They opened at 10am and I got there at around 9am. Was fourth in line and the manager came out around 9:30am to let us know they only had four copies. I got lucky. The guy behind me was there before anyone but fell asleep in his car and got out just too late.
While listening to C4 & Bryan Nehman this morning “mansplain” to women on the declining birth rates in the United States and how they just “need to have kids even if they’re not ready” and then somehow it’s the Democrats fault (even though child mortality rates and prenatal healthcare is worse in red states) - it got me thinking how sadly mediocre this station is and how their sole purpose now is to defect from any issue regarding Trump or the Republican Party and make it the fault of the Democrats or Wes Moore.
What’s worse is the monopoly of influence they’re creating. Not only is the morning show four hours of propaganda, the evening show with Angellette Aviles is even worse. She will pick a random topic out of the air - like noise pollution at BWI - and turn it into something that Obama did. She’ll take calls from conservatives and let them ramble for 5 minutes and spout factoids and statistics that have little basis in reality, but if someone calls in to counter she quickly goes, “we’re running out of time.”
Outside of the on-air influence, former hosts (and reoccurring guest hosts) Torrey Snow and Yuripzy Morgan now have a podcast called “Free Range Politics” where they, you guessed it, complain about Wes Moore. If you go to their Facebook or YouTube profile, nearly every video clip (yes they have a fancy studio) or post is “did you hear what Wes Moore did today?” Torrey also is an op-ed contributor to the Baltimore Sun, which he uses to push this same narrative of how Wes Moore is the devil incarnate, and has even brought along Angellette for op-eds as well.
If you can’t tell I am a Democrat, but I always found it important to listen to the other side which was why I started tuning into WBAL Radio years ago. But it has devolved into such a mouthpiece of the local and national Republican Party that it’s almost unlistenable most days. The midday host, TJ Smith, is the only reasonable and grounded host but he’s in a time slot that doesn’t get much attention.
I think what’s also sad with the station is the older, conservative generation that tunes in remember when the station was a flagship of news and information and don’t understand (or don’t care) that it has contorted into an echo chamber of grievance that’s warping their minds rather than being an altruistic platform.
They expect hosts with actual credentials when none have any legit expertise. Bryan Nehman is just a Fox News host wannabe. C4 is a failed politician who claims to be a Democrat when he usually says worse things than Bryan Nehman. Angellete has zero credentials from what I can gather apart from constantly bragging she rides a motorcycle. Yuripzy is another failed politician who appears on WBAL Radio and other stations (like Fox 45) as a legal expert - and yet if you look at her case history it’s largely traffic court cases. And then there’s Torrey - yet another failed politician with no real expertise other than having a computer science background.
When you put it all together - they are a mediocre group of individuals with a sole purpose of creating an echo chamber of grievance and protecting Trump and Republicans from accountability. For a bunch of people who claim to love Maryland they sure complain about nearly every aspect of it and do a disservice to themselves.