those were the voices of Edmund Newman and Ward Kemp performing a skit from the WJHU show BeerNuts in 1980. Edmund was a Hopkins student and DJ in the fall of 1979. That was before the station received its FM license. He said he was bitten by the radio bug early.

Edmund Newman: I grew up in Philadelphia so we would listen to University of Pennsylvania had WXPN and Temple University had RTI so I knew about radio and was interested in it and in fact, my father who was a political science professor at Temple used to do a 5-minute weekly contribution on WHYY in Philadelphia before NPR even existed. And so my favorite thing to do was to go with him when he would record his political commentary and play around in the recording studios and so that’s how I got into the radio station at Hopkins because after my first semester where I was a little unsure how my academic career was going anyway, I sort of sought out new experiences and that was the radio station. WJHU was an interesting station at Johns Hopkins because we had a lot of students but there wasn’t an on-campus theater program or arts program or acting or anything like that, so it was a radio station run by students who were interested but once you went FM you had to be on the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week by law to keep your license. And so we also had a number of community members. When we were still carrier current, I was still a classical DJ and so that was broadcast in the mornings and I was broadcasting like 9 to noon so there was probably nobody listening to me at all. (laughs)

Maria Broom: But the on-campus reach changed in April of 1979 when the station first broadcast as WJHU-FM. Jud estimates that the station’s 10-watt signal reached locations within a 6 mile radius from the campus. He says it was a triumph.

Jud French: Our team was working 24/7 on this and I forget what article it was, but I had forgotten this occurrence until I read the article and it noted that as we went on the air and signed on the air that morning in early April, ‘Jud French fell asleep under a chair in the corner of the studio.’ (laughs) Well you know that music they play in the Olympics when someone wins? Everybody was pretty darn elated.

Maria Broom: There were some recurring themes in all of the conversations we had with former staff of WEAA, WJHU, WBJC, and WCVT. A major one – how much freedom staff had in what they played on the air.

Isisara Bey: We had this mandate to explore our culture in terms of the music, spirituality, politics, sociology. The two way talk show was a way for us to engage issues that were happening in the city. Very, very exciting, very expanding. And because we were owned by an HBCU, we had much more leeway to be that cultural and that political.

Lamont Germany: We as students we almost were tripping over each other physically in the station to get opportunities to do things both on and off-air and it was exciting everyday just to show up at the radio station and engage in whatever the venture was going to be on that particular day.

Sandi Mallory: We had a chance to play any music that we wanted to play, talk to the people about what we thought was important and uh, we got a chance to do whatever it is that we thought we could do.

Jud French: At the peak I remember there were actually 241 volunteer station members. It ran around something of 100 at one point and these were people that came in from the community and were devoted to different genres of music and information and would come in and do a show, sometimes late at night.

Jim Armstrong: While I was there in the initial run, was just an on air announcer, I did a number of different shows from Jazz in Stereo to The Morning Show. That was basically easy listening music at the time. Or I'd fill in from time to time for Brian, who, you know, had sound effects and he had used to have a milkman deliver milk every morning during the show, he would bring his cow in with the cow bell and all of that. It was kind of fun. Back then, you had a lot more freedom to do things, to create characters and to make your show as interesting as you could.

Clint Coleman: They had a format that was truly alternative. Because every place on the radio dial that you didn’t find a particular kind of music: Jazz. Rock. Classical music. Opera. Show tunes. You could find all of that.

Steve Curran: It started with classical music in the morning, it was an hour of educational at like 9 o’clock to 10 o’clock and then from 10 o’clock until 7 o’clock, it was pretty much free format. You could play whatever you wanted, whatever your speciality was. I gave myself the Friday night show because I was the general manager and I could do that. I did a Motown show from 7 to midnight because I was from Detroit and that was a lot of fun. Stu Lumsden did a jazz show there 3 days, 4 days a week. Stu was fantastic. He was a big influence on my life as well.

Stu Lumsden: We got to go on the air, we got to make mistakes so long as they weren’t too illegal or too awful and try just about anything because we were very free form. Aside from the listener who called me up to tell me I shouldn’t play things that weren’t jazz on a jazz program, I could’ve played “The Good Ship Lollipop,” followed by some Bach followed by Miles Davis and there would’ve been no one at the station to tell me that that was actually wrong, maybe funny and maybe not.

Maria Broom: Another thing we heard over and over again was how passionate listeners were about what they heard on-air and the strong connection between the stations and their audience.

