Ron Smith (radio host)
| Ron Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 2, 1941 Troy, New York, United States |
| Died | December 19, 2011 (aged 70) Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Occupation | Radio host, political commentator, television host (former) |
| Years active | 1968–2011 |
Ron Smith (December 2, 1941 – December 19, 2011) was an American talk radio show host on WBAL in Baltimore, Maryland. His show aired weekdays from 9 to noon ET, and formerly aired from 3 to 6 pm ET.
A native of Troy, New York, Smith dropped out of high school at age seventeen. He served in the Marine Corps from 1959 to 1962. Following his discharge, he moved to Albany, New York, where he worked in community theater. In 1963 he enrolled in Northeast Broadcasting School and after graduating, worked as a disk jockey at WHAV in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
He began his television reporting career at WTEN-TV in Albany in 1968. Five years later, in 1973, he became a weekend anchor at WBAL-TV in Baltimore. From 1976 to 1980 he was co-anchor on that station's evening "Action News" broadcast.
On August 5, 1984, after a four-year stint as a stockbroker, Smith became a radio show host at WBAL-AM. Calling himself "The Voice of Reason," his show changed after the start of the Iraq War to focus more on interviews with personalities and newsmakers, both conservatives and liberals. When WBAL cancelled Rush Limbaugh's program in June 2006, his show expanded to four hours, from 2 to 6 pm ET, but was returned to its three-hour format in April 2007 when another host was found for the noon to three spot. He would continue broadcasting on radio until he retired for health reasons in 2011.
In September 2011, Smith was recognized by being selected as the first annual recipient of The Charles Carroll of Carrollton Award in honor of his twenty-seven years of bringing the concepts of The Constitution to his massive listening audience.
Thomas DiLorenzo, a friend of Smith, categorized him as an "Old Right" conservative. Smith was a critic of the Bush administration and the Iraq war.
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