Journalism & Media

Unleash the fury…Harry Kalas and other “non-radio” tidbits

Nestor Aparicio

First, I hope Ray Bachman has fun doing the show from 2 til 6 today. (He won’t admit it, but he really loves talking sports and doing the show. And he loves when I’m not there.) I’m having a “business/strategy” day of respite and I’ve been catching up on sports since 11 p.m. last night when Bruce Springsteen walked off the stage at the Spectrum. (Set list here…) I watched the Washington Caps win Game 7 on the DVR but only after someone in my life who will remain “unnamed” wrecked my evening by texting me the result while Springsteen was in the middle of singing “She’s The One.” (MAKE A NOTE OF THIS: DO NOT EVER TEXT YOUR FRIENDS A SCORE!!!! A simple, “Hey dude…do you want to know who’s winning?” would suffice. And, honestly, with the score of any game in the universe a click away on my phone why would I want you to wreck my midnight viewing by texting me the result. It’s just unacceptable!) But, I digress… Alas, I did watch the game in its entirety this morning (and it’s NOTHING like not knowing the result) and the Capitals are as lucky to be headed

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE! King of Baltimore Sportstalk continues…

Nestor Aparicio

Hopefully, by now you’ve seen some of the video or heard some of the interviews and auditions or read some of the great blogs we’ve been featuring here at WNST.net over the past two weeks as the “Coors Light King of Baltimore Sportstalk” competition rolls on this week via our blogosphere below. With the Orioles, the NFL Draft, the Caps and the Stanley Cup playoffs, lacrosse, golf and many other sports blossoming here in the early days of spring, there’s PLENTY to write about and watch for our prospective crew of 27 entrants into the KOBST parade of talent. (Yes, we had 54 actual applicants and only 27 have actually “followed through” with the energy to participate! We’ve already eliminated half of the original “field.”) Many folks have inquired regarding how the competition will work, and although there are several spots on the website with the rules and voting regulations, I just wanted to reiterate that voting for the “Top 3” bloggers will end on Thursday evening. We will announce the “Top 3” on Friday morning. Over the weekend the remaining candidates will have a chance to blog for four more days through the NFL Draft and on Tuesday at

Help us find the next Baltimore sports media superstar…

Nestor Aparicio

Let the games begin! I’ve been talking about the “Coors Light King (or Queen) of Baltimore Sportstalk” competition for two months and today we will finally begin the tournament where the challenge is to cover Baltimore sports in the new media universe at WNST.net like the professionals do every day. After watching “American Idol” in its totality for the first time this season, I got very inspired about finding creative ways to find Baltimore’s next great sports media stars. Perhaps I’m biased, but I firmly believe WNST.net is the best sports media company in the marketplace for Baltimore sports news, conversation and information. Everyone at WNST works nonstop to be the best – to set us apart from amateur internet bloggers and from “out of town” corporate entities who do not have the best interests of our community at heart. Our hard work is justified and rewarded when our www.Alexa.com reports continues to show us as BY FAR the most-visited sports website in the region on a daily basis. And we continue to battle it out with WBAL.com as the top two sites for radio – AM or FM – in the marketplace. I take my business seriously. I must,

Orange fireworks: Players and Trembley flip Peter Angelos “The Bird” today in The Sun

Nestor Aparicio

I’ve been saying for years that Fort Lauderdale Stadium and the Orioles’ sub-par Florida spring training situation is by far the biggest sin of all of their many sins and finally the folks over on Calvert Street are doing some “investigative journalism” with the orange birds. The club’s No. 1 promise to the public is that it’s doing everything possible to commit all of its resources to fielding a winning team. That’s the goal in baseball: winning a championship. You always want to give your team the best chance to compete. The Angelos family hasn’t done that for the entire tenure of their ownership in regard to the significance of spring training as anything more than a line item expense. The mere fact that they’re the only organization in the sport to have “two camps” in Florida that sit three hours apart is telling enough. It’s bad business. It’s bad baseball. It’s just inexcusable, unacceptable and dumb. Fort Lauderdale Stadium is a dump. It’s a disgrace. It’s been a disgrace for the entire balance of the 15 years they’ve played there. I’ve worked many, many a morning and pulled many 12-hour days at Fort Lauderdale Stadium doing radio and covering

R.I.P. to The Baltimore Examiner and “So you wanna be a sports media star?”

