Towson wants WTMD, the alternative rock station whose call letters reflect its origins as part of the Towson University music department, back in the county seat.
The station moved earlier this year into WYPR’s facilities at 2216 N. Charles St. in Charles Village as part of the merger of the two public broadcasters. WTMD’s name has been stripped off its high-profile location just north of the Towson circle and its scrolling news ticker familiar to travelers on York Road has gone dark.
The departure leaves a hole in the county seat’s central business district, where officials have been trying to diversify a retail base that’s healthy but heavy with restaurants, Nancy Hafford, executive director of the Towson Chamber of Commerce, said.
“We didn’t want them to go and now we want to get them to come back,” Hafford said. She’d like to convince WTMD to return to another location in Towson as part of a headquarters expansion the station owners are considering. Some of its art programming is funded by the Baltimore County Commission on Arts and Sciences.
The cost of having two locations and a desire to bring the staff of the two stations together prompted the decision to combine forces at the Charles Village location, which WYPR owned, Craig Swagler, president and general manager of station owner Baltimore Public Media, said.
But the space is tight.
“There’s only so much you can grow in a two-story building,” he said. That’s led him into discussions with prospective builders about relocating again or renovating the existing building to make way for an expanded public radio hub with performance space. Part of the decision may rest with the success of a capital campaign now underway.
Could the merged entity end up in Towson? “Nothing has been ruled out,” he said, diplomatically. But, he added, there is a desire to remain in the city to support it. “Whatever we do has to align with our mission and economics.”
The listener-supported radio station, 89.7 FM on the radio dial, was founded on the TU campus in 1972 and relocated in 2012 to the 8,000 square-foot space at the Towson City Center in a much-publicized expansion. The new digs featured four studios, offices and classrooms, rentable event space as well as a 1,300 square-foot performance venue that hosted its popular “Live Lunch” broadcasts.
WYPR, an NPR-affiliated talk and news outlet founded as WJHU by Johns Hopkins University but spun off in 2002, paid $3 million for WTMD in 2021.
The nonprofit Baltimore Public Media reported revenue of $9.9 million and expenses of $9.6 million for the fiscal year ending in July, 2023, the most recent year its tax filings are available.
WYPR is bad for radio.
Maybe not the business part of radio but more so for the product that comes out of the speakers.
WTMD’s firing of Jonathan “Weasel” Gilbert was/IS unconscionable.
WYPR/WTMD keeps digging the hole deeper. I wish they’d stop.
I agree with the above comments as a Towson alumni some 40 years ago.
This is symptomatic of the industry. When I was in radio back in the ‘70’s and 80’s it was very vibrant still. What killed it was the 1996 telecommunications act which allowed for consolidation.
What the small owners did was sell at inflated prices and now these big companies discovered is they had to run these stations now. All of a sudden you had multiple staffs so you look for places to cut.
Now Non commercial stations are going through the same thing with the same consultants doing what they did on the commercial side.
I hope WTMD returns to Towson and maintains its format because there is tremendous need and support for the format. That’s coming from a guy who loves commercial radio- oldies and old top 40 by the way.
Weasel(Jon Gilbert)is a friend of mine by the way and a Great broadcaster with an encyclopedic knowledge of music he should be on the air if you can convince the man to do it!
Great opportunity to speak on this and I’m very appreciative of that and the other comments. Take Care!
Nick Lemonakis(Miller’s Island,Md.)
I agree! I miss Weasel’s show. It was the best. I heard that they fired him over a Zoom call.
I am likely not the only one who stopped donating to both stations when they fired Weasel.