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Sade Baderinwa came into Edie House's life when she was 4. House remembers the little girl's navy blue and red dress with white piping, her saddle shoes and Afro. Sade couldn't pronounce House's name. She called her "Edick." Soon enough, though, the child would ask, "Edick, can I call you Mom?" Today, Baderinwa, a WBAL anchor, is on the threshold of a promising television career. Proudly watching from home is House, former WBAL anchor and public affairs manager. As a child, Baderinwa spent many hours with House in the television newsroom.

Everyone in local TV says "sweeps" don't matter as much as they used to now that Baltimore has Nielsen's local people meters (contested as that data might be) Still, everyone who does well in the Nielsen audience survey wants the world to know. And why not? All metrics are up for grabs these days, and everyone in the media wants the ones that show any successs celebrated. WJZ (Channel 13) had another month of big Nielsen success in local news. It won every head-to-head weekday news time period with the most important audience of adults 25 to 54 years of age. Dan Joerres, general manager of WBAL, described adults 25 to 54 as "the key demographic that most advertisers use when considering where to advertise.

Rudy Miller will return as a Baltimore television news anchor, at least temporarily, when Sally Thorner, the co-anchor at Channel 2 (WMAR) goes on maternity leave.Miller, a 10-year mainstay at Channel 11 (WBAL) until an acrimonious parting of the ways in 1989, will anchor Channel 2's weekend newscasts when the current weekend anchor, Mary Beth Marsden, replaces Thorner on weeknights, according to the station's general manager, Arnie Kleiner.Thorner is expecting her baby in about a month, and Kleiner said that she will work as long as possible but that the length of her absence has been left open.

In July when Marianne Banister was dropped by WBAL-TV, I wrote about the move as part of a larger issue of middle-aged women anchors being fired as cost cutting moves. Read that here . Last week, Sue Simmons, a long-time star on local TV in New York, made the same kind of headlines when WNBC-TV said goodbye to her after a long run atop the NYC ratings. And while Simmons is 68, her 68-year-old male co-anchor remains on the job. Well, Banister will be back on local TV Sunday for the first time since WBAL dumped her. She'll be talking about the changing dynamics of TV news at 11 a.m. Sunday on Richard Sher's "Square Off. " I know I appreciated Banister's straight talk back in July when I first reported the story with her. She didn't pull any punches about the fact that leaving WBAL was not her decision.

Listen to your body. Get a doctor you really like and trust. Stop smoking. Jayne Miller smiles and laughs at her newfound mantras, truisms she's learned the hard way during the past two months. Hers is a good, hearty laugh, one that betrays not a hint of anything wrong - she neither looks nor sounds like a woman still recovering from brain surgery. Sitting on a picnic bench outside WBAL's TV Hill studios on a warm April afternoon, she seems as energetic and straightforward as ever, every inch the hard-driving investigative reporter who has been chasing after lying pols and corrupt businessmen for nearly three decades.

A few years ago while working outside Washington, I was attempting to tune in an Orioles' afternoon game on my car radio. This was an FM frequency, the flagship station. Imagine my frustration at not being able to receive the broadcast, a mere 40 miles outside Baltimore. I was elated to hear the news yesterday that Orioles baseball broadcasts are coming back to WBAL-AM in Baltimore ( "Orioles headed back to WBAL after four seasons at 105.7 FM," Feb. 8). It's where the Os belong, having listened to hundreds of games from what will be the flagship station once again.

Local TV news ratings in Baltimore are rarely news. The market has been dominated for a long time by a back-and-forth battle between WJZ and WBAL. Since the mid-1990s, most years ended in some version of a split decision, with both stations claiming victory. It was all mind-numbingly predictable. Then, last week, came a set of Nielsen numbers for January showing WJZ (Channel 13) scoring a clean sweep over WBAL (Channel 11) - winning every competitive news time period. That defines dominance.

Donna Hamilton will be joining Rod Daniels at the 11 p.m. anchor desk at WBAL-TV  (Channel 11) starting Super Bowl night, General Manager Dan Joerres confirmed Wednesday. Daniels has been anchoring the flagship broadcast solo since July when WBAL decided not to renew the contract of Marianne Banister. Banister had been co-anchoring since 1995 when she arrived at WBAL from station KABC, the ABC owned station in Los Angeles where she anchored early morning and 6 p.m. newscasts in the nation's second largest TV market.

WBAL Radio's sports talk host, Steve Davis, was laid off yesterday, vice president and station manager Jeff Beauchamp said. "We've done some realigning because of the economy," Beauchamp said. "... This was an economic move" unrelated to Davis' performance. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/mediumwell)

1977: Rudy Miller hired by WBAL to report on the weather.1978: Leaves to become an environmental reporter at KRON-TV in San Francisco.1980: Rejoins WBAL as an anchorwoman.August 1988: Begins negotiations with management for a contract to replace the three-year pact that expires at year's end.Dec. 31, 1988: Contract expires; she agrees to continue working on a month-to-month basis while negotiating a contract.June 26, 1989: Ms. Miller is told by the station to accept the terms of a new contract or be fired.

