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88.1 WYPR-FM / Baltimore / Jazz-NPR
Another NPR station, which means that most programming doesn't originate here. The 'YPR" calls stand for "Your Public Radio". This used to be Johns Hopkins University radio as WJHU, but was sold off due to a lack of funding. Unfortunately, the new owners have stayed with the National Public Radio format, which means not much in the way of local programming - just another relay for NPR.
89.1 WETH-FM / Baltimore / NPR
A relay of Washington's WETA-FM in Baltimore. This is mostly a simulcaster for National Public Radio, similar to WYPR.
88.9 WEAA-FM / Baltimore / Ethnic Talk, Gospel, Jazz, Carribean
A station that promotes many types of "positive" music. Geared towards Baltimore's minority community, WEAA is an assett to that community because they seem to be the only station targeted towards minorities that actually plays more than just the standard "Urban" (R&B / Rap) radio format. Operated by Morgan State University.
89.7 WTMD-FM / Towson, MD / Adult Alternative Rock (AAA)
WTMD is a AAA format station that leans heavily on modern folk rock. The station is similar to Philadelphia's famed WXPN-FM, and is also similar to what WRNR-103.1 used to be a few years ago. WTMD plays a lot of local musicians and heavilly supports the Baltimore music scene. They also air some Towson State Football, Basketball and Lacrosse games too. WTMD-FM has a pretty good signal throughout the Baltimore market except for Annapolis, where the US Naval Academy has a student run 10 watt station on the same frequency. WTMD is commercial free public radio. The on-air staff is a paid staff that sounds professional and knowledgeable about the music. Before becoming an Adult Album Alternative (AAA) station, WTMD was smooth jazz "The Breeze".
91.1 WHFC-FM "The Crossroads" / Bel Air, MD / Various Music
WHFC is one of the Baltimore areas only true College Radio stations (Harford Community College) in my book. They have Jazz, Alternative Rock, Blues, Folk, Hard Rock, Classical, and many other types of music here. The signal isn't as strong as other area public radio stations, but it does cover Baltimore and its northern burbs OK. They have a pretty good website too.
91.5 WBJC-FM / Baltimore / Classical
Baltimore's full-time non-commercial classical music station. They also have specialty programming such as an opera show. WBJC has live (most of the time) DJs playing classical music programming, as well as some syndicated programs featuring internationally renowned orchestras, opera companies and chamber ensembles. They also have locally produced informational programs.
91.9 WGTS-FM / Takoma Park, MD / Religious
This is really a DC area station, but it has a very good signal in the Baltimore area too. There are a lot of religious stations in Maryland, but at least this one isn't on a commercial frequency like the others.
92.3 WERQ-FM "92-Q" / Baltimore / Urban
Usually Baltimore's most listened to station. Owned by "Radio One", (one of the nation's largest minority broadcasters) "92Q" targets the African-American community. They call themselves "The People's Station". Very low quality imaging and liners at WERQ, and most of the airstaff sound a bit unprofessional, if not just plain sloppy. This station seems to be trying to cater to both the younger set with the rap influence, and the older demo with the more mellow sounds of R&B leaning music. Amazingly this odd combination of music really works in Baltimore because 92Q has been the top rated station for many years.
93.1 WPOC-FM / Baltimore / Country
Baltimore's only country station is still going strong. WPOC pretty much sounds like any other large market country station, which isn't a bad thing. WPOC, along with WQSR-102.7, is probably the most polished sounding station in Baltimore. Most of the jocks at WPOC are very good, and knowledgable about the music that they are playing. The production at WPOC sounds good too - very tight. And they still go by their call letters! No "Froggy" or "Cat Country" cliche' here!
95.1 WRBS-FM / Baltimore / Religious
Another Maryland religious station. WRBS has a good signal and has the most listeners of all the other area (mostly AM) religious stations.
95.9 WWIN-FM "Majic 95.9" / Glen Burnie, MD / Urban Contemporary
For a 3KW station, they have a really good signal in the Baltimore area. A toned down version of "92-Q" (also owned by Radio One), WWIN goes for a more adult urban audience. The imaging and airstaff are far superior to WERQ. This sounds like a big city station. Nice imaging and jocks that sound right with the format. WWIN-FM has the popular syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show" that is tops with the female African-American audience.
