Our first WNST Ravens reporter Tim Watts joins Nestor at Greenmount Station on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour for memories of turn of the century Baltimore sports glory and tales of tailgates, football players, charity events and pictures that capture the evidence – for better or worse.
Our first WNST Ravens reporter Tim Watts joins Nestor at Greenmount Station on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour for memories of turn of the century Baltimore sports glory and tales of tailgates, football players, charity events and pictures that capture the evidence – for better or worse.
Nestor did a Rock N Jock Baseball Preview in the 1990s and his music pals called in to talk sports. Geddy Lee checked in from Toronto to discuss the 1997 Orioles and Blue Jays.
After almost a half century on the road, what happens when a band has too much time on its hands? For Styx guitarist and founder James Young, it was a “mirror, mirror on the wall” chat and a time to make history answering all of the hard questions Nestor ever had since he saw them on the Cornerstone tour in February 1980.
Now almost eight years into his life as an #AlmostFamous music critic at The Evening Sun in Baltimore, rockers like Billy Squier would return to pick up where they left off…
There’s no place like home for the holidays and no one more makes us feel more warm and welcome during December than our incredible sponsors, friends, supporters and local businesses that power us up all year-round. The Maryland Crab Cake Tour is back on the road for the egg nog, conversations, conviviality and fellowship over some seasonal treats and shipping the best of Baltimore anywhere you – or loved ones – will be this holiday season.
The history and lineup of Styx was fuzzy in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Nestor Aparicio has had many chats and encounters with all of the remaining members of the band over the years.
Guitarist Zakk Wylde talks the blizzard and Black Sabbath of Ozzy Osbourne, baseball and the state of New Jersey
This extremely awkward conversation led to a tour cancellation of his DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince show in Washington, D.C. Sometimes, parents just don’t understand…
You never know who will appear on Radio Row at the Super Bowl as Nestor has learned over the years. Yanni was there for the fun and had a great sense of humor…
David Bowie talks Tin Machine and Ziggy Stardust with Nestor in November 1991. There’s a whole back story to Nestor panning David Bowie’s “Sound And Vision” tour and then answering the phone when he called on November 8, 1991.
The Thin White Duke was simply brilliant and charming in this interview with the very green Nestor Aparicio, then the music critic for The Evening Sun in Baltimore. This was the era of Tin Machine.
Thirty years later, this harkens back to when Tommy Shaw was with Ted Nugent and Jack Blades in a supergroup and Styx still had Dennis DeYoung. “Yesterday’s just a memory, can we we close the door?”
Thirty years later, it seems almost inconceivable that Bruce Springsteen once was departed from E Street for over a decade. The Big Man joined Nestor during his days as an #AlmostFamous music critic at The Evening Sun in Baltimore to talk about solo life on the road.
The Baltimore Ravens are not playing smart football. The lack of discipline across the board has reared its head and leaves them as indistinct as their 7-4 mark headed to face to the Chargers.
They are the most penalized team in the NFL. And continually adding to the resume.
They have earned the distinction of the 32nd-ranked team against the pass. Somehow, the Steelers even managed to run for 122 yards on them on Sunday.
For the record: he thought it was a great and timely question back in Tampa in 2009…
In the aftermath of Jennifer Aparicio’s miraculous survival following a second bone marrow transplant, we were inspired to do a second “Night of Heroes” after leukemia survivor Chuck Pagano came back to Baltimore in 2015 to raise money and awareness for There Goes My Hero and the power of swabbing to save lives. If you missed one of the great nights in Baltimore vs. Pittsburgh sports partnerships in May 2016, you can relive it by watching three Super Bowl winning head coaches on one stage for a great cause. This was also the last public appearance of former Ravens president David Modell, who had some very important words, as did Super Bowl XXXV champion James Trapp, who also survived leukemia. A powerful evening.
Back in 2008 when head coach Brian Billick departed from the Baltimore Ravens and wanted to remain in Maryland, he became our partner at WNST.net on behalf of the Living Classrooms Foundation. As a legacy AM radio station that has now made it a quarter of a century as an enduring and truth-telling multimedia outlet on the strength of our partnerships, relationships and the benevolence of special people who serve to lift the community, we’re indebted to Coach Billick for his time, wisdom and integrity. Brian Billick never had any problem telling it like it is – and never lost sight of how important the Baltimore fan base and community were in his success as the Ravens head coach but also as a leader in the city where he brought us a Super Bowl XXXV parade.
