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The world has changed a lot since I was born in 1968 and when I first starting reading The Sun in 1972. I was one of those kids who read early and have vivid memories of reading the sports section scores to the class in kindergarten in 1973. I learned to read by reading the newspaper every day. News, information and current events were a huge part of my household in Colgate. And sports was part gospel.

Take the WNST Baltimore Sports Media Survey here…

Every day at my house in Dundalk, The Sun came in the morning and The News American came at night. (Even though both of my parents insisted on calling it “The News Post” – its earlier name from the 1950s.) I read the sports section, the news section, TV listings, played Wishing Well and read the goofy horoscope. I was — and still am at heart — a newspaper freak. I clipped mastheads when my family traveled in 1978 to Myrtle Beach, S.C. from every newspaper at every rest stop. They were easy-to-get 10-cent souvenirs at every Stuckey’s along the way!

My Pop subscribed to the Baseball Digest (we’d always get the almanac and stats books at the end of every year, which were like bibles in my house) and The Sporting News.

As a kid in the 1970’s, we were under almost communistic rule in regard to the flow of real information to the public in regard to sports or the business of sports. If the baseball owners – who were the kings of American sports, in that they owned the most valuable & well-marketed sports properties – didn’t want players to have free agency for 50 years, do you think they were interested in sports writers having free speech? (Just think about it…lol)

My flow of information was relegated to a few annual digests, The Sporting News and bubble gum cards. (One day I’ll write a book solely devoted to baseball cards, which have been a lifelong passion for me.)

Back to the basics: when you’re a kid from Dundalk in the 1970s you think “I read it in the newspaper – it MUST be true!” Or at least that’s what I thought before I had given any thought to the business aspects of the sports media world.

I’ve later come to realize that until Howard Cosell came along during my childhood and began to expose all of the nonsense in the sports world and the backrubs that the alleged “media” were giving the “jockocracy,” it was a world of marketing, hero-worship and ticket selling with very little regard for the facts about athletes or how the world works. It was pretty much like the World Wide Wrestling Federation – a land of make believe. You make up a story in the public relations department, get the writers to write about it, make your broadcasters talk about it during the games – and voila, Fruit Loops becomes part of the Mickey Tettleton legend!

I’m now 41 and I’ve spent every moment since I was 15 years old learning about, living in and adjusting to the world of Baltimore sports media. And with all of the knowledge and school-of-hard-knocks life lessons I’ve been taught, I’ve never read anyone who was more on-point, accurate and candid than Cosell.

To me, he’s the greatest sports journalist there ever was – and his credo of “telling it like it is” always resonates with me and while in some colleague circles it hasn’t made me popular, it has brought me the eternal gift of respect from those who know that I don’t need to sugarcoat the reality of a circumstance.

In Dundalk parlance, they know I’m not “bulls%^&*g” them…

If I’ve said it or written it over the years, it’s the truth. Like it or not, you’re getting what I really think and the background of facts and observations that justify my stance.

But, then again, I’m the only media member in the marketplace who doesn’t have a boss. I don’t answer to anybody and I don’t work for anybody else. No one can “fire” me. So, in many ways, I’m the only one who CAN tell you the truth. Sad, but true.

If you’re giving me the time to read this piece – or have ever tuned into any of my work since 1984 – I feel I owe you what I really think not just what “someone told me I should say.” And besides, it’s got my name on it. And the building and radio station and website all have WNST.net on them. So this week upon my departure from radio and into the fulltime world of social media and entrepreneurship, I’m going to set the record straight.

Since the 1980’s, I’ve gone on to work for all three daily newspapers as a kid, learning every nuance of the news, journalism, reporting, editing and protocol of the industry from the greatest cast of experts you could possibly imagine: John Steadman, Richard Justice, Ken Rosenthal, Tim Kurkjian, Buster Olney, plus dozens (if not hundreds) of other mentors, co-workers, colleagues and sports media personalities and business executives. I’ve been a sponge to all of their unending information, knowledge and advice. Much of this I’ll be using when I begin researching and writing my third book all this year on the history of Baltimore sports coaches and leadership and wisdom. I am hoping it will be the best piece of work I’ve ever done. I will pour my heart into it and hope that you buy it and share it. I’m hoping to have it available by Labor Day.

In the 1990’s I created a successful sports radio show that begat WNST-AM 1570 and the first all-sports radio station in Baltimore, all while being nationally syndicated on One on One Sports and Sporting News Radio for three years while acting as an affiliate and have now successfully owned and operated all aspects of WNST since 1998.

I have seen firsthand every change and every nuance of the sports media industry from television to radio to newspapers to magazines to the internet. From the sports and ownership side, to the players’ side to the business side of the media world, I’ve made this industry and my passion for this city and its teams my life’s work. The business of sports and media has been my life and my focus for as long as I can remember.