96.7 WCEI-FM / Easton, MD / Adult Contemporary
This is an Eastern Shore station, but it does put out a really strong signal across the Bay. A really dull station that sounds as if it is automated half of the time. They play what could be called "soft rock", Celine Dion, Cher, Phil Collins, etc - and a lot of retro 80's pop. This station has a seemingly endless amount of screaming car dealer ads which is really annoying. Very small market sounding production as well. Everything heard here, including their syndicated shows, can be heard elsewhere - so no real reason to tune this in.
97.9 WIYY "98 ROCK" / Baltimore / Active Rock
Baltimore's only basic Rock station, "98 Rock" plays a lot of new hard rock, 80's glam metal (check out "The Electric Lunch"), and 70's arena rock. The music is standard hard rock, and the air staff is very 'Baltimore' local. The air staff concentrate on local interests and always make sure to sound live and not voice-tracked. The morning show of 'Kirk, Mark & Lopez' tend to concentrate on the Orioles and Ravens, along with the usual morning banter. The afternoon show (Mickie & Amelia) consists of a local comedian (Mickie), and a radio vet female jock (Amelia) that banter on local and national issues, with a comedic twist. A great signal in and around Baltimore and a nice web page too. This is the only rocker in the Baltimore / DC area that doesn't concentrate on Modern Rock, just loud hard rock.
99.1 WHFS-FM / Annapolis, MD / Spanish
After over three decades as the Washington and Baltimore Alternative Rock station, the suits at CBS / Infiniti flipped WHFS to Spanish "El Zol 99.1". WHFS was getting bad ratings in Washington over the last few years, but it's Baltimore numbers were pretty good. The station could have been fixed. Years of mismanagement by Infiniti turned the once "cutting edge" station into a pop station. If they would have went back to being a real alternative station they would have gained listeners. Now they are the station for foreign language people that don't want to assimilate into this country. Si.
100.7 WZBA-FM "The Bay" / Baltimore / Classic Rock
After flopping as an alternative rock station a few years ago, 100.7 (WGRX) fipped formats to country. Taking on country giant WPOC wasn't an easy task. On December 1, 1999 WGRX became WZBA "The Bay" - "Rock without the hard edge". When Clear Channel flipped 104.3 WOCT from Classic Rock to its current "Smooth Jazz" format, WZBA quickly jumped on the Classic Rock format. Now known as "Baltimore's Classic Rock 100.7 WZBA, The Bay", WZBA has grown from a rim-shot station with minimal ratings, to a full signal player in the market. The music is standard classic rock from artists like Led Zeppelin, Steve Miller, Bad Company, Fleetwood Mac, etc. WZBA moved their tranmitter closer to Baltimore city in 2001, and now have a good signal in the city, as well as Annapolis pou to the Eastern Shore.
101.9 WLIF-FM "Lite 102" / Baltimore / Adult Contemporary
Baltimore's "Lite 102" is your standard doctor office radio station (complete with Terry Garr doing the TV commercials!) Background listening soft rock that is popular only during business hours. A good clean signal, easily listenable in the Washington DC area, and since there is no lite music station there anymore, this station now has listeners there. Very professional DJ's and polished production.
102.7 WQSR-FM "Jack 102.7" / Baltimore / Oldies
As an oldies station WQSR was once a cash cow. As the oldies audience got older, advertisers started to fall off. Fast forward to May 4, 2005 and the suits at Infinity (CBS) decided to pull the plug on Oldies WQSR and jump on the "Jack" bandwagon. The "Jack" format is spreading across the country quickly, and is basically a mix between classic rock, oldies. adult contemporary, and CHR. It gives the allusion that the station "plays anything" and isn't formatted and repetitive. It's what listeners have been screaming for for years, and programmers were saying it wouldn't work for years. We'll see if it's just another fad ala "Jamming Oldies", or if it really does work. Either way, it sure took long enough...
103.1 WRNR-FM / Annapolis, MD / Adult Album Alternative
WRNR has been through a lot of changes over the past few years. They were started by radio pioneer and founder of WHFS Jake Einstein as a mostly folk and accoustic leaning alternative rock station - similar to what WTMD-89.7 is today.
