Public Radio

Cal Ripken Jr. , baseball's Mr. Clean, aired a little dirty laundry on a radio quiz show. Appearing on NPR's "Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me!" last weekend, Ripken was asked about the infamous 1989 baseball card bearing the image of teammate-brother Billy Ripken holding a bat with an obscenity scrawled on the end. The Ironman went on to reveal that Billy isn't the only Ripken who knows how to curse. Peter Sagal , host of the show, asked Ripken if he ever gets tired of living up to his good-boy image.

Baltimore County Councilman Todd Huff has returned a $4,000 public-safety radio he was given by the county fire chief last year following his arrest last weekend on drunken-driving charges, County Executive Kevin Kamenetz told Huff to return the device Saturday after the county executive was briefed by the police chief on Huff's arrest, according to county public-safety spokeswoman Elise Armacost. No other County Council members have similar radios issued by the county, she said.

Federal funding for public broadcasting is a small investment that pays big dividends. More than 170 million Americans engage with public media every month for fact-based journalism, educational programming, arts and culture — and music they cannot hear anywhere else. The federal investment in public broadcasting creates jobs and programming that provide opportunities to our community. The threat to federal funding is real. The House of Representatives recently voted to eliminate funding for public broadcasting in the 2011 budget, and no matter the bill's fate in the Senate, numerous national political leaders, newly elected and returning House members and senators have vowed to totally eliminate funding for public radio and TV in fiscal year 2012.

The Governor William Paca Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution has selected a Jayme Hill for Outstanding Teacher of American History. Hill also was selected as the second place winner at the state level for this honor. Hill is a teacher of United States history and government at Harford Technical High School. She has been teaching for 10 years and has been recognized for her excellence as a teacher and as a mentor by her peers and supervisors. Outside the classroom, Hill has made public appearances talking about Baltimore City history and has participated in extensive continuing education.

Since he led the drive to keep public radio in Baltimore five years ago, Marc Steiner has been the face - the voice - behind the station that became WYPR-FM. Like it or not, like him or not, the gregarious, fast-talking, opinionated Mr. Steiner led his guests, no matter their political, social or intellectual stripes, in lively conversations on the issues of the day. He was the personality most identified with the station's call letters and, more important, its public role. And now, with Mr. Steiner's unceremonious firing late last week (station officials cited falling ratings)

It didn't take long - only to the ninth speaker of the night - for the first obscure reference to come up: something about French soldiers shooting the nose off a sphinx during an Egyptian campaign. Somewhere around the 13th speaker came one of what would be many pointed observations that the "Y" in WYPR stands for "your," and yet none of the yours trulys in attendance were consulted. This is what happens when you anger the articulate and irk the ironic. If ever there was a perfect public radio storm, the firing of Marc Steiner is it. Here's the guy who not only hosted the signature show on WYPR, but played a role in rescuing the public radio station from its financial problems six years ago. That he would be forced out by the people he had turned to for help in saving YPR is exactly the kind of injustice that would outrage your typical public radio listener - and no surprise, it did just that.

The Maryland Public Radio Association, an organization of eight public radio outlets, is making its initial foray into programming with a 13-week series on musical theater.Titled "Curtain Up!" the series was supported with $500 from the MPRA and is hosted by David Harfeld, a federal administrative law judge from Chevy Chase with a long interest in the subject, and produced by John Davlin of MPRA member station WHFC-FM (91.1) at Harford Community College.The first of the hour-long programs is on the 1965 musical "Skyscraper" and will air on WFWM-FM in Frostburg Sunday at 4 p.m. It airs Sept.

The problem of child abuse is drawing significant attention from National Public Radio this month, National Child Abuse Prevention Month."Breaking the Cycle: How Do We Stop Child Abuse?" is a series of four hourlong specials with NPR correspondent Susan Stamberg and Alex Chadwick, airing on WJHU-FM (88.1) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays.Two more weekly editions remain, and the station plans toconclude the NPR offering with its own locally produced call-in program examining the problem in this region.

For most people, waking up in a cheerful mood is a fine way to begin the day. But not in my line of work.Feeling bright and chipper could cause me to lose control and irresponsibly write something bright and chipper. And that would turn the stomachs of regular readers, thereby ruining their day too.Fortunately, that's seldom a problem. I was blessed with a naturally glum temperament that views each bright dawn as a potential disaster. When the golden sunlight streams through the window, my reaction is: "That hurts my eyes."

PHILADELPHIA -- Station WXPN-FM's (88.5) "World Cafe" is making its way into the world.Actually, it only goes to five other public radio stations, in such far-flung outposts as Duluth, Minn., Laramie, Wyo., and Spindale, N.C. Even so, public radio executives from here to Hawaii are watching response to the program, which began national broadcast on Monday.The reason is simple. If "World Cafe," with host David Dye and his eclectic mix of rhythm and blues, acoustic rock and just-out-of-the-box pop, takes hold outside Philadelphia, it could sow the seed of the biggest boon to public radio in years.

