Urban Contemporary

Months of tumult at public radio station WYPR, beginning with the Feb. 1 firing of veteran talk-show host Marc Steiner, have not led to a decline in its audience. In fact, the number of people listening to the station in the first three months of year has increased over the same period last year, from 153,600 to 166,800, ratings from Columbia-based Arbitron Inc. show. But they also show the station has lost a significant portion of its younger listeners. In the noon-2 p.m. time slot, where Sun columnist Dan Rodricks took over for Steiner beginning Feb. 25, the weekly average of listeners ages 25 to 54 declined 44 percent, from 25,300 to 14,100.

About a half hour into "Wicked Ways" at the Lyric Opera House last night it was "deja vu all over again," as Yogi Bera said.It has all been shown before: the evil drug dealer, the prodigal children, the God-fearing parents who pray that their children will stop running with the wrong crowd, return to school or church and make something of their lives.While the story line may be getting a little worn around the edges, "Wicked Ways" is probably the strongest in the string of nationally touring urban contemporary musicals that have played the Lyric in the past couple of years.

In Baltimore, anchor teams for the local newscasts of record - weekday evenings and nights - are almost uniformly composed of black men teamed with white women. Shrug off this practice if you want. But people who switch on WJZ in the afternoon will see Kai Jackson and Sally Thorner. Later, you'll encounter Vic Carter and Denise Koch. Carter and Jackson are both black; Thorner and Koch are both white. Turn to WBAL-TV (Channel 11), and you'll find Jeff Pegues and Donna Hamilton or Rod Daniels with Marianne Bannister.

Baltimore urban contemporary station WXYV-FM (102.7) has won a Crystal Radio Award for public service this year from the National Association of Broadcasters.The station was one of 10 in the nation selected from 40 finalists for the annual honors, awarded earlier this month at the NAB convention in Las Vegas.Bob Fox, chairman of the NAB Radio Board, noted the award goes to stations that "set the radio industry standard in local service."The award cited V-103 for its "Unity in the Community" project, which includes on-the-air citations for good students, a crime hot line for anonymous reporting of criminal activities, a recent "Stop the Violence" effort and a "For Sisters Only" program devoted to African-American women.

WERQ-FM, the urban contemporary station better known as 92Q, remained Baltimore's top-rated radio station for the second quarter of 2008, attracting nearly 10 percent of the area's listening audience, according to figures released yesterday by the Arbitron ratings service. In fact, Baltimore's radio ratings changed little between the first quarter, which measured January through March, and the second, which includes April through June. Save for the disappearance of WSMJ-FM from the top 10 - little surprise, since the station changed both its format and its call letters in May, and is still building its new audience - the rankings were almost identical.

Jacor Communications Inc. will end up with three Baltimore radio stations as part of a $620 million merger deal approved by federal regulators yesterday, giving the Covington, Ky., company its first foothold in the Baltimore market.Jacor will assume control of Baltimore's WOCT-104.3 FM and WCAO-600 AM. In exchange, Jacor will relinquish stations in Minneapolis and Columbus, Ohio, to CBS Radio.The trade is part of an agreement to sell or swap eight of its stations to settle antitrust concerns raised by its acquisition of Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide Communication Inc.Jacor also is acquiring WPOC-93.

The radio waves in Baltimore have heated up with a significant format change for simulcast AM/FM stations WYST (1010 AM and 92.3 FM).92 Star's adult contemporary music sound went up-tempo to a "rythmic CHR" format -- short for dance-oriented Contemporary Hit Radio -- and the stations assumed a new identity as 92 Q."It's way beyond a format tweaking. We're really a whole new radio station," says promotions director Hal Martin.New call letters, which will include the letter "Q" but have not been revealed, are pending FCC approval "within a few days," according to Martin.

Listeners of WIYY-FM (98 Rock) have heard the morning drive team of Chris Emry and Erika Puzulis for the last time.The city's leading rock station and the two announcers "decided to go our separate ways" following the end of their air shift yesterday morning, according to general manager Ed Kiernan."

Who says you can't beat the Baltimore Orioles?Not the four teams in the American League East who finished ahead of them this year.And not radio station WXYV-FM (V-103).The urban contemporary station finished first in the Arbitron ratings for the summer released yesterday, beating out WBAL-AM, the local broadcaster of Oriole games.V-103 got a 9.5 share of Baltimore area listeners ages 12 and over, which general manager Roy Deutschman said was the highest rating in the station's history. The share was a significant increase from the station's 8.2 audience share in the spring.

Devon Howard grew up soaking in the sort of music featured each year at the Stone Soul Picnic, the annual celebration of funk, soul and R&B music that has been a staple of the Baltimore music scene since 1991. But Howard, a Baltimore-born singer with a smoothly passionate voice and an emerging hit single, has never been to the festival, which has routinely drawn more than 100,000 fans while featuring national acts such as Toni Braxton, the Ohio Players and Dru Hill. "I'm just not a crowd person," says Howard, a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts whose newest song, "The Other Side of the Bed" -- a tear-jerker about the end of a relationship -- has been getting prime airplay on urban contemporary stations around the nation.