Nestor Aparicio

Where have the old-time “voices in sports media” gone in our community? Who are the commentators who “matter?” Does ANYONE’s opinion on radio or TV or in the newspaper or on the web matter? Did it ever? And where is the internet heading and what lies ahead for the next generation of sports media in Baltimore? These are all topics and questions on my mind as The Baltimore Examiner closed its doors on Valentine’s weekend. So stands the old white “masthead” lights over the harbor tonight — the light in the ‘r’ is ironically burned out on Pratt Street — and another dream has been vanquished for another “out of town” media entity whose management thought they would whisk into Baltimore, urinate on highly unpopular (yet unchallenged) bully of The Sun, which is such a corporate “lamb” these days that it’s in bankruptcy, and dominate the market with a concept and a primary medium whose time has clearly passed. Today’s blog will not be about sports as much as it will be about local sports media and how it works in 2009. And how much of a “mess” it is these days to be involved in old world media. For

A great show coming at 2 p.m. today…

Nestor Aparicio

This blog is a great way to give listeners to “Limited Access” (our new show name if you haven’t heard) some heads up about what’s coming on the show each day. Today, we have John Rallo, Tom Verducci and Jim Schwartz booked onto the program already. It is shaping up to be a classic and I can’t wait to get started! Every Thursday at 2 p.m. my old childhood buddy and MMA expert Rallo comes in for a UFC and mixed martial arts segment but we’ll also mix it up a bit and today is no exception with the Verducci visit. Schwartz is one of my best friends in sports and he just took the Detroit Lions head coaching job and has been blowing me off (including changing his cell phone number!) ever since I got the initial text saying he got the job. I will crank up the Judas Priest and be giving him a very hard time for his all of friends and family in Arbutus who also haven’t heard from him. Old Schwartzie must be drinking from the 0-16 firehouse in Detroit. And I have to be kinda nice because it was his connection that got me

Joe Flacco vs. Bert from Sesame Street

Nestor Aparicio

While surfing for some of the garbage being said about Steve McNair on the internet today, I tripped across a funny link comparing our civic hero Joe Flacco to Bert from Sesame Street because of the “unibrow” factor. There’s a very funny link here. And if you’re a real Sesame Street lover — for the record I was more of an Electric Company guy on PBS — you’ll dig this link to the “real” Bert. I know that Joe doesn’t like for his kid brothers and sisters to make fun of him but I have a feeling this one is going to wind up on the kitchen refrigerator in the Flacco household back in New Jersey. Hey, I didn’t create it. I just shared it! Do you find the resemblence striking? LOL…

A holiday message to Peter Angelos and the Orioles

Nestor Aparicio

The Baltimore Orioles can try to silence their critics today and attempt to ban the free speech of all of their many disgruntled customers and fans from posting angry diatribes on message boards like WNST on the internet, but there’s no getting around it if you’re Peter Angelos today. If you are from Baltimore and love Baltimore sports and you are celebrating any religious holiday from Christmas to Hanukkah to Kwanza to Festivus over the next 48 hours and anywhere from Highlandtown to Hong Kong, inevitably amongst so many family and friends with food and drink and cheer, you’ll be talking about two things: 1. How much the Orioles suck and once again what a disgrace it is to be an Orioles fan (and/or a MLB fan in general) after this whole Mark Teixeira fiasco And … 2. How much fun the Ravens have given us this year and whether they can win this Sunday against Jacksonville and whether they’ll go far into the playoffs and give us the thrill of a Super Bowl again Clear advantage: Ravens “WNST” has no control over any of your holiday conversations. There is no “WNST stance” at your dinner table. There are just

Does Joe Flacco have “that fire”?

Nestor Aparicio

In this new era of the Ravens media access under John Harbaugh, there have been many changes. Some subtle and some kinda “right between the eyes.” One of them is the lack of “all access” sound from the bench even for the Rave TV crews. I honestly don’t think very many people watched any of the team’s pre-produced shows over the years — at least very few people have ever talked to me about any of the shows — but the one glaring omission this season that was always “must see” TV for me in the past was Wired. (For the record, whenever I’ve watched their internal shows I’ve always enjoyed them. Larry Rosen does a helluva job. And I really miss Wired!) And I completely understand what Harbaugh is trying to accomplish by boxing out “distractions” caused by the “me” vs. the “team.” Don’t think the “What’s My Name?” and “RAVENS” reply isn’t lost on me. Billick and I talk about this stuff all the time. I totally get what Harbaugh’s goals were with these steps. (But that said, I miss “Hard Knocks” as well…) Knowing most of the guys on the team pretty well over the years, it

So…just how many people come to WNST.net every day for Baltimore sports?

Nestor Aparicio

Every day someone comes up to me on the streets of Baltimore and tells me that I should “turn up the signal” on AM 1570. That’s been going on since May 1998 when I first got involved in purchasing WNST, which was then WKDB, a failed kid’s radio station. As you know, this is the worst time of the year for us, when daylight ends around 5 p.m. and we are mandated by the FCC to “downpower” our transmitter, which restricts our AM radio access to an 8-mile circle around Towson, where our towers reside on the hill overlooking Loch Raven High School. Maybe you’ve heard our “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” promo on WNST? We did that for a reason. We’re NOT just an AM radio station anymore, as your eyes on this website should surely tell you. We have a lot more to offer than 12 hours of radio these days at AM 1570 on your radio. (But you’re already here on the website reading this, so that should be pretty self-explanatory.) Believe me, if we could petition the FCC to get more “hamsters running the power,” we would do it. But we don’t really

Gwynn tells Nestor about his vision for San Diego baseball

Baltimore Positive

Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn sat down with Nestor at Jack Murphy Stadium to discuss a life after baseball during the final month of his legendary Padres career.