It was April 3, 2001 and the Baltimore Ravens were the freshly minted Super Bowl XXXV champions and team president David Modell and head coach Brian Billick brought the Lombardi Trophy over to The Barn to talk football, community and how time would not dim the glory of their deeds.
The founder of WNST is an old news hound who was trained by the best in the business in the 1980s at The News American and The Baltimore Sun. When the internet became a thing at the turn of the century and texting quickly became ubiquitous, Nestor Aparicio asked his listeners to join the WNST Text Service sponsored by Koons Ford of Security Blvd. No spam! Ever. It’s been over 18 years since we launched the most trusted source for breaking sports news in Baltimore. What was the big news that you heard first and where were you when you received the text? (And ask Nestor about the time he purposely launched one in the cafeteria at the Ravens’ Liars Luncheon with NFL schedule news to watch everyone in the room reach for their phones!)
They said we’d never make it at WNST so when our 10th Anniversary on the Baltimore airwaves at AM 1570 also launched the all-new WNST.net on the internet, we took a chance to invite everyone downtown for a night of food, fans and good cheer to celebrate a decade of locally owned and operated sports radio in the Charm City. If you have any pictures of our night at Sports Legends Museum – there were a ton of celebrities and old-school listeners and friends in one place – we’d love to see and share them: nes@baltimorepositive.com
Back in 1996, Nestor was working with the Ed Block Courage Awards to raise money and awareness and dreamed up a Baltimore banquet that would bring together all of the local professional sports teams to honor the good people who play the games. The Nasty Nice Guy Awards hosted exclusively at Michael’s Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie lasted eight years and raised over $150,000 for local charities. The late, great Bobby Nyk played the tunes and we partied for a purpose with a lot of very recognizable faces. Elrod Hendricks represented the Baltimore Orioles every year so you know it was the place to be! Ask anyone who attended these incredible nights about their pictures with Cal Ripken, Ray Lewis, Art Donovan, Mike Flanagan, Jon Ogden, Gov. William Donald Schaefer, Brian Billick, Fang Mitchell and so many others.
While there were more than 1,000 applicants over several years of audition tapes, resumes, interns, producers, gophers and wannabes, we knew back in 2008 that Luke Jones was the real deal when he rolled in sporting that Haloti Ngata jersey, a stocked notebook and showed he was far more serious than anyone we’d ever met then – or since!
Sometime around Halloween of the 2011 season, Joe Flacco and Dennis Pitta started growing Fu Manchus as a bit of an inside joke to annoy their wives. Nestor approached him after another Ravens victory and a thing happened around Baltimore. Admit it, you probably have a funny picture somewhere on your timeline. One more reason to love Joe Flacco.
We’re still in the process of trying to recover the actual two-hour interview from Putty Hill Station in November 2004, but we remember this is the night that “Prime” rolled into Parkville with then-backup quarterback Kordell “Slash” Stewart (one-time star of the Pittsburgh Steelers) to make it a Hall of Fame evening for Ravens fans. We’ll find the tape. Soon. We hope…
Nestor remembers the Pittsburgh hotel manager howling when the Baltimore AM sports radio wackjob guy told her he was gonna bring a thousand people in purple to her fancy corporate wedding ballroom for four hours to drink beer and prepare to eliminate the Steelers from the AFC Championship Game. The game didn’t go well in 2009 or 2011 but we threw a helluva party up there with ‘yins. Our WNST Roadtrips could affect everything but the outcome for #RavensFlock.
We always find it rather comical that the Orioles and Angelos family nitpicks with Major League Baseball about the City Connect jerseys. In the modern era, everything the franchise does attempts to “reconnect” with the Baltimore fan base that it spent years alienating and subjugating by pampering to Washington baseball fans with the lack of the hometown city name on the road jerseys. Our radio station, hosts and listeners spent the first decade of our existence as the hometown sports radio station trying to explain to Peter Angelos why “BALTIMORE” across the crests of the visiting grays was not just a marketing ploy or a sales pitch, but a way of life for the home team.
