BIG MISTAKE. Ithink.Longtime listener and I like the pop culture stuff mixed in !

This is a change for the better! The station was becoming way to focused on SPORTS!

What? No more "Late Night from Conan" or Dave's Top Ten? Highlights of my morning as I don't stay up that late! And no more Media Max? Beeee careful....

I have noticed in recent months that the morning show on WBAL has seemed to have a harder news edge with more interviews with professors and pundits and less of the "pop culture stuff". Unfortunately, Dave Durian has also shown more of a conservative side since the presidential election and I find myself listening less and less. What will become of Media Max?

Yeah! I have listened to WBAL since Bill Vanko joined the station. He is the best journalist I have ever had the pleasure of listening to on the radio. I like Dave D., Keith, Tamara, Detour Dave and the rest of the news team (Anne and Scott in particular) as well, but cannot abide listening to chatter about American Idol, and "reality" tv stuff. It sounds sometimes like Dave D. doesn't much care for that chatter either...I tune out when that comes on.

Oh, but keep Laurie Forster, The Wine Coach, she is fun.

I listen to WBAL for Ron Smith, but scratch my head over why its news operation has such a good reputation. Its newscasts are dominated by coverage of crimes and scandal and other tabloid fare. NPR does hard news. WTOP is a step below. WBAL is a police blotter.

Sounds like the right move for a guy like Beauchamp to make on his way out. The WBAL News team is among the nation's best. It's exactly what's lacking in the Baltimore market.

This should help WBAL's ratings dramatically, even if its people just checking in for 10 minutes. Let's just hope that the new management there doesn't ruin the rest of the station like they have with the station that doesn't even have a preset in my car anymore - 98 Rock.

They should dump Durian.
WTOP rules!

Hopefully Beauchanp will give Ego Ed a nice 10 year plan to keep that Giant Head above water. It's a great call by the man who should be staying in this whole Hearst mess. Way to go Suits! Keep up the remote, out of touch, work.

I stopped listening to WBAL radio when it presented one-sided, unsubstantiated, biased, and hateful "news". WTOP is a better example of what a news station should be.

WBAL has become way to conservative. But with on air personalities like Bruce Elliott and Ron Smith it is very eveident that their words are backed by emotions and not fact. They should try comedy!

WBAL has become way to conservative. But with on air personalities like Bruce Elliott and Ron Smith it is very eveident that their words are backed by emotions and not fact. They should try comedy!

great news. i love listening to wbal. it's nice to get a different point of view about obama administration then what we would receive here on the baltimore sun or any national news shows. ...
and please please please tell me that that annoying media max is gone gone gone.

I welcome the change. The news format should cover more local issues - take a guide from NPR.

BAL is only getting back to it's roots, that all Jeff.

The only time I listen to wbal is early in the morning when Dr Dean O'dell comes on. I don't like their right wing leaning.Dorian can stay home and sleep in the bed he always advertises.Can't stand Bruce Elliot and Ron Smith. They should be with Fox.

If only Baltimore had a station like WTOP. WBAL has become a poor man's FOX outlet with its far right point of view. ...

I don't know. I'm always twisting that radio dial looking for something I've never found. I wish WCBM would shape up a little. Some of their stuff is so goofy it's almost good.

Do any of these posters actually listen to WBAL? I guess they think Ron Smith was for the war in Iraq too. Yesterday he spoke of how a certain fox commentator went too far...Pay attention folks.

Biggest complaint I have is getting a weather report every 10 minutes. I realize this is Baltimore, but our weather doesn't change that quickly. I like Dave in the morning.

I never change my AM dial - I listen to WBAL for the news and talk in the mornings exclusively. Dave and his Team work well together and keep the morning moving. Please DON'T completely eliminate the lighter stuff, like wine coach, funny news stories, media max, etc. That's news, too, and we need it to break up the harder stuff.

Time to bring in more female voices and perspectives on the news. WBAL and WCBM still have the "old white guys" sound to it, even though women make up a good portion of the listening audience. Women have minds & jobs, and also earn a living so they also care about economic and political issues not just recipes and baby care stories.

Time to bring in more female voices and perspectives on the news. WBAL and WCBM still have the "old white guys" sound to it, even though women make up a good portion of the listening audience. Women have minds & jobs, and also earn a living so they also care about economic and political issues not just recipes and baby care stories.

WBAL radio has gone straight down the tiolet.............It started when Allen Prell left....................cmon.....admit it......its true.

