Ron Smith, Baltimore radio host, dies

BALTIMORE -- Ron Smith, who came to Baltimore 38 years ago as a weekend TV anchorman but found his greatest success on radio as WBAL-AM's "Voice of Reason," died Monday night of pancreatic cancer at his home in Shrewsbury, Pa. He was 70.

Smith spent more than 26 years on WBAL, 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 -- and the way he publicly shared his final days with listeners of WBAL and readers of The Baltimore Sun.

On Nov. 28, after continuing on-air for more than two months despite having been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer that had metastasized throughout his body, Smith signed off at the 50,000-watt news-talk station for the last time in his signature straightforward, no-nonsense, radio style.

"I'm retiring," the former Marine said in a live broadcast. "I basically can no longer do it. I'm getting weaker every day, and it's time to pull the plug. . . . Basically, the curtain is coming down right now. I'm bidding everyone a very fond farewell."