WYPR is the local NPR affiliate station, and it is good for news and traffic in the morning. The weekly broadcasts have a smattering of interesting tidbits here and there (Baltimore Stories, science corner, wine talk, etc.) but mostly it is devoted to daytime broadcasts of boring talk shows. So during the week it is mostly a place to switch over to hoping they're talking about something interesting while waiting for a good song to come on one of your other favorite stations. The weekend is where it really comes alive with nationally syndicated NPR shows like Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Prairie Home Companion, The Splendid Table, This American Life and others. That's the stuff that makes long car rides running errands bearable. read more

WYPR-FM is the best. NPR is also the BEST. I listen every morning since I am interested in hearing the latest news and the weather. Your personalities are great. Especially Spencer Bryant. Spencer has fabulous taste in music! In fact, your whole staff is terrific! THANK YOU. My only comment on the weekday early morning show where Ashley is the host, I really enjoy him except when he puts on the "Background" music so loud that it practically drowns out his announcements. Maybe it is just me. I prefer to hear only the music or only the announcement...OR turn down the background music during the announcement! Otherwise, your station is the very best! Thanks again, Pat F. read more

This is one of my favorite apps for classical music. Highly recommend this station. Of all my classical music apps, I listen to this one the most. read more

First and foremost, kudos on the WYPR melodrama image, Claire C. I might actually feel obliged to listen more often. Let's face it, we all listen to WYPR because it is the de facto NPR affiliate of Baltimore City (and county, for that matter.) And I admit, I would be a bit upset if I turned on my radio one day and not been able to pick up NPR within the city. I listen to the syndicated programming every Saturday morning because I'm usually in my kitchen and haven't yet purchased a wireless device that will stream internet radio to the stereo in my kitchen. If such were the case, I'd download podcasts or stream NPR from my computer, which I already do in my living room. So it's a lot easier to turn the "dial" over to 88.1 fm. Luckily, if you're in the car, there is a good chance you can pick up WAMU in DC. Their on-air personnel are far superior to YPR's (Sorry, gang.) Trust me, I understand that this is all done on a shoestring budget. I get that. With the exception of The Signal and Tapestry of the Times, which everyone at the station seems to be proud of, there is little original programming truly worth tuning in for. With technology changing and NPR changing with it, WYPR will soon be a dinosaur if they don't improve their original programming. Younger audiences are already tuning out terrestrial radio but they still want to hear the content that is broadcast on terrestrial radio. On a final note, Bob White, please turn down your headphones during station break to avoid that annoying feedback. read more

The only good thing about WYPR is imagining the behind-the-scenes soap-opera drama. Diane Finlayson is dating Bob White, who lives at the station on a cot in Studio A. Nathan Sterner's love affair with Aaron Hinkin has gone off the rails, since Aaron spends too much time on the Baltimore art/music scene (DRINKING!) and not enough with Nathan. Dan Rodricks is plotting the assassination of Sheila Kast, and the old guy who does the history stuff (LOVE HIM) is BFF with the old jazz guy (LOVE HIM) and they all hang out with Norm Lewis all the time. Besides the jazz guy and the history guy, though? Not so much, the WYPR. Diane Finlayson, you seem like a nice person, but you can't complete your programmed messages on time. And also, sometimes you mess up the weather. But Diane, you're cool. You *are*. Not like that Aaron Hinkin, who keeps featuring the same 10 people--over and over again. But you know, Aaron, you're cool too. Not as cool as Nathan, because he actually stayed there during the snowstorm and cleaned the satellite dish. But ok, you are not anywhere near as irritating as the wine guys, with their inexplicable expense accounts and strange wine-guy vocabulary. But you know what, WYPR people? You're like, people. Regular people who work their asses off. The real problem is WYPR's national NPR programming. Now, I'm about to go off the rails John Goodman styley, so hang on: IF YOU PEOPLE PLAY PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION ONE MORE TIME I WILL POKE MY EARDRUMS. There, I said it. It's bad enough you play "I'm Dick Gordon, and this is--THE STORY" ten times, and Teri "We are all YOOMAN BEINGS" Gross every day, but Gary Keillor? Friggin' FIVE TIMES A WEEK? HAHAHA Lutherans! HAHAHA Minnesota! AW SHIT Powdermilk Biscuits! HO HO HO Guy Noir! It makes people under the age of 100 want to puke, seriously, so if you want a younger audience, quit the PHC shit. I actually truly listen to C-SPAN broadcasts of lower-court appeals hearings on Sunday nights rather than hear that horrifying warble. WYPR, you need a clue, ok? You're not doing yourself any favors with this. I used to give every year but stopped, because you know, Dick Gordon's "the non-story" and Garrison Keillor's "Poetry Hour" have driven me near to distraction. And I'm not young any more; imagine how the 20 somethings see you. Stop, please, stop. But if you want to share the drama of your station romance drama, that would be fine. (More entertaining than fucking "A Bad Sonnet, read by Garrison Keillor, who sounds more and more like a Nasty Uncle every year") read more

