On Sunday, at a time when days are supposed to be getting longer and brighter, the sun set for the last time on a radio station in Aberdeen, as station WAMD went dark on its final day of broadcasting. The station owner, Salem Broadcasting, apparently needed to clear the air for another station in its radio cluster, also transmitting on AM-970, to beam its signal into the area from hundreds of miles away.

It was a sad day for many of us who got our start in broadcasting thanks to the man who once owned WAMD, James V. McMahan Jr., whom everyone came to know on the air as "Cap'n Jim." Prior to his retirement in 2003, thousands of loyal listeners tuned in to hear his homespun morning broadcasts that clearly conveyed his genuine love for the Harford County community and his untiring passion to make it better.

Off the air, Jim was just as passionate about his determination to get it right, especially when it came to news. Growing up in Bel Air as the son of the city's first police chief had a lot to do with Jim's honesty, trust and integrity that guided his radio career and those he taught, including me.

"Radio is the theater of the mind," he once told me, as he took me under his wing to teach me the radio business. The year was 1970, and Jim was the general manager of WVOB Radio in Bel Air, where he enrolled me in his Talent Technique School of Broadcasting.

It was the start of a radio career that would eventually take me to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. There were others, including Doug Carrick, Fred Snyder and Brad Ganson, just to name a few, who got their start with Jim and another radio great, Bob Callahan, the morning man for WVOB who was my mentor.

Bob had also worked in Baltimore radio, where his natural wit and humor were viewed as more of a potential liability than a valuable asset. He left the so-called "big time" radio market for Harford County, where he could interact with an audience of listeners who truly appreciated his extraordinary talent.

There were live phone calls to the local bakery, remote broadcasts from inside the display windows of businesses along Main Street and broadcasts of breaking news using the two-way radio to the station's news car. Even the mailman couldn't escape Bob's reach, as he pulled anyone who entered the station's front door into his broadcast booth nearby for unscheduled guest appearances.

It was live, local, and - most of all - extremely entertaining and fun.

It was about real people, laughing at themselves or laughing at others. Most times, it was people laughing with people, in a way that made us all feel like lifelong friends.

Now, sadly, another local radio station is gone, along with its people, its laughter, and, more importantly, the friendships that Jim, Bob and so many other local radio talents have shared with us over the years in the morning to help us face the challenges of each day. WAMD might be gone, but the fond memories of this station, and WVOB, will remain with anyone, on the air or in the audience, who had the pleasure and privilege of making them.

Chuck Jackson is a longtime Baltimore radio newscaster. His e-mail is chuck jackson@caset.org.