Wjhu

He talks to our wives in our bedrooms. He speaks to them softly, slipping them the powerful pill of music. He knows they are listening to him, this Bohemian-voiced night fly with the nursery-rhyme last name. He knows there's nothing innocent about jazz. It will break your heart, steal your woman, then buy you a Scotch."He's as good as anybody I've heard in this country doing jazz," says Baltimore talk show host Marc Steiner.He is Andy Bienstock. The shy cat in a fedora has been at WJHU-FM (88.1)

This column takes pause, somewhere between the first of the television football games and the last of the drumsticks and stuffing and sauerkraut and Bromo Seltzer, to present its annual listing of things to which Baltimoreans should give thanks.To wit:Be thankful for the other 600 kids at Northern High School.Be thankful that crime in the city of Baltimore keeps dropping and dropping. At its current rate of decline, it should reach 1950s levels by the end of the century - the 22nd century.

Writer Sean Connolly was having a case of what Yogi Berra might call deja vu all over again.He had just left radio station WJHU, the place that had lured him to Baltimore 11 years ago. And he was sitting in a restaurant on North Charles Street, in the same building where he had first lived.But the restaurant on the first floor has mutated from French to Ukrainian and his visit to WJHU was a visit to the other side of the microphone, as a guest on "The Marc Steiner Show."Instead of working as the overnight announcer, or detailing the adventures of Joey the First in the first-ever radio cartoon, he was promoting his first novel, "A Great Place to Die."

In the Today section of yesterday's Sun, a story about a new general manager at WJHU-FM (88.1) incorrectly reported the status of former general manager Dennis Kita. Kita left WJHU in July for a position with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.The Sun regrets the error.Perhaps it's only fair, considering it lost its last general manager to National Public Radio, that Johns Hopkins University's radio station has plucked its new GM from the same operation.Following a six-month search, Raymond G. Dilley, director of NPR's international service, has been named to head operations at WJHU-FM (88.1)

In the Today section of yesterday's Sun, a story about a new general manager at WJHU-FM (88.1) incorrectly reported the status of former general manager Dennis Kita. Kita left WJHU in July for a position with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 1/17/97

Three weeks into his job as general manager of WJHU-FM (88.1), Ray Dilley is sure of only one thing: He wants more.More listeners -- and more money from them. More locally produced programming. More discussion of issues relevant to Baltimore.Not, he's quick to stress, that he's unhappy with the direction WJHU has chosen, including its hotly debated shift in summer 1995 from classical music to National Public Radio. But when he talks about his plans for the station, he keeps coming back to the same word: potential.

Convict made mockery of probation systemAn article by Dennis O'Brien on July 12 informed us that Theodore Reshetiloff, "a Baltimore man convicted in the 1992 death of a homeless alcoholic," was given an 18-month jail sentence for violating the terms of his probation.Should the community feel safer? Yes, but more than that, the community should feel lucky.Mr. Reshetiloff's sentence was five years of supervised probation, the first 2 1/2 years under house arrest. He failed to respond to calls placed by a monitoring service computer 36 times between November 1995 and July 1996.

A power outage in the Lower Park Heights neighborhood where WJHU-FM has its transmitter knocked the radio station off the air for two hours last night, a spokesman said."

After more than a decade together on the air, it's splitsville for Lisa Simeone and WJHU-FM (88.1). And the parting, coming just over a year after a controversial format change that abandoned classical music and cut back dramatically on locally produced programming, seems less than amicable.Simeone, whose final radio program is scheduled to air at 10 a.m. Sunday, says the station offered her a new contract that was fair. But reflection -- combined with what she called a host of petty incidents -- made her decide to leave.

A power outage in the Lower Park Heights neighborhood where WJHU-FM has its transmitter knocked the radio station off the air for two hours last night, a spokesman said."

Baltimore public radio station WYPR-FM has canceled its scheduled pledge drive this month, more than a week after its decision to fire veteran talk-show host Marc Steiner drew anger from fans of the show. Andy Bienstock, station vice president and program director, said yesterday the station will hold a combined winter and spring 2008 fund drive in April. Station management didn't want to hold a drive until a replacement for The Marc Steiner Show was in place, he said. "It's not fair to ask people to contribute without their hearing what we are going to do," Bienstock said.

