Arbitron Ratings

Riding a strong climate of local news stories and a surprising performance by Orioles baseball, radio station WBAL-AM added 55,000 viewers to its weekly audience, according to figures released yesterday by the Arbitron ratings service. The station's surge -- the most dynamic development in the survey that measured listenership from March to June -- moved the 50,000-watt news and talk station from fifth to third in overall audience size among viewers 12 years and older. Urban-contemporary WERQ-FM and country-themed WPOC-FM remained the top two stations.

WLIF-FM (Lite 102) fired veteran news director Dave Humphrey yesterday, replacing him with afternoon announcer Sloane Brown.The moves mean the light adult contemporary station will have just one full-time news announcer and will offer no newscasts after 8:30 weekday mornings. Previously, the station eliminated its weekend news broadcasts."People are not coming to A.C. [adult contemporary] stations for the news," said program director Gary Balaban, who added that the station would continue to air afternoon traffic and stock reports.

WLIF-FM (Lite 102) fired veteran news director Dave Humphrey yesterday, replacing him with afternoon announcer Sloane Brown.The moves mean the light adult contemporary station will have just one full-time news announcer and will offer no newscasts after 8:30 weekday mornings. Previously, the station eliminated its weekend news broadcasts."People are not coming to A.C. [adult contemporary] stations for the news," said program director Gary Balaban, who added that the station would continue to air afternoon traffic and stock reports.

What if you spent several million dollars to launch a local newscast -- and then found out its audience was only about as large as the one you already had watching reruns of "Simon & Simon"?That's the news WBFF-TV (Channel 45) got yesterday with the first ratings report card for "News at Ten," which was launched in June. The Nielsen audience survey for July said that about 19,000 Baltimore-area homes tuned in each weeknight to Channel 45's news, which airs from 10 to 11.The Channel 45 newscast did slightly better in the Arbitron ratings survey, with an audience measured at about 28,000 homes.

If George Orwell worked for Arbitron Ratings Co., he'd love ScanAmerica.Slated to appear in the Baltimore area in three months, the Big Brother-like system tells Arbitron what television programs a household watches, who is watching and what grocery products are bought, Pierre R. Megroz said yesterday.ScanAmerica first debuted in -- you guessed it -- 1984, in the Denver television market. It came to Pittsburgh, Phoenix and St. Louis last year. Kansas City, Mo., and 500 of the Baltimore area's 940,000 television viewing households are scheduled to get it next year.

Radio station WBSB-FM (B-104) will continue to mean music, as its popular slogan puts it, but what kind of music?It's a question local radio executives and advertisers have been asking with increasing frequency in recent days.The Top 40 station, an institution in the Baltimore market for the past decade, has scheduled a breakfast meeting with advertisers Tuesday amid speculation it will be changing to a classic rock or rock-oriented adult-contemporary format.Talk about a possible format change at B-104 -- which has declined dramatically in the ratings in recent years -- has been around for weeks, and invitations tout next week's meeting as the day "the gossip dies" about the station.

Radio station WEBB-AM (1360) has been sold by Baltimore businesswoman Dorothy E. Brunson to a newly created Vermont company.Ms. Brunson sold WEBB -- an urban contemporary station she has owned for the last 10 years -- and Atlanta radio station WIGO-AM to Allied Media Inc. of Woodstock, Vt. for $3.6 million. She also sold a third station, WBMS-FM in Wilmington, N.C., to a businessman there for $168,000.Allied President Roger Amato, who confirmed the sale yesterday, said he and a partner created the company to purchase the two stations from Ms. Brunson.

A classic game of switcheroo greeted listeners of Baltimore's 104.3 FM yesterday morning, as the radio station prepared to change its format from classic rock to smooth jazz. For two hours before the switch was made at 10 a.m., the station played artists as varied as Christina Aguilera, Frank Sinatra and Metallica while teasing: "B104.3. What will it be?" "The stunt worked," said Scott Lindy, operations manager for the station's owner, Clear Channel Baltimore. Or at least it got attention.

Baltimore's top-rated radio station laid off two of its morning radio personalities yesterday, saying it will replace The Big Phat Morning Show on 92Q (WERZ) with syndicated programming. Morning disc jockey Marc Clarke, who had been with the station for nine years, and producer Sonjay lost their jobs in the shake-up at the popular hip-hop, R&B station. By yesterday afternoon, their profiles had been removed from the station's Web site. A third disc jockey, Porkchop, will remain with the station in another position, said Howard Mazer, the station's vice president and general manager.

Radio station WBSB-FM (B-104) will continue to mean music, as its popular slogan puts it, but what kind of music?It's a question local radio executives and advertisers have been asking with increasing frequency in recent days.The Top 40 station, an institution in the Baltimore market for the past decade, has scheduled a breakfast meeting with advertisers Tuesday amid speculation it will be changing to a classic rock or rock-oriented adult-contemporary format.Talk about a possible format change at B-104 -- which has declined dramatically in the ratings in recent years -- has been around for weeks, and invitations tout next week's meeting as the day "the gossip dies" about the station.