Talk Show Host

Long before daytime television was filled with estranged spouses hurling insults in mock courtrooms, pop doctors handing out sex advice and shock shows with topics like "My girlfriend is a transvestite and I didn't even know it!" millions of people tuned into The Mike Douglas Show. There they were entertained by Mike Douglas, an easygoing former big-band crooner who for 90 minutes every weekday deftly mixed song and dance, helpful hints and a surprising dose of current events -- all with a patina of civility that has all but disappeared from television.

Conservative talk show superstar Rush Limbaugh, a longtime lightning rod for controversy, found the voltage turned way up yesterday as he responded to separate furors involving his alleged abuse of addictive painkillers and his remarks about a black quarterback on an ESPN show. A law enforcement source confirmed that Limbaugh has been implicated in a drug-ring investigation but said the radio and TV personality is not a principal target of the Florida probe, which is focusing on drug dealers and which has led to several arrests.

You've got to respect Bill Maher's willingness to blast through the pious cant that passes for political discourse in Hollywood, though the host of "Politically Incorrect" fails at that as often as he succeeds.To judge by a profile of him in the April US magazine, Maher is an easier guy to respect than to like. He comes across as smart but prickly, talented but tough on the people who work for him (he goes through writers "at a record clip," according to author Chris Mundy).Maher is candid about his desperate need to succeed, fueled by his fear of being left behind by the comedians with whom he launched his career, such as Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Reiser.

Diane Rehm is what the good Lord had in mind when he invented talk radio: What she thinks has never mattered.She has opened her microphones to a range of voices that includes Ross Perot and Maya Angelou, Twyla Tharp and Desmond Tutu. And her respectful silences create a vacuum for what does matter in talk radio: the thoughts and opinions of her guests and her listeners."I have some views that happen to be different from the majority of talk-show hosts out there," says Rehm, host of "The Diane Rehm Show" on WAMU (88.5 FM)

Marc Steiner has his game face on.It is 30 seconds to air time, and the WJHU talk-show host, usually lively and animated, is so still he appears to be meditating. He may not get as nervous as he did when he started the show 2 1/2 years ago, but today's is a tough one, a telephone discussion with Dinesh D'Souza. Mr. D'Souza's latest book, "The End of Racism," which argues that white racism is not the real problem facing black Americans, is perfect for a call-in radio show, controversial and current.

Ron Smith, who came to Baltimore 38 years ago as a weekend TV anchorman but found his greatest success on radio as WBAL's "Voice of Reason," died Monday night of pancreatic cancer at his home in Shrewsbury, Pa.. He was 70. Mr. Smith spent more than 26 years on WBAL's airwaves, most of it in the afternoon drive-time period until a move to mornings last year, passionately talking politics from a conservative point of view. But it is not his politics for which he will likely be remembered as much as the informed conversation he helped create on Baltimore radio — and the way he publicly shared his final days with listeners of WBAL and readers of The Baltimore Sun. On Nov. 28, after continuing on-air for more than two months despite having been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer that had metastasized throughout his body, Mr. Smith signed off at the 50,000-watt news-talk station for the last time in his signature straightforward, no-nonsense, radio style.

Amy Angell Hunt, a former radio talk-show host and longtime volunteer, died April 30 of complications associated with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The longtime Severna Park resident was 79. Born and raised in Roanoke, Va., Amy Glenn earned a bachelor's degree in English from Roanoke College in 1949. She attended the college with her twin sister, Bettye Glenn, who died in 1996. Mrs. Hunt was one of the first female talk-show hosts at radio station WSLS in Roanoke when she was hired in 1950.

Controversial radio talk-show host C. Miles Smith was fired this week for taking his stinging commentary too far when he made unsupported allegations on the air about Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's politics and sex life.During his regular program Thursday, Smith, the host of a morning talk show on WOLB-AM (1010), criticized Schmoke for defending city police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier, who was under fire for miscounting the city's shootings.Smith said on his program that Schmoke was defending Frazier because the commissioner perhaps had pictures of the mayor in compromising situations.

As today's deadline for bids arrives, at least four groups are seeking control of WJHU (88.1 FM), the public radio station owned by the Johns Hopkins University. According to participants, the suitors include Maryland Public Television; WAMU (American University's public radio station); WBUR (Boston University's public radio station); and an independent group that includes WJHU talk show host Marc Steiner. Steiner's effort, called Maryland Public Radio, has raised more than $160,000 in pledges from WJHU listeners.

Late-night talk show host David Letterman cut short ABC's high-stakes courtship yesterday, telling viewers that he will remain at CBS. He said he did not want to damage ABC News's Nightline, which holds the same 11:35 p.m. slot as his Late Show on CBS. Despite Letterman's decision, Nightline anchor and managing editor Ted Koppel said last night that his network's owner, Disney, has seriously undermined the program's future by pursuing the late-night host....