Talk Show Host

ANOTHER player has entered the stage -- talk radio.This relatively new phenomenon has added a dimension to our understanding of current events. Its popularity has grown rapidly (in peak hours there may be 30,000 Baltimore-area listeners) since it began with topics like how to housebreak a puppy.It was always a welcome antidote to Beltway gridlock, but now the car phone may be responsible for talk radio's increased popularity -- at least WBAL's afternoon host Ron Smith thinks so. Upscale car phone owners joining the process have raised the stakes and challenged a broader segment of society.

She stakes out her positions in no uncertain terms, beating up on liberals in general and Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton in particular. But she also lambastes conservatives who displease her, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich.She's highly opinionated but also informed and articulate, and persistent enough to be a distinctive presence in the cut-and-thrust world of Baltimore talk radio.If you tune in, you know her name -- or as much of it as she's willing to reveal: "Helga from Westminster."

Here's the trouble with talk radio, according to Brian Wilson: "It seems to me that the vast number of talk show hosts don't understand that this is not a pulpit."Stay tuned, he's just warming up."I'm not willing to believe the audience is so stupid to care about what I think. What's your opinion? I'm just an ex-disc jockey, my opinion doesn't matter."He's building."This is just a BS session here, the great American BS session. The bottom line is this is show biz. This is aural voyeurism," he concludes with a grin, making sure a visitor has appreciated the pun.You expect a rim shot here, or a horn, whistle or soundtrack of laughter and applause.

ELLICOTT CITY resident Sherry Healy said she always loved listening to talk radio. Now she has her own show. Cosmopolitan People, owned and hosted by Healy, debuted on WCBM 680 AM in October. The show's co-host, Donna Clementoni, lives in Columbia's Town Center. The show is a magazine format, Healy said, with different topics each week. "I want each show to be unpredictable," said Healy, 43. Her listeners have heard topics ranging from suggestions on holiday gift buying to the personal story of a Marine who fought in Iraq.

The subject was sports talk shows, and John Oates wasn't talking.It wasn't surprising, for when your every move as manager of the Orioles is questioned nightly on three Baltimore radio stations, you can get a bit defensive. Oates doesn't know how to handle pitchers, said Bob from Pikesville. He takes too long to make personnel moves, contended Jim from Arbutus. Why doesn't he move Brady and Devo to the bottom of the lineup and lead off with Hammonds and Buford? asked Tom on his car phone.

Good moorrrning and WELCOME to the Sun Magazine Show! Today we've got a VER-RY special program on talk radio in Baltimore. We'll tell you HOW and WHY talk radio is growing and changing. We'll tell you WHAT'S being talked about on the air -- and WHO'S listened to the most. We'll talk to advocates who think talk radio is the voice of everyman and critics who feel it's a sanctuary for scoundrels. And we'll talk to some of the talk show hosts themselves to find out what THEY think about what they do. We'll be taking your calls at BALT-SUN.

Bryan Nehman, co-host of the "Brian and Bryan Show" on Washington's WMAL radio, has been hired by Baltimore's WBAL to replace Dave Durian during morning drive time. Nehman previously anchored morning news on the politically conservative talk and news station in the nation's capital from 2001 to 2011. He's been at the station 12 years. He started as a street reporter, and "was put in the news anchor chair right after 9/11," Nehman said Thursday. "Bryan is one of the brightest young men that I've met, and he is the guy who's going to lead WBAL into the next 20 years of broadcasting," Dave Hill, program director at the station said.

Maryland's nimble 7th District congressman, Kweisi Mfume, has figured out one way to handle talk show democracy.Join it.L Move over Rush, Montel, Phil and Oprah, make way for Kweisi.Mr. Mfume now presides over "The Bottom Line," an issues-oriented television program featuring a panel of experts and a participatory, in-studio audience of 80 or so.In his first four outings, Mr. Mfume has tackled topics such as guns, abortion, and the contraceptive Norplant and its use among teen-agers.The show, which airs at 11 a.m. Sundays, is watched by about 50,000 Baltimore-area viewers, says WBAL-TV producer Terry Todesco.

Has your Olympic fever receded yet? It's back to basics, back to business as usual -- and back to the business of paying attention to other things, including a stellar syzygy in the late-night talk-show firmament.* "Evening Shade" (8-8:30 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11) -- Returning to prime-time regularity, CBS begins with an "Evening Shade" showcasing guest stars Tammy Wynette and K. T. Oslin, who play singing sisters of Merleen (Ann Wedgeworth). CBS.* "Nova: 'In Search of Human Origins' " (8-9 p.m., WMPT, channels 22 and 67)

Les Kinsolving, the controversial host of a program billed as "uninhibited radio," is rarely shy in bestowing nicknames on the targets of his conservative ire.But in a $1.1 million slander suit he filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court, Mr. Kinsolving contends that a Baltimore city councilman whose actions he criticized on the air went beyond the bounds of decency on another radio show by calling him "Lester the kid molester."Both programs aired on WCBM-AM, where Charles Lester Kinsolving is an employee and paid host of the "Les Kinsolving Show -- Uninhibited Radio" weekdays from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.Defendants are Councilman Carl Stokes, D-2nd, and Michael Graham and his Michael Graham Communications Inc. -- a business that buys air time on WCBM from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays for its talk show, "Focus on Baltimore."