Nestor Aparicio

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.