The history of the media before I came along is a tad bit fuzzy, but it’s pretty clear the 1940’s and 1950’s were the era of the sportswriter and radio broadcaster. That’s where folks became sports fans by listening to sportscasters paint the excitement on the radio and then became inspired to go to a baseball game at old Oriole Park or take in a Colts game on 33rd Street or bet a few races at Old Hilltop.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, local television at 6 and 11 gave you highlights, scores and late race results and the local anchors (Jack Dawson, Nick Charles and Vince Bagli were the Big Three when I was indoctrinated) were the local heroes and most significant voices because of their community reach. Remember, the nightly TV local news didn’t even exist until the time when the Colts began their late 1950s run. It was a new world, really. They all we’re good-looking chaps who made big six-figure contracts, read ads for sponsors, hosted local chicken dinners for civic groups and stood on the field/court/rink during the 6 o’clock news and helped sell tickets and enthusiasm. For the most part, they were cheerleaders, really for local sports.

Just rent “Anchorman” if you care to know more…

In the 1980s and 1990s (when I came along) sports columnists at the newspaper and radio hosts were the only ones with a voice, the ability to “commentate” on the issues, strategy, etc. While Bagli could barely throw a mere one-liner zinger during his newscast, a guy like Charley Eckman could opine for hours on the radio about a subject and John Steadman could write a nice, meaty opinion piece in the paper with more punch and effectiveness.

The “journalists” at the newspapers and the guys covering the beats were taught to have the highest morale ground so as to stay “neutral” – as though having any emotions toward the games they were covering would be evil. Any opinion in a game story in The Sun would be sheer blasphemy in the world I was raised on Calvert Street in the 1980s.

“No cheering in the press box” was the way I was taught and the way it still is across America in the uptight media world. But of course, underneath their breath, every sportswriter I’ve ever met is cheering for SOMEONE during a game. For most of the lazy ones (and that encompasses a large percentage) it means whatever is easiest that allows them to keep their job in some town that they’re renting or using to pad their resume, eat free meals in the press box and turn in an expense account when it’s all over. Of course, in the new economy of 2010 those days of Marriott points and frequent flyer cards are gone forever for the rank-and-file sportswriter.

The most significant discovery I had working from 1984 through 1992 at the three local newspapers was the realization that none of these sportswriters really liked or even knew a lot about sports. I was always astonished at how beat writers of teams didn’t know the most basic history and background of the franchises they were covering. Some didn’t even know the rules of the games let alone where to put a quote or a fact. But most them did have one thing in common: they loved to bitch more than they liked to work.

It always boggled my mind that a TV station would recruit someone from Albuquerque or a local newspaper would recruit a writer from Seattle or a radio station would look for a naked girl from Miami to fulfill job openings in a passionate, hometown city like Baltimore.

I’ve said this for 18 years as I’ve built this iconic Baltimore sports media brand called WNST.net – I never, ever intended on having a career in radio. My whole background and passion was built in writing and editing and news judgment. It’s purely accidental – blame it on Kenny Albert, Paul Kopelke or Jim Ward — that I wound up building a personal brand in radio.

But, in 1992, radio was the greatest place in the world for a guy like me and the only one available that allowed me to do what I do best – research a story, tell you the facts, then give my very well-informed opinion. After all, I thought, I really DID know more about Baltimore sports than any of these other buffoons and I could prove it every afternoon. I had forgotten more about the Orioles, Colts and Terps than any of the other local media members and I could converse with people 50 years older than me and learn from them.

It gave me the ability to be long-winded (which I enjoy) and thorough and investigative and conversational. And it was fun! I loved learning the business of marketing, selling, advertising and the pursuit of dreams in being an entrpreneur. Being around sports and building my radio show and WNST in the 1990s was so much fun that I honestly long for those days in many ways when it simpler!

But being the only “independent” in the radio world, I didn’t have to “hide” my joy that the Orioles were winning or my disgust when the Terps were losing. And once the Ravens came to town, there was no way for me to hide my joy about having an NFL team here again, which still strikes me a true miracle every day of my life. For anyone who remembers the expansion process and poor Herb Belgrad it doesn’t take much to view the Ravens as some sort of divine act of God for Baltimore, especially considering the slaughter of the baseball team here over the last 15 years.

But before the Ravens came, the first few years on the radio I would always hear the demons of the editors at The Sun telling me to “not be a fan.” They told me it would wreck my career telling people that I wanted the Orioles to win or “cheerleading” as they liked to call it.

And a lot of those people I worked with really didn’t love sports, which I thought was kind of sad.

When I left The Sun on Jan. 15, 1992, I turned to radio to feed my 7-year old son and learned the sales, marketing and promotional aspects of this business from Paul Kopelke, who still does a bunch of our sales and radio work here at WNST 18 years later. Kopelke is solely responsible for keeping me on the radio and giving me an opportunity to pursue my dream as a local sports aficionado and entrepreneur.

