bobbyw24
Banned
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2007
- Messages
- 14,097
An estimated 120,000 listeners a week tuned in to Mr. Smith — an audience that put WBAL among the top five stations in the market during his weekday show right up to his sign-off.
"Radio was a great transition for Ron," said WBAL-TV anchor Stan Stovall, who was Mr. Smith's on-air TV partner in 1980 and has been a self-described close friend since. "Ron got to be himself on the radio. He got to put his opinions out there and show what an intellect he really was."
Mr. Smith said WBAL management understood something about the boy who hated school and what he saw as arbitrary rules imposed from above. His bosses were wise enough to let him do the show his way.
"I can't imagine what would have happened if I'd have been in places where they tried to manage me day to day, topic to topic," he said. "It would have strangled me. It would have suffocated me. So, I knew enough to be content with what I had here, because they let me do my show without interference."
Mr. Smith did have ups and downs in recent years. When he denounced the invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, large parts of his audience howled in protest — and then some tuned him out altogether.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/enterta...ron-smith-obit-20111206,0,840404.story?page=2
"Radio was a great transition for Ron," said WBAL-TV anchor Stan Stovall, who was Mr. Smith's on-air TV partner in 1980 and has been a self-described close friend since. "Ron got to be himself on the radio. He got to put his opinions out there and show what an intellect he really was."
Mr. Smith said WBAL management understood something about the boy who hated school and what he saw as arbitrary rules imposed from above. His bosses were wise enough to let him do the show his way.
"I can't imagine what would have happened if I'd have been in places where they tried to manage me day to day, topic to topic," he said. "It would have strangled me. It would have suffocated me. So, I knew enough to be content with what I had here, because they let me do my show without interference."
Mr. Smith did have ups and downs in recent years. When he denounced the invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, large parts of his audience howled in protest — and then some tuned him out altogether.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/enterta...ron-smith-obit-20111206,0,840404.story?page=2
