Broadcasting

Radio One Inc., a Lanham broadcaster targeting urban African-American audiences, is expected to buy about $1 billion worth of stations from Clear Channel Communications Inc. An announcement could come as soon as Monday, analysts said. The acquisition would bolster Radio One's standing as the biggest player in the urban-format radio market. Radio One owns 27 stations, including two of Baltimore's top-rated stations, WERQ-FM and WWIN-FM. Analysts said the rumored deal with Clear Channel would bring Radio One about 20 new stations.

Radio One Inc., the nation's largest radio broadcaster targeting black listeners, said yesterday that it completed its $190 million acquisition of Blue Chip Broadcasting Inc. The Lanham-based company paid for the Cincinnati-based Blue Chip with more than $105 million drawn from its credit facility and about 5.8 million shares. The deal adds to Radio One 15 stations in five markets - Minneapolis; Louisville, Ky.; and Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio. Radio One has also agreed to operate WDBZ-AM in Cincinnati under a local marketing agreement.

Jon Miller, who called the Orioles' final out of their last World Series Championship title in 1983, has been named the 2010 winner of the Ford C. Frick Award for major contributions in baseball broadcasting. He will be honored in Cooperstown, N.Y., during this year's National Baseball Hall of Fame ceremony on July 25 along with 2010 Hall inductees outfielder Andre Dawson, manager Whitey Herzog and umpire Doug Harvey and New York Daily News writer Bill Madden, the J.G. Taylor Spink Award recipient for baseball writing.

Now that the Browns are on their way to Baltimore, the real games begin as media outlets line up to get a piece of the NFL gravy train, and announcers polish off their resumes and tapes.Here's a look at what the move of the Browns will mean to the local and national broadcasting realm:* Television: NBC, the network of the AFC, the Browns' conference, takes a bit of a hit in the move, since Baltimore, the nation's 23rd-largest television market, is smaller than Cleveland, the 13th largest.

Merging traditional television production with burgeoning computer technology will help enable public broadcasting to ensure its future, says Ervin S. Duggan, president of the Public Broadcasting Service. "Public televnd Public Television to announce the launch of several new technology innovations.For example, MPT's broadcast coverage Oct. 8 of Pope John Paul II's Mass from Camden Yards will also be available via computer through the Internet's World Wide Web, said Raymond K.K. Ho, MPT president."

Radio One, the largest radio broadcasting company targeting urban African-American audiences, said yesterday it completed the acquisition of three radio stations in Indianapolis, Ind., for about $40 million in cash and stock. As part of the deal, Lanham-based Radio One also purchased a low-powered television station there. Indianapolis is the 31st largest African-American market in the U.S. "Through this acquisition, we are acquiring a strong urban position in a great Midwestern market," Alfred C. Liggins III, Radio One's chief executive and president, said in a statement.

No one could ever accuse Jim McKay of signing up for another Olympics because he's resume building. Or because he needs the paycheck. "It sounds like fun," says McKay of his handshake deal to cover his 12th Olympiad. "It's one more time around the block." ABC, McKay's home network for 40 years, last year agreed to lend him to NBC for the Winter Games. "I remember when NBC locked up the games for what seemed like forever, I looked at my wife and said, `Well, Margaret, that's it. It looks like our Olympic days are over,' " recalls McKay, 80, at his farm in Monkton.

Julian Sinclair Smith, a pioneer in UHF-television broadcasting and the patriarch and founder of family-owned WBFF-TV (Channel 45), died yesterday at his Roland Park home after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.Although he had been incapacitated and unable to participate actively in the business, Mr. Smith, 72, continued to spend several hours each day in the large Channel 45 office, listening as his four sons presided forum-style over stations here and in four other cities. He collapsed and died while preparing for that daily ritual.

Mike Hambrick, the former dark-haired WBAL-TV news anchor with the rapid, machine gun-style delivery, was described as "a hot property in the anchorman business," when he first arrived in Baltimore in 1975. "We had a lot of talent in the newsroom then. People such as Spencer Christian and Sue Simmons and Bucky Gunts. They all went on to New York," said Hambrick in an interview the other day. "It was a Camelot-like time for me. Baltimore was a great place to work and live," said the Mount Pleasant, Texas, native who was a 15-year-old high school student when he first broke into broadcasting as a 75-cents-an- hour disc jockey at a local radio station in his hometown.