Five stars when this was still WJHU and when Mark Steiner's powerful, passionate, and compassionate voice was still to be heard on 88.1 on your FM dial. Then he was muscled out and his microphone was silenced in a shamefully poor display of professionalism on all sides. This is still a good NPR affiliate with creative local reporting, inspired commentary, critical investigative journalism, memorable musical performances, and the like. I even listened during the fund-raising. It was THAT good. And funny, too! But when Mark left, the place died a little. Maybe it has recovered some of its former magic since I stopped listening and Steiner ceased his trademark over-the-air laughing (which can now be heard elsewhere). I am tempted to tune in on-line from the West Coast, but for some reason I hesitate to do so, in part b/c of top-quality NPR stations in the San Francisco Bay area, but also b/c I'm still a little sad that the old MS Show - and that irascible radio call-in regular, Jerry from Pikesville - are things of the recent remembered past. Time does NOT heal all wounds, people, even when you pack up and move on. You don't need a historian like me to tell you that. Case in point: I can still feel the raw pain and relive the searing trauma from listening incredulously to WJHU (in transition to becoming WYPR) as it broadcast a morning news report about an unidentified airplane hitting a tall building in downtown Manhattan. That was how Carl Kasell narrated it at first, a freak aviation accident. Then, his mellifluous but suddenly somber-sounding voice came back on the air abruptly to announce that a second plane had struck a second tower, sending flames, jet fuel, window shards, scorched paper, smashed PCs, and eviscerated, incinerated human bodies plummeting hundreds of feet down to the cold and lethally hard concrete pavement below. From that point on, I was riveted to the radio on that one day in September (the title, incidentally, of an incredible 1999 Oscar-winning documentary by Kevin Macdonald about the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics terrorist attack and hostage-taking). Eventually, I switched on ABC2 News (WMAR-TV) and watched, listened, and emoted as the late Peter Jennings covered the story for hours, then days, on end. But it was WJHU that first alerted me to this terrible tragedy, one whose effects linger in all of our lives throughout (and beyond) the known Yelping universe. And Mark Steiner did some fantastic shows and interviewed some amazing guests in the weeks and months that followed: about the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Second Gulf War, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, antiwar activism, and other forms of post 9/11 fallout at home and abroad. WYPR became my source for much of this information, and for that I will always be grateful, even if I am hesitant to forgive their poor HR and management decisions that left a bitter taste in my mouth when I departed my beloved - and still charming - city by the (Chesapeake) Bay for greener pastures and redwood forests on Northern California's marvelously mountainous maritime frontier. read more

Please stop messing with the listening process. It takes me forever now to find where I am supposed to click to listen "live." I listen on the computer at work all day - with the exception of Diane Ream - like nails on a chalkboard - her dysphonia is unbearable to me. Please stop screwing with the listening process. It's terrible. Not interested in podcasts - if I want to listen to TAL I will go to Ira's website. read more