"Next, from Toledo, we have a call from Phyllis. Go ahead, Phyllis, you're on with the president of Russia ..." Tonight at 7:30, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin will entertain the questions of National Public Radio anchor Robert Siegel, and then take e-mails and calls from the rest of America. The NPR interview and ensuing discussion will be carried on regional affiliates WJHU (88.1 FM) and WAMU (88.5 FM). Under Soviet regimes, said Kevin Klose, NPR's president, "this would have been impossible to imagine.

IT IS AUTUMN and the beers, like the leaves, are turning brown. The leaves are changing color because their yellow or orange carotenoids are becoming more prominent. The seasonal beers turn amber or copper-colored because their malt is roasted longer. These color clues are signs that Oktoberfest is here. For fans of seasonal beers this means that when the leaves start dropping, the bottle tops start popping. On one level, Oktoberfest is remarkably simple. It is another excuse to drink beer.

The Johns Hopkins University will give a local group seeking to take control of WJHU (88.1 FM) a bit more time to arrange the sale's final terms, according to both parties. On July 13, Maryland Public Radio Corp., led by WJHU talk show host Marc Steiner, was granted a month by Hopkins to solidify its financing and to fine-tune other parts of the deal. No other bids would be considered by the university during that period. On Aug. 13, the not-for-profit group was given a week's extension.

Talk show host Marc Steiner is on the brink of realizing his dream of taking control of WJHU, Baltimore's chief public radio news station. Yesterday, the station's owner, the Johns Hopkins University, signed a letter of intent to sell the station to a not-for-profit community-based group led by Steiner, called Maryland Public Radio Corp. The group has 30 days to solidify its financing to buy the station and make a specific offer. The asking price has been estimated at $5 million or more.

Officials at the Johns Hopkins University envision great things for campus-owned WJHU-FM, Baltimore's chief National Public Radio news station. They'd like more local programming, a signal that reaches more of the state, a news desk to file reports that peer behind the headlines. Two other things Hopkins administrators would like: They'd like someone else to do it. And they'd like that someone else to pay several million dollars for the privilege. Perhaps as early as today, people knowledgeable about the process said, Hopkins is expected to select its buyer for WJHU, heard at 88.1 FM. No announcement has been made, but the university is poised to award the station to Maryland Public Radio, a group led by WJHU talk show host Marc Steiner.

WMAR told medical reporter Anna Marie Chwastiak yesterday the station would not renew her contract when it expires in September. Her release was the first major newsroom move made by the station's relatively new news director, Staci Feger-Childers, who was brought to Baltimore to shake up the perennially third-rated station. "It's very disappointing, because I wanted to be part of the Channel 2 family," said Chwastiak, known on air as "Dr. Anna Marie." She came to Baltimore in the fall of 1997, after stints at stations in Long Island, Scranton and Philadelphia.

The efforts of the Johns Hopkins University to sell its public radio station appear to have collapsed, as two of the three named finalists recently decided against bidding for the station. University officials had set next Monday as the day they would announce the new owner of WJHU-FM (88.1), Baltimore's sole National Public Radio news affiliate. But over the weekend, WAMU-FM, owned by American University in Washington, and WBUR, owned by Boston University, reversed themselves, declining to submit bids.

Officials at Maryland Public Television thought they had an ace to play in their failed bid for Baltimore's National Public Radio news affiliate: NPR itself. NPR had agreed to join the state television broadcaster in an unprecedented partnership at WJHU that could have served as a model for how it would operate elsewhere. That commitment included a pledge to send reporters and other staffers to Baltimore, and to develop a six-figure plan to market the station aggressively next year. Ken Stern, NPR's executive vice president, said his organization became involved to assure WJHU's continued status as the city's primary public radio news station.

Three finalists have emerged in the bidding to take over WJHU, the NPR-affiliate owned by the Johns Hopkins University. They include a local group headed by its most recognizable voice, and two stations owned by major private universities elsewhere. "There's no question in my mind that any of the three will retain the [station's] commitment to public radio and to local programming," said James T. McGill, Hopkins' senior vice president for finance and administration. The finalists included Maryland Public Radio, a recently formed initiative led by WJHU talk show host Marc Steiner and several others involved with the station who are seeking backers to help purchase the station.