Public Radio

The Thomas hearings will be televised in their entirety starting at 10 a.m. today on CNN and C-SPAN II. The Public Broadcasting System, including Channels 22 and 67 here, will also air gavel-to-gavel coverage.ABC, CBS and NBC will likewise provide coverage beginning at 10 a.m., and all three local affiliates -- WMAR (Channel 2), WBAL (Channel 11) and WJZ (Channel 13) -- said yesterday that they plan to carry the hearings at least through this morning. All left open the possibility, however, of switching to regular programming throughout the day. Coverage during the weekend has not yet been determined.

The Johns Hopkins University has formalized details of a deal it struck two months ago to sell its public radio station for $5 million to a Baltimore-based group led by its signature voice, Marc Steiner. The community broadcast group still has to obtain federal approval, which could take months, and financing for the sale. Both sides say they consider these elements merely to be loose ends. Hopkins officials say the deal finalized yesterday achieved all of their top priorities. "We wanted to sell the station to a group with local roots who was committed to the news and information format," said Frederick W. Puddester, the university's chief budget officer.

The lunch crowd was gone. It was a slow afternoon in PJ's Pub in Ellicott City last Monday. Then a reporter from National Public Radio stumbled in.Phyllis Crockett was working on a political piece to air before the Maryland primary and stopped at PJ's because she was thirsty, said bar manager Patrick Patterson. Soon, Patterson, being an amiable bartender, found himself being interviewed by Crockett, who said she was working on a story on why the American people are fed up with politicians.

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.

All good things must come to an end and, alas, so must the public radio spring pledge drive. At 5:50 on Tuesday evening, when Andy Bienstock of Baltimore's WYPR made the disheartening yet inevitable announcement -- only 40 more minutes of on-air fund raising left to go -- we couldn't help but feel a pang of regret. After all, it seemed like just yesterday that we were hearing, for the first time, the rapturous description of the five-color WYPR T-shirt; the engrossing explanation of the station's debts and expenses; the poignant testimonials from prescient community leaders who know we love public radio as much as they do. It was hard to believe it was almost over.

A high-ranking Johns Hopkins University official says the university is "very pleased" with the fall fund-raising efforts of WJHU-FM but said a decision on the future of the public radio station would not be made until next year.Eugene S. Sunshine, Hopkins' senior vice president for administration, said last week that the university currently has no plans to seek a buyer for the station's license or to revive a controversial plan rejected last year by the General Assembly to give the license and facilities to the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission.

The general manager who led the Johns Hopkins University-owned FM radio station to solvency left his job abruptly this month, without a word to his former colleagues. The university will not say why. Officially, Ray Dilley, the general manager of WJHU (88.1 FM), resigned, effective Aug. 30, for unspecified personal reasons. Reached yesterday at his Baltimore home, Dilley said, "I'm in the middle of changing direction in work; that's all there is to say." But Dilley, the former president of Vermont Public Radio who helped to establish National Public Radio's international operations, acknowledged he has no new job lined up. A former colleague at WJHU said that Dilley did not announce his departure, and did not clean out his own office.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has a new media partner for its radio broadcast series: WETA-FM in Shirlington, Va.The BSO has been looking for a new producer-distributor for its "Casual Concerts" broadcast series since last fall, when WJHU-FM in Baltimore dropped the vestiges of its classical music programming and became an all news and jazz station.At that time, WJHU agreed to complete its contract to produce the series, but it moved the broadcast to 6 a.m. Sundays. WBJC-FM, which also carries the concerts, will continue to do so next season.

|TC Brian Wilson and Don O'Brien -- together again?Not really, but the one-time partners of the "Brian and O'Brien Show" that dominated morning drive-time in the mid-1980s -- and who were widely reported to be off-the-microphone adversaries -- will be on the air at the same time next week, from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.As announced earlier this week, "The Brian Wilson Show" premieres Monday on WOCT-FM (104.3), featuring the personality who most recently was an afternoon talk-show host on WCBM-AM (680)

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, Fiona Ritchie has finally arrived in Baltimore -- on the radio, that is."The Thistle & Shamrock," Ms. Ritchie's weekly dose of lilting Celtic music, began airing last weekend on WJHU-FM (88.1), and can be heard at 8 p.m. Sundays. Tomorrow's edition features the music of Wales.Although on public radio stations across the country for 12 years and ranking as National Public Radio's most popular music offering, the hourlong show could previously be heard in this area only on Washington's WAMU-FM (88.5)