Dr. Tim Tooten is no stranger to Baltimore citizens. The longtime education reporter at WBAL-TV and pastor of Harvest Christian Ministries joined us during the early days of COVID in June 2020 to tell us about his journey from the Suwannee River near Gainesville, Florida to Baltimore and what he has learned about people. A very compelling conversation with a Baltimore education reporting legend, who just retired from his work as a local journalist.
Nestor Aparicio wanted the best and he got the best! As a kid who worshiped all things KISS in the 1970s musical coming of age, he interviewed Paul Stanley twice as a music critic – once at The News American as a 16-year old in 1985 and again in a late-night, by-invite personal sit down with the legendary leader of the hottest band in the world at a makeup free 1990 chat on the “Hot In The Shade” tour. It was a great chat when the groupies weren’t beating on Stanley’s hotel room at the Dulles Hyatt.
Nestor Aparicio wanted the best and he got the best! As a kid who worshiped all things KISS in the 1970s musical coming of age, he interviewed Paul Stanley twice as a music critic – once at The News American as a 16-year old in 1985 and again in a late-night, by-invite personal sit down with the legendary leader of the hottest band in the world at a makeup free 1990 chat on the “Hot In The Shade” tour. It was a great chat when the groupies weren’t beating on Stanley’s hotel room at the Dulles Hyatt.
In Cleveland, they’ll call it a second half masterpiece. Here in Baltimore, it’s a wake-up call for the Ravens that they’re not as good as those Power Rankings and clips from last week said they were and the same ones that we’re sure John Harbaugh never reads or watches. Nestor Aparicio checks in with #ColumnNes after the hideous 33-31 loss.
Don’t blink: Defense at work! The floor is suddenly rising and the health, cohesive improvement and sheer talent of the Ravens starts to flash the promise that something special is at work in the sixth season of The Revolution of Lamar Jackson. Read Nestor Aparicio’s latest #ColumnNes in the aftermath of the Ravens’ 37-3 rout over Seattle.
Don’t blink: Defense at work! The floor is suddenly rising and the health, cohesive improvement and sheer talent of the Ravens starts to flash the promise that something special is at work in the sixth season of The Revolution of Lamar Jackson. Hear Nestor Aparicio’s latest #ColumnNes in the aftermath of the Ravens’ 37-3 rout over Seattle.
It isn’t always going to be as easy as the Ravens made it look against the Detroit Lions last week.
The Ravens are stacking up road wins in the division. Next up: a trip to Pittsburgh on the backside of an impressive victory over the overwhelmed Cleveland Browns on Sunday
If you are familiar with the beginnings of WNST, it probably came back on that first kickoff at Memorial Stadium on September 1, 1996 when the Baltimore Ravens were born and our DUMP TRUMPY placards made national news after NBC broadcaster Bob Trumpy wished the Charm City empty roads, warm beer and cold hot dogs. And of course, the GET NASTY flip sides took off and launched what would become WNST-AM 1570 on August 3, 1998. We will countdown our WNST Top 25 “Stories of Glory” every week through the football season. If you have pictures from this era, please email: nes@baltimorepositive.com and share and tag us on social media. We’d love to see your side of our 25 WNST Stories of Glory. And if you have a story to tell, let’s tell it. Gratitude for all of the years of your support keeping us strong and alive and thriving into our 26th year of doing it better than anyone’s ever done it!
Nestor Aparicio chats about all things E Street with the great Nils Lofgren who plays guitar in Bruce Springsteen’s legendary Hall of Fame band from Tampa on January 27, 2009 just days before the infamous Super Bowl halftime performance with Clarence Clemons.
Nestor Aparicio and Dennis Koulatsos discuss integrity, credibility, good faith and bad ownership
As the Orioles continue to refuse to take $600 million of your money for free to keep the franchise at Camden Yards, Nestor Aparicio and Dennis Koulatsos discuss integrity, credibility, good faith and bad ownership in local sports and its ugly history in Baltimore.
With the news of the bizarre suspension of MASN broadcaster Kevin Brown making national headlines, Nestor Aparicio inks a personal letter to Baltimore Orioles owner John Angelos in #ColumnNes.
Nestor Aparicio and Dennis Koulatsos discuss why Orioles stadium lease deal at Camden Yards is important