Even though I was as big of a sports fan and expert as you’d find in 1992 and I was honed with all of the old-world journalism skills taught by some incredible people, the only sports radio I had ever really listened to was an occasional Phil Wood 10 p.m. show on WCAO or WCBM in the 1980s. My Pop listened to Charley Eckman in the 1970s but I was too young to participate in sports radio listening at that point. I was far more likely to watch the TV news or read the newspaper than I was to listen to sports radio of any kind even though we listened to the games every night. I usually fell asleep before the post-game show, which my Pop fell asleep to most nights with his white transistor radio buzzing along with his wall-rattling snores.

The real reason I didn’t listen to local sports radio when I got older and was working at The Evening Sun in my teens? I thought the talent here sucked. Every once in a while when I was riding shotgun with Phil Jackman en route to the Capital Centre I’d tune into sports radio in both directions. Jackman was a junkie for it, hence the legend of the “TV Repairman.”

So, below, and for the rest of this five-part piece, think of me as a self-appointed “TV and Radio and Media repairman.” None of my observations or opinions are meant to be “low blows” or “cheap shots” or “personal attacks.” It strictly about what I know and what I see and hear and read when I consume the content provided buy the competitors in my industry.

Back in 1992 when I entered the “radio game” in Baltimore at WITH-AM 1230 with Kenny Albert as a sidekick, there were only two other shows in town. Stan Charles was on 10-1 on WCBM. And “Sportsline” was on WBAL from 6 to 8 p.m. with Jeff Rimer.

I thought Stan Charles was awful. I felt that Jeff Rimer was like a sick joke. He knew NOTHING about baseball and talked hockey in a market that didn’t like hockey. And Benny The Fan and the older guys sat around talking about boxers from the 1950’s who weren’t relevant or interesting. No offense to Rex Barney, who was a sweet old guy, but I never really enjoyed listening to his radio show. It made old-fashioned seem old-fashioned.

Phil Wood, who was the only sports talk host I ever listened to and really enjoyed in the late 1980s, was sort of on and off the radio in those days. Other than his geeky fascination with the Washington Senators, he was a pleasure to listen to and well-informed about baseball.

In early 1992, I got into this radio thing by sheer accident. I NEVER wanted to be a “radio host” or be associated with radio, really. To this day, I’m still not a sportstalk listener to anything beyond my own product because quite frankly I’m not that fascinated with anything I hear. I know how little most of the competitors know about sports and life and business and strategy and coaching because I’ve talked with them in private conversations for most of my adult life. The only guy I ever get into even reasonably interesting and heated conversations about these subjects with is Peter Schmuck, who I think is a great guy. I also think Mark Viviano is a great guy, if that matters?

As a sports talk show host, I always felt like I needed to know more about sports than anyone else. It was the sole job description and as a fan and a young reporter, I thought that just meant the game strategy, which is only a small part of the bigger picture in 2010. I’ve met a lot of “bartender” sports radio people over the years. They are what they are. They generally know nothing about the cap, the agents, the money, the TV/marketing deals, the lifestyle of the modern athlete, the philosophy of leadership, coaching, strategy, etc. And they certainly have no clue about the business aspects or the internal etiquette of how the game is played behind the scenes.

In general, they’re glorified bartenders. No offense, but I know a LOT more about sports and business and how this works than just about anyone in Baltimore, which is why you’re reading this right now. I’ve dedicated the last 26 years of my life to this business, career and Baltimore sports.

Here’s a mini-sampling of the topics that need to be fully understand to be a competent sports media “expert” in 2010:

Television. Revenue. Sponsorships. Old media. Multimedia. New media. Newspapers. Radio. Contracts. Unions. Drafts. Rules. Grudges. Drama. Law. Jurisprudence. Ticket sales. Suite sales. Players vs. Ownership reality. Owners meetings. Commissioners. Public relations. Egos and image. Wives and parents and families. Agents. Salary caps. Ettiquette. Scouts. Personnel directors. Coaches. Assistant coaches. Chaplains. Trainers. Strength coaches. Wealthy owners. Rival leagues. Cheerleaders. Business of sports.

Oh, and that doesn’t even include dealing with the most ignorant and abusive fans, most of whom know very little about how all of this works and rely on guys like me to educate them without insulting them.

You have to know about ALL of this at a high level for me to have any respect for you or to listen to you on the radio or to read your writing or observations on the web. To borrow a phrase from my Pop in Dundalk, “If you don’t know about these then you don’t know s&%t about sports.”

Oh, and then there’s the actual games themselves. And strategies and breaking down a 4-3 defense and explaining Cover 2. Or discussing the Hall of Fame merits of Roberto Alomar or Shannon Sharpe? Or why a manager is pulling a pitcher or pinch-hitting late in a game?

