Free Republic

A look back at the news and commercials circa 1979, with a special focus on the national news. https://youtu.be/uxvEigiI14I

Ron Smith, who came to Baltimore 38 years ago as a weekend TV anchorman but found his greatest success on radio as WBAL's "Voice of Reason," died Monday night of pancreatic cancer at his home in Shrewsbury, Pa.. He was 70. Mr. Smith spent more than 26 years on WBAL's airwaves, most of it in the afternoon drive-time period until a move to mornings last year, passionately talking politics from a conservative point of view. But it is not his politics for which he will likely be remembered as much as the informed conversation he helped create on Baltimore radio...

Here is the column that was submitted by Ron Smith, a weekly Baltimore Sun columnist, to the newspaper. However, The Sun decided not to run the piece today for various reasons. Decide for yourself whether the decision makers at The Sun made the right decision. Because of all the reports I've read and conversations I've had on the radio this week about Baltimore's notorious violence being directed these days randomly at people going about their daily business even in the supposedly safe "touristy" areas of the city, I reached for my copy of Anthropologist Jack Weatherford's book, "Savages and Civilization:...

Here is the column that was submitted by Ron Smith, a weekly Baltimore Sun columnist, to the newspaper. However, The Sun decided not to run the piece today for various reasons. Decide for yourself whether the decision makers at The Sun made the right decision. Because of all the reports I've read and conversations I've had on the radio this week about Baltimore's notorious violence being directed these days randomly at people going about their daily business even in the supposedly safe "touristy" areas of the city, I reached for my copy of Anthropologist Jack Weatherford's book, "Savages and Civilization:...

Thanks to the efforts of investigative reporters for WBAL in Baltimore, which has just broken the story, the former third-ranked official for the Democrat Party in Maryland has been outed as the original source for sexual slanders against Baltimore’s Democrat Mayor, Martin O’Malley, who is currently running for Governor. The original stories in February in the Washington Post blamed the kerfuffel on Joseph Stefan, then an aide to Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich, Jr. The aide was terminated from his position as a result of his name (but not the Democrat’s name) coming out at the time. Source: www.wbal.com/shows/Smith/ Transcript should...

Want to know what Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich is thinking? Just listen: The difference between Virginia's budget situation and Maryland's? "They have a huge surplus because they passed taxes when they didn't need to," Ehrlich said last month. The controversy over an Ehrlich fundraiser held at a Baltimore golf club that has no black members? "All a bunch of nothing," he declared on July 5. His feelings about stem cell research? "I support stem cell research, including embryonic stem cell research," he stated in April as the General Assembly was considering whether to allow state funding of it. Ehrlich didn't...

Ron Smith's "Something to Say" CommentaryWBAL AM Radio 1090 Baltimore Neoconned?Wednesday, June 02, 2004 Ron Smith The neoconned conservatives are feeling angry these days, not at the neocons for conning them into backing the invasion of Iraq, but at any who point out that the situation over there is not only not what the war enthusiasts promised – cheers and flowers from an enthused Iraqi population thrilled that we removed the tyrant Hussein – but one that is deteriorating more each day. Rush Limbaugh said yesterday on his program that one couldn’t support our troops while being opposed to our...

WBAL AM-RADIO Baltimore Ron Smith's "Something to Say" Commentary School Budgets, Teaching and TeachersFriday, February 13, 2004 “I could see the fury in their eyes,” said Baltimore Teacher’s Union President Marietta English upon her arrival at the polling place where city school teachers voted “no” to accepting a pay cut to reduce the budget deficit faced by the reeling school system.            It’s clear that teachers feel they shouldn’t have to suffer for the financial ineptitude of their bosses.  One can sympathize with their emotions; especially since many of them regularly dip into their own pockets to pay for classroom supplies...

WBAL AM Radio 1090 {11} Baltimore Ron Smith's "Something to Say" Commentary Weekday Mornings at 6:50AM on WBAL Radio The Privacy Act SubvertedFriday, January 30, 2004 Ron Smith Last week, the Washington Times reported that a giant corporation that owns all sorts of hotels, mortgage lenders, real-estate companies, and tax accounting services is “getting into other businesses. Yours.” The Cendant Corp. is working on compiling a database of its millions of customers, one that would include more than 200 pieces of personal information. According to the newspaper story, this is perfectly legal, and furthermore it is a “standard practice among...

WBAL - AM Radio 1190 Baltimore, Md. Ron Smith's "Something to Say" Commentary Waging War Against a TacticMonday, January 19, 2004 Ron Smith This “war on terrorism” is wearing on me. The likelihood of any one of us becoming a victim of Osama bin Laden’s henchmen is next to zero. Yet we are bombarded with color-coded “terror alerts” designed to keep us perpetually alarmed, and thus willing to suffer whatever our various federal, state and local governments wish to inflict upon us in the name of keeping us “safe.” Terrorism is a tactic, a method by which people with political...

Ron Smith's "Something to Say" CommentaryWeekdays at 6:50AM | rsmith@wbal.com | Ron Smith Show Page The Start of Something B igApril 10, 2003    Ron Smith's Something to Say           The fall of Baghdad marks the start of something big, of that there is no doubt.  The question is whether this begins the fulfillment of the neocon’s grandiose scheme of remaking the world to their satisfaction, or whether the consequences will be something other than that; perhaps a bite of something too big even for the world’s “sole superpower” to digest.            There was never a doubt as to the outcome...

Baltimore's NEWS - TALK- SPORTS Station It Was Ugly at Morgan State Last NightSeptember 27, 2002    Ron Smith's Something to Say     (September 27, 2002) Well, what a rude, contemptuous, ugly reception Bob Ehrlich got at Morgan State last night when he showed up to debate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. (They even booed his wife and parents as they were led to their seats). This gubernatorial debate was so stacked in favor of the Democrat as to be ludicrous—even for the State of Maryland. Not only was the audience aggressively hostile to the Republican congressman, the questioners on the...