Radio

Early on "That's Why God Made the Radio," the new Beach Boys album released earlier this month, comes "Isn't It Time," a breezy pop song bursting at its seams with the group's instantly recognizable vocal harmonies. "The world is changed and yet the game is still the same," sings bandleader Brian Wilson. He could be singing about dancing with his favorite girl, but it's also an apt line for California's most famous surf-rockers' current state. Time has passed, but the Beach Boys' most famous trademarks - layered, larger-than-life singing, and sunny lyrics that longingly nod to fleeting summer love - remain intact.

Dave Durian, a fixture on Baltimore radio for more than 22 years, is stepping down as anchor of WBAL's morning drive-time news program effective Aug. 31, he told listeners Wednesday during his show. He has been with the 50,000-watt station since 1988. While he will no longer be a full-time employee after August, Durian will remain "part of the WBAL family," according to General Manager Ed Kiernan. In that capacity, the 66-year-old Durian will serve as a "relief anchor" when Bill Vanko (mornings)

The program at Goucher College's 121st commencement ceremony Friday listed speaker Ira Glass' main connection to the Towson college: His grandmother was a member of its Class of 1931. In the public radio host's remarks, he added that college President Sanford J. Ungar was his former colleague at NPR and had coaxed him into appearing. But Glass shared another connection that only a college student could best appreciate - that he lost his virginity in one of the campus dorm rooms.

You may tune into The Big Chee Show for the insightful sports analysis and interviews with athletes, but you should really stick around for the bro chat. Sprinkled in every weekly broadcast (5-6 p.m. Fridays, ESPN 1300), host and Federal Hill resident Chris Cichon (The Big Chee, a nickname derived from the pronunciation of his last name, "Chee-on") and his bro crew talk everything from Baltimore bro bars to bro hairstyles. "[The show's for] bros like myself who like watching sports while having a cold one with their fellow bros.

The union that represents high-ranking police officers in Anne Arundel County has dropped the name of the force's second-in-command from a radio ad that criticizes the county's executive and chief of police. The International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which represents Anne Arundel's police lieutenants and sergeants, originally planned to run an ad that promoted Deputy Police Chief Lt. Col. Emerson C. Davis as having taken a "brave stand" by testifying in front of the County Council about alleged improprieties by his superiors.

Robert F. Fanto, a retired longtime Baltimore County public schools guidance counselor, died of cancer Wednesday at his Timonium home. He was 80. The son of a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad machinist and a homemaker, Mr. Fanto was born in Cumberland and raised in Piedmont, W.Va., and Keyser, W.Va. After graduation in 1949 from Keyser High School, he enlisted in the Navy. He served as a radioman to the commander of the 2nd Fleet in the Atlantic until being discharged in 1953.

WTMD-FM, Towson University's radio station, is moving to downtown Towson. The change, talked about last fall, was formalized Tuesday when university officials signed a lease for an 8,000-square-foot space at Towson City Center, general manager Stephen Yasko said. The station's new home is a result of WTMD's growth since it changed formats a decade ago, and the university's own drive to carve out a niche in the downtown corridor. Along with the station, four centers belonging to the College of Health Professions signed leases at the mixed-use complex in January.

Republican Senate candidate Dan Bongino begins airing the first radio advertisement of his campaign today, a largely introductory spot that focuses on his outsider status and criticizes “career bureaucrats.” Bongino narrates the minute-long ad, which the campaign said begins airing on WCBM in Baltimore today. “Can we all agree that politicians aren't getting the job done?” the former U.S. Secret Service agent asks in the ad. “I refuse to accept that the current crop of D.C. bureaucrats is the best we can do.” Bongino is running against nine other Republicans in the April 3 primary, including former Pentagon official Richard J. Douglas.

Republican Senate candidate Richard Douglas began airing a statewide radio advertisement on Thursday -- the first in the GOP primary -- suggesting that it's "time to wake Congress up. " Referring to Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin as "Rip Van Cardin," the spot argues that the first-term incumbent has been inattentive to national and local issues, including the rising price of gasoline and unemployment. The ads are running in Baltimore and elsewhere in the state. "Honey, did you see where gas prices could go to $6?"

Some radio changes over the weekend... Michael Eric Dyson has left his NPR show that's produced at Morgan State University, and the production will go off the air altogether at the end of the month. For the next three weeks, guest hosts will fill in on "The Michael Eric Dyson Show," according to Richard Prince's "Journal-isms" blog. Read it here . Dyson, a prominent social critic and Georgetown University professor, has been hosting the interview and talk show produced for NPR by Morgan State University's radio station on a grant of $505,000 from the Corporation for Public broadcasting.