Narrowcasting on the AM band WITH sale: Baltimore radio mainstay's format change continues industry segmentation.

THE WORD "broadcasting" connotes serving the widest possible audience. Since the 1920s that is what AM radio was all about. A good example is Baltimore's WBAL, a 50,000-watt clear-channel powerhouse. audible from New England to Bermuda. For decades, it combined news and information with middle-of-the-road music, sports and some talk shows.

WBAL-AM has not had a music format for nearly two decades. One by one, other AM stations, too, have junked their music formats and have started programming for narrowly targeted audiences. When 56-year-old WITH is sold shortly and shifts to gospel, only one AM outlet, big band station WWLG, will keep on playing secular music. Some of AM radio's shift to narrowcasting -- from religion to various talk formats -- is due to technical reasons. In clarity and sound quality AM simply cannot compete with the FM band. That's where all the music has gone. Another reason for the trend is big corporations acquiring stations, says Harry Shriver, a local radio veteran: "Their only consideration is the bottom line. They are not interested in community service because they have never been part of the community."

As late as the 1970s, tiny WITH was still acting big. Under news director Dennis Hill, it ran a substantial local news operation with mobile units and reporters like Tom Lattanzi and Bob Blatchley. Those were the days when all self-respecting AM stations had a local news operation. Today, few stations do.

Older Baltimoreans associate WITH with Buddy Deane or the late Maurice "Hot Rod" Hulbert, who became the first black disk jockey to broadcast here on a white station.

Innovative. That's what WITH was in its halcyon days in the 1950s and early 1960s. It will be remembered fondly.

Pub Date: 6/17/97