Doing sports radio or writing intelligently about these issues isn’t something you can fake. You either know it, or you don’t. Ask any of the contestants in any of the “So you wanna be a sports media expert” contests that I’ve held whether I’m coy about imparting the kind of wisdom necessary to do sports radio at a world-class level. I’ve handed some of our contestants a 20-question survey that has befuddled them and would still leave Anita Marks’ head in a swirl. It takes me roughly 5 minutes to find out whether you’re full of manure. And much like American Idol auditions, I instantly become the Simon Cowell and the contestants become quite irate when you tell them they’re not qualified to work at WNST because they can’t even name the defensive coordinator of the Ravens and they expect me to make them an overnight $100,000 a year radio star.

But this has evolved over the last 20 years as the medium has moved from bartenders with good recall doing sports radio to the entire knowledge of the sports world becoming available on a google or wikipedia search from a mobile device.

The days of doing “Stump The Schwab” or “Trivia Monday” are over. Before the internet, many sports talk show hosts could take the easy out on a slow day and do a “game show” format where the callers call in to answer sports questions to show they’re smarter than the host. Or “What’s your favorite sports movie?” theme day.

Now, it’s much more issue-based, time-sensitive and storytelling based and if you don’t have your facts together and your background isn’t rooted more deeply than your audience, you’ll be instantly outed as a charlatan and flogged the way Anita Marks was here for the past four years.

All of this brings us to 2010 and the current state of Baltimore sports media and where you’re getting your local sports news these days via non-web, terrestrial means.

Print, as a medium, is in rapid decline of distribution and relevance. The Baltimore Sun has gutted its entire sports operation, leaving an overworked and demoralized mini-staff who are all in major job search mode knowing the next set of firings are coming. In my opinion, the business model for Press Box and its ilk is so flawed as to be incomprehensible – that includes Baltimore Magazine and City Paper as well as B and any other printed product you can name. Cost of distribution and delivery are high, timeliness of news is woeful, ability to prove a return on investment for advertisers is all but impossible without a coupon element.

Local television news, as a medium, is a dinosaur when your news, sports and weather are “on demand” from your mobile device whenever you want them at places like WNST.net. The four local TV news stations put zero emphasis on sports and give their anchors two minutes a night with no room for analysis or commentary. Is anyone really running to Mark Viviano or Gerry Sandusky at 6 o’clock to get sports news in 2010? WMAR has all but eliminated sports and news from its operation.

So, by default, sports radio – first on the AM and now on the FM side of the dial — has become a holding tank for the opinions and urgency of sports news in old-world media. And sports radio has now become the medium they all seem to want to pursue in an effort to capitalize on the passion and profit of sports and the best use of their FCC licenses.

There are a few different ways to do sports radio and as we’ll witness down in Fort Lauderdale all week for the Super Bowl, they’re all a “local” concern. Most of the big city sports talk stations have tables, representatives and live programming coming from Radio Row this week. Guests, celebrities, strategy, Hall of Fame and collective bargaining issues will rule the airwaves across the country all week.

Every one of them – other than WNST.net — have one thing in common: they’re all owned by corporations with stockholders and affiliate strongholds in other markets and using brands like ESPN and Fox to give them something believable to sell in their “faux” hometowns.

They all have an “expert” program director from “another market” and they’re all in one way or another connected to or a mouthpiece for Clear Channel, CBS, Hearst, Fox, ESPN, ABC or some corporate subsidiary.

The best example of this awfulness is right here in Baltimore with 105.7 “The Fan.” Infinity and CBS Radio had literally run out of ideas for what to do with an FM FCC license after trying oldies, alternative rock for kids, Guy Talk, Political Talk and various hybrids without getting ratings or making money. They even managed to destroy the vaunted WHFS brand, an empire that saw 80,000 kids come together at one place every summer. Instead, they now give us the likes of “Jack” and “Mix” and “Lite.”

The guy who runs CBS Radio’s local empire is Bob Phillips. If I’m the famous loudmouth from Dundalk who runs “the little AM radio station” then Phillips is the invisible country club “guru” who thought putting Anita Marks on the radio in Baltimore was “good programming.”

In radio parlance, sports is “a good biller” and it supports their corporate habit of doing broadcast business “flagship” deals with the local sports franchises — so after agreeing to a “muzzle/backrub” deal with Peter Angelos and the Orioles in exchange for exclusive content for a team that had then mustered 10 consecutive years of losing and bad civic goodwill, CBS Radio again flipped the format at 105.7 FM about 14 months ago and their “programming expert” Phillips and a guy from Pittsburgh named Dave Labrozzi made a concerted effort to hire every old, white guy who had ever been on the 11 o’clock news as “fresh” sports talk show hosts and experts. And why not? They all had a built-in brand of name recognition.

The local television sports talking head business has all but dried up financially and the remaining remnants of the local TV cast of the 1990’s — Mark Viviano (WJZ), Scott Garceau (WMAR) and Bruce Cunningham (WBFF) — have all “joined forces” like the Super Friends. The rumor is that Steve Davis (former WBAL and WBFF) will be joining them more often as well now that Anita Marks has departed.

