Jeff Beauchamp, vice president and station manager at long-time powerhouse WBAL radio, is leaving the station after almost 34 years on the job, he said Thursday in a Sun interview. His last day at the 50,000-watt station he that he transformed from an adult contemporary music operation into one of the most honored news-talk stations in the country, will be next Friday.
"The company presented me with a package that is fair, and I'll be doing some consulting work for WBAL radio in the months and year ahead," the 58-year-old Beauchamp said.
"This is a great company to work for, and the proof of that is that they put up with me for 34 years -- but I wanted to be here every day for 34 years. This place is like a part of me... I've been here over half my life, so I have a lot of emotions right now."
Beauchamp, who joined the station as a news anchor in 1976, said, "The thing I think I'm most proud of is being part of the transition of WBAL from a station that played music and had a lot of other kinds of programming that they called Adult Contemporary to a news-talk station."
During Beauchamp's tenure, WBAL radio won 19 national Edward R. Murrow Awards -- more than any other local station in the country. The Murrow Awards for news, information and public affairs programming are among the most prestigious in broadcasting.
"The change to news-talk was an evolutionary process, and it wasn't always easy," Beauchamp said. "But aong the way, I was able to work with people and hire people like Dave Durian and Ron Smith. They have become in my mind huge radio personalities in this market, if not among the biggest nationally. That's been fun and an honor to work with people like that."
No one has worked closer with Beauchamp than executive producer Mike Wellbrock, who has been at the station 26 years.
"Jeff is a natural leader," Wellbrock said. "He’s the type of boss who would run interference and block so other’s could score touchdowns. And then he wouldn’t take any credit. "There are countless numbers of broadcasters whose careers he helped develop. He would challenge them to reach their potential, and then celebrate their success."
It is no secret that WBAL radio, like many media outlets, has felt the effects of a terrible economy and vast technological change in listener habits — especially during the last year.
In January, the station laid off sports talk show host Steve Davis to shed his six-figure contract. "It was an economic move," Beauchamp said at the time. "We’ve been doing some realigning because of the economy."
WBAL has been buying out employees in what one industry analyst described as "dribs and drabs" during the last year.