Jayne Miller , WBAL-TV's chief investigative reporter, might be taking on a new role shortly as a member of the board of trustees of Penn State University. The troubled school is expected to publish a ballot online later today with a slate on nominees for the board that runs the school, and Miller will likely be on it. The 1976 journalism graduate has been nominated by 50 Penn State alumni. "I really would like to do it," Miller said Wednesday morning when asked in a telephone interview whether or not she will serve on the board if alma mater calls.

WBAL-TV, which has seen a drop in its year-to-year news audience, is adding another newscast on its WBAL Plus (digital channel) starting in March. Baltimore's NBC affiliate will add a 10 p.m. weeknight newscast anchored by Kate Amara on March 5, the station will announce Wednesday. In October, the station added a 7 a.m. newscast on WBAL Plus. So far, the ratings have been minimal, according to Nielsen data. But Dan Joerres, station general manager, says the newscast is beating some of "the cable channels" in that time period.

Local TV news ratings in Baltimore are rarely news. The market has been dominated for a long time by a back-and-forth battle between WJZ and WBAL. Since the mid-1990s, most years ended in some version of a split decision, with both stations claiming victory. It was all mind-numbingly predictable. Then, last week, came a set of Nielsen numbers for January showing WJZ (Channel 13) scoring a clean sweep over WBAL (Channel 11) - winning every competitive news time period. That defines dominance.

Donna Hamilton will be joining Rod Daniels at the 11 p.m. anchor desk at WBAL-TV  (Channel 11) starting Super Bowl night, General Manager Dan Joerres confirmed Wednesday. Daniels has been anchoring the flagship broadcast solo since July when WBAL decided not to renew the contract of Marianne Banister. Banister had been co-anchoring since 1995 when she arrived at WBAL from station KABC, the ABC owned station in Los Angeles where she anchored early morning and 6 p.m. newscasts in the nation's second largest TV market.

Friends, family, fans and colleagues said a public farewell to WBAL radio show host Ron Smith Tuesday at Goucher College. And it was as powerful and moving in some respects as the way Smith, who died in December at age 70, lived his final weeks and months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October. The manner in which Smith shared his final days with his radio audience until he could no longer go on air, and then the way he said farewell to them in a live broadcast, was remarkable --  both public and yet incredibly intimate.

The public is invited to attend a memorial service Jan. 17 for WBAL's Ron Smith, Baltimore radio's longtime "Voice of Reason," who died of pancreatic cancer Dec. 19. The service, to be held at Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium, will include testimonials from WBAL-TV sports anchor Gerry Sandusky, news anchor Stan Stovall, financial analyst Jonathan Murray and political analyst Blair Lee IV. Also speaking will be WBAL Vice President and General...

February was a good month for WBAL-TV (Channel 11), as the local NBC affiliate turned in one of its strongest sweeps performances in years. The station's local newscasts at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. weeknights drew larger audiences than those of its chief competitors, WJZ (Channel 13) and WMAR (Channel 2), combined. In late news at 11 p.m., WBAL topped its nearest rival, WJZ, by two ratings points (20,500 area TV households). "By any objective measure, anyone looking at the February ratings would have to conclude that the pre-eminent news organization in Baltimore at this time is WBAL-TV," said Bill Fine, the station's general manager.

WBAL-AM (1090) went off the air for 32 minutes beginning at 7:15 a.m. yesterday because of a rare malfunction in the 50,000-watt station's transmitter.The top-rated area station in the 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. morning drive-time period, WBAL gave away $100 to 22 different listeners when it returned to the air at 7:47 a.m. Vice president/station manager Jeff Beau champ said the impromptu giveaway was a token expression of gratitude for listeners' loyalty. The station "got bombarded with phone calls" during the blackout, he said.

WBAL radio will launch its new post-Ron-Smith lineup Monday, and it will feature more news and less daytime talk, according to Dave Hill, program director for WBAL and FM sister station 98 Rock. "Maryland's Morning News" will now run for five hours from 5 to 10 a.m., while the station's afternoon newscast anchored by Mary Beth Marsden will start at 2 and end at 6 p.m. It had been starting at 3 p.m. The only daytime talk show will be hosted by Clarence Mitchell IV, known to WBAL audience as C4, who will now start his four-hour program at 10 a.m. The station will offer an expanded 15 minute newscast at noon, and Mitchell will then continue to 2 p.m. Smith, who hosted talk shows on WBAL for 26 years, died this month of pancreatic cancer.

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.