Their biggest resource for marketing is the corporate synergy that CBS (both WJZ on the radio and TV side) has formed with MASN and Peter Angelos and the Orioles, making for the biggest nationally corporate branded eunuch in the history of Baltimore media. And make no mistake about it, if you want to talk about media in Baltimore and free speech and facts, look no further than the Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos and the “trickledown effect” of intimidation politics and money in the media.

We’ll address this “who is sleeping with whom in media” at length on Thursday – it’s its own Iliad or Opus of its own and The Sun is on it as well – but rest assured censorship and sports franchises and rights fees and flagship status and sponsorship deals are massive credibility issues in most free-thinking places but the media is so “bought off” here that it’s only a topic allowed for discussion in the community by WNST.

As for other sports radio programming in Baltimore, WBAL-AM 1090 fired its main sports talk anchor (Steve Davis) a year ago and despite its obvious sports connections as the Ravens Radio rights holder and the synergy of WIYY-98 Rock’s ultra loyal hometown crowd (and I’m on of those people, by the way, who has a lifelong crush on Sarah Fleischer and a lifelong fan and friend of Mickey Cucchiella), they’ve been unable to make it a financially viable vehicle because their programming has been so awful that no one wants to listen to it. Plus, it’s really a “break” in their format and they don’t have enough interior experts who anyone likes.

And on Sundays, live football play-by-play on radio is really a bit for the geriatric set to begin with in 2010 – anyone who really cares about the game winds up watching it on television and I see less radios at the games now than ever in the stands. Plus you can be watching play-by-play action on your phone or monitoring your fantasy stats or a myriad of other different forms of action (including WNST’s Twitter feed or our live Purple Haze chats) to augment your enjoyment of a Ravens game.

WBAL has tried to use The Sun’s sports staff to man its Ravens coverage but the mundane sound and looks and observations of “old world” radio and sportswriters just aren’t working. And, as I will try to express over the next few days, it’s really not about the programming, hosts or the listeners. Sports radio – and local sports media in general – has become a sponsor-driven vehicle.

It really IS about the money!

If the sponsors aren’t getting a return on their advertising investment, none of these companies will exist for very long. At the heart of the bankruptcy issues with The Sun and other local newspapers in other markets isn’t just the deterioration of their content and medium and reach, it’s the sheer lack of proof that the advertising is being distributed at all. Not to mention a return on investment for the buyer. (This will be addressed later in the week as well.)

There’s also a sports operation at AM 1370 where Rob Long and Jerry Coleman hold fort around that other Baltimore lover, Jim Rome (the biggest fraud in the history of sports journalism) at Fox 1370. They came in and stole my afternoon show and agreed to put Rome on middays to get the “Fox” designation, which quite frankly was worthless to WNST. Honestly, I haven’t spent five minutes listening to them over the past 15 months so I can’t tell you much about what they’re doing. No one ever comes up to me or Facebooks me or tells me that they listen to AM 1370. I’m sure some do, but as I said, I don’t listen to shows where I don’t learn anything of significance or I’m not supremely entertained.

Up until now, I’ve simply discussed the past and present condition of sports media entities in Baltimore. It’s a leaky boat at best and corrupt relationships and censorship and money are all involved as I’ll outline later in this series..

But all that is changing and the world is becoming more transparent in 2010 — hence this series and these concepts and our WNST Baltimore Sports Media Survey that I’ll be outlining all week.

If you don’t read another word in this very verbose series over the next week, just remember this: THE FUTURE OF SPORTS JOURNALISM IS ON THE INTERNET!

And in tomorrow’s blog I’ll outline the measurement systems that prove that WNST.net is the new market leader in covering real time sports in Baltimore. Arbitron, Neilson, Scarborough reports – they’ve all been a set of lies, damned lies and statistics.

With the power of the internet, every click is registered, every story read is registered, every minute spent on every web page is identified, every subscriber is accounted for, every sponsor’s lead is justified, every mention of your brand and links are measured by Google.

What you need to know is that the money of the advertisers is quickly migrating to the world of the web where measurement of their reach and clicks are self-evident – not “guess-timated.” Or “arbitrary” in the case of Arbitron.

So, while the rest of the players in Baltimore are caught up in doing radio, filling TV time or making 11 p.m. deadlines for their printing presses in Port Covington, at WNST.net we’re filling your Twitter and Facebook and email and text with the instant information you really want and we’re here for you day and night to discuss all of the relevant local sports issues without being “bought off” or forced to censor our thoughts, opinions, reactions or commentary.

It’s almost mind-boggling to me that anyone with half a brain would turn to most of our competitors for an honest analysis of anything given their inability to criticize anything in the Angelos kingdom for fear of retribution or having their media credentials revoked or being “left off the buy,” which is poison to the ears of Bob Phillips, Jay Newman, Ed Kiernan and their ilk. So, they get in line and “play the game.”

Mock word outta Ch. 13 is that their poobah, Newman, was going to force the secretaries and the cameraman all down to the WJZ-TV booth at Orioles Fan Fest for autographs and pictures last weekend under strict corporate orders to show “CBS loyalty” to Angelos and the orange birds, who ring their spring cash register in the evenings when the car ads on the local news dry up.