It's a shame that BAL can't be more like TOP. I live near the PA line and I would rather listen to a "static-y" TOP in DC than BAL. BAL is just too focused on its one sided bias; news is just something they use to break up the bleak monotony of their sour opinions. Let's take this a step further: get rid of WronG Smith. For someone who makes a living by commenting on Baltimore/MD, I find it kind of funny that he chooses to live up in Shrewsbury, PA. I applaud BAL for getting rid of Chip "I THINK I'm Really Funny" Franklin, but unless BAL drops the bias talk, I will continue to listen to TOP. For radio, TOP is the only news choice in the Balto-DC region. BAL isn't even an option right now. I would stop listening to radio before I tune to WBAL. And for you people that like the "light stuff," you have Twitter, FaceBook and YouTube for those totally unimportant "news" events.

I'm glad to hear about the change to "more news" in the morning. The pop culture crap has caused me to flip stations more than once. Durian will be good with this format and I think Tamara should stay with the traffic updates. She's great with that as well and I tune in for those updates morethan any other reason.

I think BAL is a good example of why a return to the fairness doctrine is needed- it shills for the republican party and consists of unrelenting screaming and hate talk hosts boosting conservatism (if that's what you want to call it- like against global warming)and downing Obama.I think its advertisers ought to consider the Glenn Beck story. It is not a radio station for Baltimore and I often wonder who set them on this course- they seem like puppets and I wonder are they miserable peoople themselves to be so constantly negative. I was afraid they would actually celebrate Ted Kennedy's death- it's that bad.

Wait a minute- to show you that I am NOT a negative guy- I will give them this- they are the best station for school and other closings in a snow storm. Of course, due to global warmikng, we don't have snow that much any more!

BIG MISTAKE... I listen to more news than most people I know. I can hear,see & read all the news that I need or want. Radio should entertain as well as inform. Dave Durian's morning show has a perfect mix. I find his interviews and content choices very intresting and entertaining. We all walk around every day with a very heavy mental load of negative news of things going wrong around the world. I believe that there is room for a lighter side as well as the news.

Great Idea getting rid of the "Dancing with the Stars" garbage. I am a longtime listener and was constantly turning it off when that stuff came on. Also, please bring back Rush!!! C4 and Elliker are weak and Elliker's topics are often really boring and she beats them to death. I have to change to listen to Rush every day. Thanks for listening.

Hi Mark, Thanks for your comments. I have a new post up and a story online about the change tomorrow morning. Please take a look if you haven't already seen it. Thanks. Z

A return to the fairness doctrine? Give me a break. So much for free speech. Can't have conservatives messing things up the Socialist agenda by pointing out the fallacies in their thinking. Thank God for Conservative radio or there wouldn't even be a discussion. Well at least until after everything was even more messed up then it already is. By the way I blame both parties.

The new morning show is a huge dissapointment. The best asset WBAL has is Dave Durian, and he is relegated to introducing commercials and reading the news. Count me as an ex-listener if the format continues

WTOP has its bias, too. At least WBAL never hid its political perspective. I listen to both stations on my way to my downtown Washington DC office from Baltimore and what WTOP purports to be " news" is sometimes the viewpoint of the station couched in commentary. WBAL now has to compete with "national" news stations and will lose its local flavor. Too bad, I say.

It will be nice to not hear about the reality tv shows - who cares??? The tv news stations would do better not mentioning that stuff eiethe - as I said, who cares??? I will welcome hearing more news and less fluff. That media max is just plain annoying with that voice....uggghhhh - something to really make you want t change the channel. I will miss hearing at least a short update on the Ravens though...don't care much about the O's these days.

I listen to BAL every day and really find the new format really boring. I do agree that the dancing with the starts and american idol pieces were just too soft and uninteresting. But some of the pieces they used to run were interesting - I like Media Max for example. I now find myself listening to BAL less in the mornings - I'd like more Durian - not less. Ron Smith is great too - it's funny people who have never listened to him are griping about him - he's FAR from a republican shill...

I really tried to listen and realized what I missed was the charm and the wit; the human interaction between Dave, Bill and everyone else.

If I wanted straight news, I could go to CNN or WTOP. What I want is information and a feeling there is a person (and not a reader) at the other end of the mic. There is no local connection anymore for me, so with these choices, I'd rather listen to WTOP.

But if you live in the Baltimore metro area, you won't get much real local news. Youy will; DC local news. For me, I want to know what is happening on our beltway, not the one in DC, no? Thanks.Z