Einstein sold WRNR to Steve Kingston, a radio veteran that was programming WXRK-FM "K-Rock" in NYC. Kington kept the AAA format on WRNR, but hired a few different people to tweak the station. WRNR slowly started dropping the specialty shows that featured folk and accoustic, and started adding more pop-ish alternative rock songs to appeal to a bigger audience. They also added a playlist and got rid of some of the air staff that tended to talk a lot. WRNR started calling themselves "Radio Annapolis" instead of "Progressive 103-1", to probably stress the 'local' factor for them. All of these changes still didn't do much to improve ratings though, and more changes followed. In 2004 WRNR got rid of more air staff in favor of veteran personalities from WHFS's past, and a few from Kingston's old station, K-Rock. They also spruced up the imaging of WRNR with polished sounding produced promo's/liners. WRNR again added some more modern rock favorites to their playlist, and ditched some more of the obscure songs that they were playing. The air staff sounds more like professional radio people than ever before, and the sound of the station has gone from hokey, to a standar radio station sound. Only time will see if these changes will make a dent in the Baltimore ratings. If it were up to me I would ditch the "Radio Annapolis" moniker for something that didn't alienate the rest of the Baltimore area, and get a strong morning show. The current morning guy would be fine during any other daypart, but not in the A.M. They need someone that would be able to entertain, inform, and wake people up. Currently the morning show seems to play sleepy music, and has zero personality. Not a very good lead in for a station where the majority of its listeners are driving away from the signal to work everyday - and likely forget to tune back to 103.1 on the way home.
THE (UN-OFFICIAL) PROGRESSIVE 103.1 WRNR MESSAGE BOARD
104.3 WSMJ-FM / Baltimore / Smooth Jazz (NAC)
WSMJ has a long history in this market. 104.3 was home of "B104" in the 80's, the top rated CHR (top-40) station, then classic hits "The Colt", then classic rock WOCT, then classic hard rock for a while, back to classic rock standards as WXFB "B104.3".... None of the rock based formats really took off though, so in 2003 Clear Channel flipped 104.3 to "Smooth Jazz" WSMJ. Since the format change, WSMJ has been doing fairly well in the ratings, and ratings mean revenue. This is a standard "Smooth Jazz" outlet, which is pretty much easy listening music with a slight coolness to it. The place to hear Anita Baker and Kenny G. WSMJ has a good signal throughout most of the Baltimore market, but does get some interference from WWZZ "Z104" in Washington DC around the Annapolis-Crofton area.
105.7 WHFS-FM "Free-FM" / Catonsville, MD / Hot Talk / Alternative Rock
Baltimore's "Good Times Oldies" WQSR was located on 105.7 until September 2001. They moved to 102.7 because the 102.7 frequency has a better signal in most of the Baltimore area. WXYV was moved to 105.7 and became a "hip-hop" station called "X105.7", taking on Radio One's popular "Q92.3". After being handidly bested by Q92.3, 105.7 was flipped to talk radio featuring Howard Stern and Don & Mike. WXYV then changed it's call letters to WHFS and is playing alternative rock on off-hours (after 7PM and weekends). WHFS used to be located on 99.1 and was an alternative rock station covering both DC and Baltimore. When 99.1 flipped to Spanish WZLL "El Zol", Infinity (owners of WHFS and WXYV) combined the alt-rock format with the hot talk format on 105.7 for Baltimore. 105.7 has an odd signal that covers the entire Baltimore market, but none of DC due to DC's 105.9. It also has some problems from 105.7 in the York PA area in the Nort-West direction. Infinity has added WHFS to the "Free-FM" group of stations that they own. The name change on their talk stations (WJFK-FM in DC as well) is to give the stations a brand after the departure of Howard Stern and to combat satellite pay-radio.
106.5 WWMX-FM "Mix 106-5" / Baltimore, MD / Hot A.C.
Baltimore's "Mix" station plays a lot of 80's Modern Rock, and a whole day of it on Sunday's. "Jojo and Kenny" in the mornings aren't bad, and all in all the station is pretty good. They play a wide variety of music - living up to the "mix" name a good deal more than other stations using this moniker. They have a good clean signal except by D.C., where 106.7 WJFK causes bleed.
107.9 WFSI-FM / Annapolis, MD / Religious
Yet another commercial religious station with no ratings. This one owned by "Family Stations", a national religious radio company, A.K.A. Special Interest Group. Not as good a signal into Baltimore as WRBS, but does anyone really care?