Sandi Mallory: We did get calls. People would call and say ‘I’m listening to you and I hear what you’re doing. I like what you’re saying and I love the stuff that you’re bringing to the community.’ I was so enchanted by the audience because I felt like the audience made such a difference for what you felt and what you could give back to them as well.

Stu Lumsden: I got you know, I got a couple of callers who would ask about something and maybe even give me a compliment on a rare occasion. And one who called me up to just labast me for playing the Tower of Power. One night I played “What is Hip?” and I just got taken to task and told ‘That’s not jazz, you can’t play that. It isn’t jazz.’ And I thought ‘Well, I kind of think the solos and the background are jazz. But yes, yes, I admit it, It’s funk and it’s all sorts of things.’

Lamont Germany: There was one time relatively early on in the stations’ existence, late 70s, early 80s when the station ran into serious financial problems. They had to launch an emergency fund drive in order to stay on the air and the situation was so acute that they couldn’t ask for pledges. They actually had to go on the air and ask for immediate funds in the right now. And they set up a couple of pilot table and booths. One at the Mondawmin Mall on the west side of town, one at the old Old Town Mall on the east side of town and also on campus where they were asking people to physically bring money to the radio station to keep the station on-air and the community responded. We had people walking in literally with jars of savings and this went on for about 5 days. And the community responded and it was enough to stabilize the station until the managers could have a more long-term structured financial plan. And that’s what distinguishes, I think, public radio from commercial radio. There’s an intimacy between you and your audience. A public station knows I am only there because of, not necessarily advertisers, I’m there because of the community to whom I am programming. And that community was there for the radio station in a big way.

Jim Armstrong: I remember we used to get, you know, people would call all the time and comment on something I said or or a song that I played, you know, you could get, you know, a phone call from somebody who said, ‘You know, that's the best song I've ever heard. I really appreciate you playing it,’ yada yada yada. And then 10 minutes later, they’d call back and say, ‘You know, I actually hate that song. You should never have played it. I'm never going to listen to you again.’ It was never about me. If you’re doing it right, it’s always about your audience and trying to reach out and touch them.

And even I've had this experience as well where, you know, somebody who's in emotional trouble, you know, will call because, you know, they're thinking about suicide or something else, you know, devastating. And they call you because, if you're doing your show right, they feel like they know you. That you're a friend and they can talk to you, when they can't talk to anybody else, they can talk to you. And that was hard. But, you know, you stayed on the phone with them, you know, went ‘Hey, listen, hang on for a second. I got to change this record.’ And you kept talking with them. Until they felt better. It can be emotionally draining to have that sort of connection with your audience, but that's why we were there.

Maria Broom: You’ve been listening to Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey from Your Public Studios. I’m Maria Broom.

Production and support for this podcast and WYPR’s 20th Anniversary was brought to you in part by the PNC Bank.

Jamyla Krempel is the executive producer of Wavelength. Anne Kramer is our producer. Katie Marquette is our audio editor. Production and engineering support by Spencer Bryant. Research and production assistance by Maddie Bristowe.

WYPR’s President and General Manager is LaFontaine E. Oliver. Andy Bienstock is the Vice President and Program Director. Michele Williams is the Director of Underwriting.

You can learn more about the podcast and see historical images and documents from the stations in this episode at wypr.org/wavelength.

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On the first episode of Wavelength: Baltimore’s Public Radio Journey, learn about the origins of radio in Baltimore. You’ll hear about a broadcast from a bedroom, a radio transmission from a train, and a station once owned by the King of Soul, James Brown.

Correction: The audio at the beginning of the episode is a recreation of KDKA's first broadcast.

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Get a preview of what you'll hear on Wavelength: Baltimore's Public Radio Journey, a six-episode limited podcast series from Your Public Studios.

Hosted by noted storyteller and actress Maria Broom, and featuring interviews and archival tape, the podcast will take listeners on a journey from public radio’s early days to now. Listeners will learn about the evolution of WYPR, WTMD, WEAA and WBJC, how the stations responded to major news stories, featured local and national musicians, and how they found their place in Baltimore’s current radio scene.

Coming February 23, with new episodes the last Wednesday of the month.

Learn more at yourpublicstudios.org

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Enjoy this sneak peek of the first 2 minutes of the podcast. Wavelength: Baltimore's Public Radio Journey premieres February 23.

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