WNST at one time really had it going on.
They were pioneers in the all-sports talk format in Baltimore. They were fans with access and they delivered fun and informative content tailored to the fans of Charm City.
They groomed talent like no other station on the dial.
- Bob Haynie
- Jeremy Conn
- Rob Long
- Terry Ford
- Ken Weinman
- Casey Willet
Other contributors included Bruce Cunningham, Aaron Wilson, Spiro Morekas, Allan McCallum, Mark Mussina, Mark Suchy, The Swami, Ray Bachman (who was fired shortly after being labeled the station’s MVP) – the list goes on.
At one point I was even on WNST with our GAMETIME crew. But we were unceremoniously dumped after just 13 weeks. I found out about it from Ravens Sr. Director of Public Relations Chad Steele.
During the middle of a training camp practice at McDaniel College Chad informed me that I needed to leave because the station head honcho Nestor Aparicio had requested that my credential be taken away. Chad ultimately allowed me to stay and issued a non-affiliated credential to allow me to do my job.
But this isn’t about my disdain for Aparicio.
It’s about the sports fans of Baltimore and how the narcissistic ways of a sports station’s owner, a station that once claimed to be the “Station With Balls” (and unfortunately one that now is in desperate need of Midol), has ripped away a once promising venue and in an egomaniacal way allowed the station to decay like a washed up fish on the shores of Lake Erie.
That’s unfortunate for area sports fans and the station’s long-time sponsors.
And of course it’s a disservice to Aparicio’s latest victims, Drew Forrester and Glenn Clark. I wish both of them well and hope that they discover what many others before them did, that talent can and will surface again in time. Funny, now that I think about it WNST is akin to a minor league baseball team, supplying talent that moves on to the bigs.
I do owe Aparicio a sincere thank you for a couple of things. He gave us a glimpse of what a radio station might be like if run by fans of the area teams who just so happened to have access to those teams. It wasn’t corporate – it was content for fans by fans. I loosely borrowed that approach for our websites.
I also need to thank him for showing me what NOT TO DO as a leader and how ugly it is to put yourself before the team; to be blinded by self-absorbed ways that ultimately usher in your demise.
It will be interesting to see what the sequel brings for WNST.
But I can’t help but think of Jaws 2.