And the accountability of their media lies has the same accountability as Angelos himself, who sits behind it all here in the Baltimore media and never has to answer a question about anything from anybody legitimate while he prints money from the public’s cable TV bills and pockets it via the MASN deal.

Oh, and the fact that he’s single-handedly slaughtered the Orioles franchise, fractured its fan base and left the city for dead on game nights except when the Red Sox and Yankees fans surround the city in the most glaringly and inarguable display of the decay of the civic pride in Baltimore’s oldest treasure.

The latest chapter will be outlined on Thursday when I profile the Hearst-CBS war, but rest assured it’s pretty ugly behind the scenes with those two corporate structures with Ravens and Orioles rights and censorships and player marketing contracts and exclusive content deals that squelch free speech by “media partners.”

And across all of the media in Baltimore, fact checking and accountability are not strong suits across the marketplace.

Last month, CBS Radio spent three days promoting an “exclusive” interview with Brian Billick. That’s almost laughable, considering Billick is a part-owner of WNST.net and appears on our airwaves three times a week.

Jerry Coleman and Anita Marks have both held “mock press conferences” where they ask the question to the coach only it’s an answer from a press conference audio clip. (That’s just weird!)

And then there’s the actual question of “crediting” sources when stories are broken. Jamison Hensley of The Sun thought we “stole” information from his Twitter account about the Ravens wearing black uniforms last month and sent out a series of vitriolic, childish Tweets when we didn’t steal any information. The Ravens PR staff released the information about five minutes after he sent it. We Tweeted it. No drama. No theft. No foul. We don’t steal at WNST.

Meanwhile, we routinely send out “WNST Texts” before The Sun has information on their website and I have never – not ONCE – seen “as first reported by WNST.net” on their website or newspaper.

But that’s all the behind the scenes drama and insider fodder for you, the sports fan in Baltimore.

All you really want as a Baltimore sports fan is good, fast, reliable information that you can trust.

In reality, everyone consumes media in a variety of ways. You might like one host or one writer or one voice in the marketplace but in reality you’ll always turn to a variety of places if you’re interested in seeing a wide swath of analysis. Competition is a good thing as I’ll outline tomorrow. It brings out the best in us all.

And the one thing that I’ve always respected in media figures is – like Howard Cosell – the ability to be straightforward, educated and no-nonsense in their information. It’s a basic premise at WNST that we give you the truth. And we try to make rational, logical arguments for our position. And our hosts say what they think without fear or reprisal from their boss, owner or peers.

I assure you that in 2010 in Baltimore, you’re not getting that from ANY of our competitors.

With censorship being at the heart of the Orioles every move in the marketplace – from WBAL to WJZ, from The Sun breaking stories to The Washington Post breaking them in the heyday to the banning of 20-year veteran journalists from having a press pass at home games – controlling the message is at the heart of any “business arrangement” with Angelos.

Want proof? Want to see it in action?

Call Mark Viviano or Damon Yaffe on the air and ask them what they think about the Orioles’ past 13 years of ineptitude and try to get a real opinion. Ask Scott Garceau how he feels about the deterioration of the franchise that he formerly was the flagship TV announcer for back in the 1980’s? Ask Garceau about how he feels about the way Brooks Robinson has been treated by the Orioles current ownership? Ask Bruce Cunningham to express his private feelings about the Orioles? I’d say, “Ask Gerry Sandusky” but he’s too busy to take your phone calls.

And then you tell me if you think they’re being honest with you when you get an “on microphone” answer.

Of course these are all guys who received six-figure contracts for going on the 6 and 11 o’clock news and reading scores over highlights for two minutes a night. Their hair and their voices were FAR more significant than their insights, opinions or analysis circa 1992.

Now, they have to actually “take a side” as they do many hours of sports radio each day and that’s something they CAN’T do. At their core, these are all guys who are afraid of offending people and becoming unpopular. As I’ve found out over the years, if you speak your mind on ANY issue, you’re going to piss people off. It’s just the way it is.

Hey, they have families to feed. I get it. I even respect it to some degree. They can’t afford to be honest because they wouldn’t be allowed to keep their jobs. (I have audio of Angelos saying just that back in 1997 in regard to the firing of Jon Miller, which was passed off as a resignation. “That’s a fundamental principle,” Angelos bellowed. “Tell it like it us but keep your opinions to yourself.”)

I honestly don’t know what is ethically worse – the fact that they have to work as employees with personal brands under those conditions or the fact that they agreed to “go along with it,” especially from a guy like Garceau who I’ve always had so much respect for over the years and whom I interned with at WMAR in 1992.

