WBAL: Радиостанция Балтимора

the radio station

WBAL (1090 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Baltimore, Maryland. It is owned by the broadcasting division of Hearst Communications and broadcasts a news/talk radio format. The station shares its studios and offices with sister stations WBAL TV (channel 11) and WIYY (97.9 FM) on Television Hill in Baltimore's Woodberry neighborhood. WBAL and WIYY are the only two radio stations owned by Hearst, which is primarily a publishing and television company. WBAL is a 50,000 watt, Class A, clear channel station. Its transmitter is on Winands Road in Randallstown, Maryland. Listeners in and around Baltimore can also hear the station on 136 watt FM translator station W268BA on 101.5 MHz. WBAL is non directional by day but uses a directional antenna at night to protect the other Class A stations on 1090 AM, KAAY in Little Rock and XEPRS in Rosarito, Mexico. With a good radio, WBAL's nighttime signal can be heard in much of Eastern North America, reaching as far as Nova Scotia and Bermuda. Its daytime signal easily covers most of Maryland as well as the Washington metropolitan area, and parts of Delaware, Virginia and Pennsylvania. WBAL is Maryland's designated primary entry point for the Emergency Alert System.

WBAL is the co flagship station with WIYY for Baltimore Orioles baseball, Baltimore Ravens football, and United States Naval Academy college football. Since the Baltimore Orioles began their inaugural season in 1954, WBAL has been their flagship station for most of that team's history, though not continuously. For example, it carried Orioles games every season from 1987 to 2006, after which the team's games were broadcast on crosstown sports radio station WJZ FM. Orioles games returned to WBAL from 2011 to 2014 before the team switched back to WJZ FM in 2015. On January 5, 2022, it was announced that the Orioles would be returning to WBAL and sister station WIYY beginning with the 2022 season. The games are also streamed on the respective stations' websites and apps, but with MLB required georestrictions limiting the broadcast to the entire states of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington DC, the Pennsylvania counties of York, Harrisburg and Lancaster, the West Virginia counties of Grant, Hardy, Mineral, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson, and most of North Carolina excluding Asheville (which is in the Atlanta Braves' broadcast territory). Ravens games have been broadcast on WBAL and WIYY since the 2006 season. Other teams whose games have been broadcast on WBAL include the Baltimore Colts, the University of Maryland Terrapins and the Towson Tigers.

WBAL began broadcasting after being dedicated on November 2, 1925. It was a subsidiary of the Consolidated Gas Electric Light and Power Company, a predecessor of Constellation Energy. The initial broadcasting studio was located at the utility's offices on Lexington Street. In the 1930s, WBAL became the flagship station for the international broadcast of radio evangelist G. E. Lowman, whose shows originated in Baltimore until 1959. WBAL was an affiliate of NBC's Blue Network. Among its personalities during that period were program host Jay Grayson, Harley Brinsfield, who had a long running Saturday night jazz music program, The Harley Show, and White House accredited newsman Galen Fromme. In the early 1980s, WBAL began running talk shows evenings and overnights, and continued to play some music during the day.

Music gradually decreased and talk programs were added. In the fall of 1985, WBAL transitioned to its current news talk format, winning 19 national Edward R. Murrow Awards since then, the most of any local U. S. radio station. In 2021, the station added an FM translator at 101.5 MHz, W268BA, so the station could be heard on FM radios in and around Baltimore.

Ron Smith – died, at the age of 70, on December 19, 2011, after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. Allan Prell – Along with Smith, the leading voice of WBAL in the 1980s and 90s. Left the station in 1999, died in 2016. Dave Durian – hosted the morning show from 1990 to 2012; died at age 72 on January 28, 2019, from complications of lung cancer and a stroke. "Detour Dave" Sandler – longtime traffic reporter, died in 2019. Dick Purtan – disc jockey and talk host, 1967 68. Originally from Buffalo, New York, he was in Detroit in 1965, then to Baltimore for a year. Returned to Detroit in 1968, ended career there in 2010. John V. Patti – Retired from WBAL after 38 years in 2022. Jim Russ, traffic reporter, died suddenly from cardiac arrest on August 18, 2021. His reporting career spanned 38 years in the Washington, D. C., and Baltimore area.