The February pastoral, all soft light and tired fields, stops abruptly at Marc Steiner's doorstep. Whatever sanctuary his home along an actual country lane in Sparks would ordinarily offer, he's missing it, as his phone rings and rings and rings.
The longtime talk-show host, whose name to many was nearly synonymous with public radio station WYPR, is freshly fired. He paces the tight living room, taking calls from family members who want to make sure he's OK, from co-workers who point out the support piling up online, from friends and fans who just don't get it.
He runs agitated fingers through thick graying hair and removes wire-framed glasses to rub away a trace of tears.
"The show and the station to me are everything -- they mean a lot to me, and they're gone," the 61-year-old says in the resonant yet rough-cut voice familiar to those who've tuned into his public affairs program over the past 15 years. "I'm worried about public radio and where its soul and heart are going to be."
Late Friday, WYPR announced it would immediately replace the Marc Steiner Show, which aired noon to 2 p.m., with a show called Statewide. Steiner says the news took him by surprise because he was considering "an amicable separation" agreement WYPR had offered him just that morning -- a deal that kept him on the air through May and offered him $50,000 not to speak to the media.
"I had no idea what I was up against," he says. "No idea."
In the small home he shares with his girlfriend, Valerie Williams, and eight cats, one huge dog and a parakeet -- all rescued -- Steiner, who has children from previous marriages, talked this weekend about his persistent and bitter clashes with management. He described fights over everything from holidays station employees would observe to his celebrity status around Baltimore to WYPR's fundraising strategy.
Steiner wanted to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and management didn't. Steiner enjoyed emceeing local events and star turns in local magazines, but management resented his dominating the spotlight. Steiner wanted the station to spend money developing its membership roster, but management was more interested in seeking corporate underwriters.
"I lost that one, too," Steiner says repeatedly.
"This has been a battle for six years, a battle to diminish my role and power at the station and a battle about what public radio is supposed to be," he added. "That's the heart of it, and the rest of it is just a mirage."