Garceau, in one of his Uncle Scott moments, once said to me: “Nestor, you only get one chance to lose your credibility.” I remembered that last year when he saddled up next to Anita Marks in one of the most ill-fated pairings since “New” and “Coke” and effectively agreed to be a “silent partner” with Peter Angelos after watching this city and the downtown area disintegrate over the last decade and a half. And this was coming from a guy who as a young reporter in Baltimore watched Mayflower trucks steal a decade of his love of football in his prime?

We’ve all had 15 years of joy taken away from us. NONE of these “journalists” ever say a word about it, do they? And none of them ever opine on someone like free speech and access for someone like me, who after 20 years of having a media pass has had it revoked for speaking the truth. That’s truly disappointing to me but “I get it.” I really do. I have a family to feed as well.

Ask Steve Davis what it was like to be at WBAL Radio during his time on TV Hill taking phone calls before and after Orioles games in their 10th straight losing season. He was ostensibly told to not take the “tough calls” from irate Orioles fans wanting to criticize the team or its management after another 90-loss season. Davis, as far as I could tell, found that unacceptable. Good for him!

Ask Yaffe how he really feels about the Orioles or how he felt prior to the CBS rights deal? Ask Viviano how the Orioles professionally treated him five years ago when WBAL had the rights? Ask Cunningham his private feelings about the Orioles and listen to him squirm as he tells you “what great people they are” in the hopes that maybe someday he’ll get a paycheck from them like he does for the Ravens as their game day announcer.

But it’s not just a sports radio thing.

Brent Harris has gotten “second class” treatment from the Orioles because he works for Comcast, which must be Greek for “Bin Laden” for Angelos. Highly respected WBAL Radio guys like John Patti had their passes held hostage by the Orioles public relations staff as well over the past three years since the nasty divorce between Angelos and WBAL and Comcast.

While I would say the guys at The Sun have been “soft” on criticism and investigative work to the damage that the franchise has caused the entire downtown business community, I also realize that they also have to go into The Warehouse and work every day as well and use Andy MacPhail as a source for information.

If you think ALL of these people haven’t noticed that I’ve been “banned” by the Orioles for free speech, then think again. Three years later – and almost 300 losses later – are you not astonished that ONLY people from WNST regularly criticize the Orioles?

I could go through the list of “media” members who work for MASN, but even their access is flawed because some of the stuff is so “sensitive” that they won’t even let Roch Kubatko break some of the stories because they’re not “positive” news. The website at MASNSports.com reads more like a public relations sheet for the Orioles and Nationals than anything resembling journalism. It’s a PR firm on the web, really. Just read Steve Melewski’s PR notes with the orange thumbprints all over them.

How are you going to get “the truth” from these people who have Angelos’ autograph on the right corner of their paychecks every two weeks?

You can even ask my “pal” Jerry Coleman about how he’s been treated over the years and he’ll tell you the only thing that sucks worse than my signal are the Orioles. But, like Mikey from the Life cereal commercials, he hates almost everything.

It’s almost comical – the inbreeding of the corporate entities and the personalities and who is employed by who and who you’re going to get a straight answer from when you call into a sports talk show on CBS’ The Fan 105.7.

But any lack of transparency of the dealings of Phillips and the Orioles disappeared when they moved to send Anita Marks onto television via MASN, which is owned by Angelos. So, that part has and will forever be a compromised mess for the integrity of all of the CBS Radio hosts. Throw in Amber Theoharis, Kubatko and the laughable, loveable cast of MASN’s baseball coverage including Tom Davis, Jim Hunter and Rick Dempsey, who’ve had to spin 30-3 losses into character-building endeavors over the years to the point where they’re a running joke, and you’ve got a “synergistic media entity” constructed as a eunich PR firm for the baseball team’s last place follies.

And of course, there’s Exhibit A for why our prime competitor sucks:

Anita Marks spent four years here, never saw a game of meaningful baseball and never uttered a disparaging word about the team. Word is the Angelos family liked her so much they wanted to keep her around on MASN, but apparently Phillips had heard enough of that train wreck and figures he can still salvage it through Garceau’s three decades of goodwill. We’ll see for how long Garceau wants to take four hours of phone calls a day? It just never seemed to me that he would enjoy doing sports radio. Or that I would never want to hear four hours of radio without a strong opinion from the host.

As for Marks and her departure – it was not just overdue it was wholly unjustified that she ever showed up in Baltimore. She also never bought a ticket to an Orioles game in her life and had no sense of the history of baseball in Baltimore yet spent four years defending the guys who wrecked baseball in our city. She also befriended a series of Ravens players and some of the on-air repartee was downright embarrassing, especially when she tried to cast some light on “knowing the game” from her perspective as a QB. Once I saw the Playboy spread and saw the “sex symbol” positioning of her marketing coming into Baltimore back in 2006, I knew what the whole thing was about.

But the bottom line is that she was a sick joke on the radio. She was wholly unqualified and it showed every day. If left alone in the studio taking phone calls, she would’ve perished much more quickly. What kind of sports talk show host is that?