I read the very brief article "Managing news editor Sunni Khalid out at WYPR-FM" (March 19). I really expected more. Was this an example of censorship/McCarthyism at the public radio station? Criticize the Israeli occupation on Facebook, and your head must roll? Does the station believe in the First Amendment right to free speech? Why can't an employee express his personal belief on Facebook as long as his perspective does not affect the work he does for the station? And it was a journalistic low for The Sun to claim that Mr. Khalid made an obscene gesture to a former Sun employee who refused to name the alleged individual.

Public radio host Lisa Simeone Thursday confirmed a report published here and elsewhere that she was fired Wednesday by the public radio series "Soundprint. " The firing came as a result of what "Soundprint' executives saw an an ethical violation by Simeone for her work as a spokeswoman with October 2011, one of the groups involved in the Occupy D.C. movement. But Simeone also found support Thursday from another employer, North Carolina classical station WDAV, producer of the "World of Opera" show for which the Baltimore broadcaster serves as a freelance host.

National Public radio says it is looking into the role that  Baltimore resident Lisa Simeone is playing as a spokeswoman for October 2011, one of the Occupy D.C. groups encamped at Freedom Plaza in Washington. A profile on National Public Radio's "People at NPR" web page describes Simeone as host of the nationally syndicated "World of Opera" and "Spoleto Chamber Music 2010. " She also hosts the documentary series "Soundprint," according to that production's website. Simeone formerly worked at the NPR news programs "All Things Considered" and "Weekend Edition.

Don't let your feelings one way or the other about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stop you from thinking dispassionately about what he has to say about the perils of state-run public television systems like the one we have in Maryland. Christie, a conservative, has been trying to get his state out of the public television business in an effort to cut ballooning state government costs. Maryland has most or all of the same kinds of money problems. And like New Jersey, Maryland is one of the states where the state, not a non-profit citizens group, holds the license, provides funds and controls content on the statewide public television operation.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was formed with the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. As stated by President Lyndon Johnson when he signed the bill into law, while the CPB will receive support from the government, it will be "carefully guarded from government or from party control. It will be free, and it will be independent — and it will belong to all our people. " Those words now betray a naïveté so uncharacteristic of our politically astute 36th president.

Amid a string of negative news reports, two high-level firings and a move in Congress to end its federal funding, National Public Radio was an organization in turmoil this week. But as grim as it seems for NPR, it is not the large public radio network headquartered in Washington that could suffer the most from the political fallout. Instead, small niche public radio stations like Towson's WTMD and Morgan State University's WEAA in Northeast Baltimore would be the hardest hit. And the cutbacks could start in a matter of weeks, station managers say. "We have a very limited relationship with NPR — we carry only one half-hour of programming from there a week," says LaFontaine E. Oliver, general manager of WEAA (88.9-FM)

All three public radio stations in Baltimore showed substantial audience increases in the Arbitron figures for the winter of 1991.Classical music WBJC-FM (91.5) had 8,200 listeners in an average quarter hour, up from 5,000 in the fall of 1990; National Public Radio affiliate WJHU-FM (88.1) had 5,600, up from 3,800; and jazz and public affairs WEAA-FM (88.9) had 4,600, compared to 3,200.The three stations also showed increases in their weekly cumulative audiences -- the total number of area listeners who tuned into the stations at some point during the week.

Baltimore's public radio and television stations are seeing little drop-off in their fundraising efforts, suggesting that their audiences' hunger for news and information during this election year is making up for the country's uncertain economic climate. Officials at both WYPR-FM (88.1) and WEAA-FM (88.9), which carried out fall pledge drives during the past week, reported totals that were roughly in line with last year's pledge drives, if not slightly over. The total raised at WYPR, where the February firing of talk-show host Marc Steiner raised a firestorm of protest and threats from many listeners to stop contributing to the station, was up about $5,000, or about 2 percent.

Federal funding for public broadcasting is a small investment that pays big dividends. More than 170 million Americans engage with public media every month for fact-based journalism, educational programming, arts and culture — and music they cannot hear anywhere else. The federal investment in public broadcasting creates jobs and programming that provide opportunities to our community. The threat to federal funding is real. The House of Representatives recently voted to eliminate funding for public broadcasting in the 2011 budget, and no matter the bill's fate in the Senate, numerous national political leaders, newly elected and returning House members and senators have vowed to totally eliminate funding for public radio and TV in fiscal year 2012.

Cal Ripken Jr. , baseball's Mr. Clean, aired a little dirty laundry on a radio quiz show. Appearing on NPR's "Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me!" last weekend, Ripken was asked about the infamous 1989 baseball card bearing the image of teammate-brother Billy Ripken holding a bat with an obscenity scrawled on the end. The Ironman went on to reveal that Billy isn't the only Ripken who knows how to curse. Peter Sagal , host of the show, asked Ripken if he ever gets tired of living up to his good-boy image.