But that’s the dog food that Peter Angelos approves and Bob Phillips and CBS Radio offers you and expects you to eat. And all of the hosts there have “checked off” on the implied muting of any criticism of the Orioles. That’s just a fact!

Somehow at 105.7 they’ve managed to pass off their hosts as having “strong backgrounds in Baltimore media” but they field a daily lineup of natives from St. Louis, Virginia Beach and Wisconsin doing daily sports radio. None of them ever saw an Orioles or Colts game as a kid in Baltimore. As far as I know, none of them has ever bought a ticket to a Baltimore sports event. It’s a job to them and if you spent any time around them you’d know that Baltimore sports is not their passion, it’s their vocation. It’s just different and I always prefer local.

And while I’m handing out my personal report card – again you can fill yours out here – I’m wondering if Gerry Sandusky has a sports voice or an opinion about anything outside of Republican politics? He barely qualifies as a “sports guy.” He gives John Harbaugh a backrub every Tuesday night on the radio but that’s about all I know of Sandusky’s thoughts.

Keith Mills is a guy who I have an immense amount of respect for and has battled some personal demons along the way. I don’t sense that his “voice” is a major factor in the WBAL model. And Stan White and Peter Schmuck are seemingly minor players at WBAL these days. No one ever talks to me or comments about anything they’ve heard on WBAL. Just a fact…

At some point if these “personalities” are going to cross the line back into journalism or analysis, their corporate agenda can’t be to protect the guilty and praise the losses – especially when there have been 13 years worth of them.

So if these “pundits” are paid to opine – as I’m doing today, simply telling you what I honestly think — and you KNOW you’re not getting an honest assessment with them because of the deals their bosses have made, why the hell would you listen to them?

And I want to make this clear: I’m not questioning their “personal integrity.” I’m questioning the integrity of their entire establishments and institutions that they are paid to protect and how it’s still mind-bogglingly passes for “journalism” or “commentary” in 2010.

It’s not. Most of these people I have no “personal” agenda with in any way. I just don’t like or consume their work and when I do it always leaves me kinda chilly or non-plused. And, really, they are just a part of a big, corporate machine. They all have bosses who are desperate to make numbers and payrolls and the economy has devastated the entire industry over the past 24 months.

I have backgrounds with all of these people. Most of them I honestly like and am extremely cordial with in any environment. But that doesn’t mean that I want to watch, read or hear their work. Many of them don’t read my blogs or they think my show or site or opinions suck as well.

I don’t expect them to like me personally or consume WNST products, either. But maybe they’d actually learn something if they did?

Also, many of the marketplace’s weekend hosts and off-hours producers worked for me at WNST, some leaving with a variety of interesting disgruntled former employee grudges that they love to opine about on the internet and at the water cooler. Some of it is so outlandish that it quite frankly alternately saddens and amuses me but always rewards me for not having them under the WNST umbrella anymore.

(One day, you can ask Spiro Morekas to tell you the one about “Baltimoron” or “Lion Heart” but I’ll leave that story for him to tell…)

God bless them. Everyone of them now have a press pass in this business because I gave it to them and gave them a shot to fulfill a dream. Casey Willett, Rob Long, Ken Weinman, Jeremy Conn, Phil Backert, Aaron Wilson and anyone I’ve left out — I honestly wish them all the best in continuing that dream and I know I did my best to make it work for them at WNST. I bet ON all of them, not against them. In my opinion, some weren’t what we needed to move forward in an era where daily education and training on the internet and new media calls for a deeper skill set and a deeper understanding of the world of local sports media and what it takes to create money to pay the salaries of our staff. I have a limited budget and I’ve done my best to put the best programming and content together possible, kind of like how Ozzie Newsome puts the Ravens together with a salary cap.

It’s not personal. It’s business. I’ve ALWAYS been a media critic because being in the media is all I’ve ever wanted to do. Today, I’m simply just writing what I think. Trust me, I hear enough around the media water coolers to know exactly what they think of me, WNST, my hosts, etc.

“Their signal is too weak…”

“Two tins cans and a string…”

“WNST has 10 listeners…”

“They have no Arbitron ratings…”

Those stories and lies have been told for years.

This is a fact: In 2010, MORE of you are getting your sports content, news, opinions, commentary and social media at WNST and WNST.net than anywhere short of the Baltimore Sun. So, at this point, we’re “No. 2” and like Avis, trying harder.

And it’s apparent. We’re beating them every day and THEY know it and basically hate us for it. (As they should, my competitive spirit says! I don’t expect them to like the fact that we grow every day!)

But this is how I see it. This is what I really think.

Now, I want to know what YOU really think.

We’re offering you a WNST State of Baltimore Sports Media survey here and a chance to win a 50-inch Panasonic HD TV for filling it out honestly and thoroughly.

Tell us if we suck. Tell us if we’re great. Or even anywhere in between. You can also write comments below if you think I’m wrong.

Beware: all of the information can and will be used to make WNST.net better.

Part Two is tomorrow: Alexa? Who is She?