Tom Marr
Thomas Aquinas "Tom" Marr was an American talk radio host on WCBM in Baltimore, Maryland, known for his conservative political views. He spent nearly 20 years as a newsman and sportscaster, including eight seasons as a radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Baltimore Orioles before he embarked on a trail blazing political talk-radio career. His full broadcasting career spanned close to fifty years, mostly in Baltimore, although he worked in other major markets, including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City.
Life and career
Marr had an extensive radio and television background in both news and sports. As a newsman, he broke several stories that received national attention and twice appeared on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.Marr's broadcadting career began while still in high school, hosting a high school sports show on Washington's WWDC in 1960. After graduating from Montgomery Blair High School of Silver Spring, Maryland, Marr served in the United States Marine Corps until being discharged in 1963. Marr then worked for radio stations in Rhode Island and Salisbury, Maryland then became an announcer for WTAR of Norfolk, Virginia.
In 1967, Marr became a news anchor and reporter for the former WFBR of Baltimore, and was later named the station's news director. He was also as a featured panelist on the station's award-winning political call-in show Conference Call. From 1967 - 1975, Marr covered Baltimore's professional sports teams for CBS Radio News on their national sportscasts. He supplied the network with more than 150 reports a year including coverage from Super Bowls III and V, the 1969, 1970, and 1971 World Series, and the 1971 NBA Finals. In 1971, Marr broadcast the play-by-play for six Orioles exhibition games against Japanese baseball teams as part of a goodwill trip to Japan. While serving as WFBR's news director and morning drive-time news anchor, Marr also spent 3 years from 1976-1979 as the weekend sports anchor on Baltimore's WMAR-TV.
From 1979 to 1986, Marr was a radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Baltimore Orioles on the team's flagship station WFBR, calling the play-by-play in the 1979 and 1983 World Series, and the exhibition games during another goodwill trip to Japan in 1984. After the 1986 season, the Orioles broadcast rights went to another station, and Tom utilized his roots as a newsman and political commentator to embark in what would ultimately evolve into a groundbreaking 30-year career in talk radio. In addition to his weekday WFBR talk-show, Marr was hired by Philadelphia's WWDB in 1987 to host a similar political talk radio show on Saturday nights, which he hosted for 7 years before going to work full time for WWDB in 1995.
In 1988, WFBR was sold, and by August of that year the new owners dismissed all of the station's on-air personnel while changing the format from news/talk to "oldies" rock & roll from 1950s/early 60's. At about the same time, rival station WCBM Radio filed for bankruptcy, went silent shortly thereafter, and was put up for sale. In October of 1988, WCBM returned to the airwaves under new ownership when Baltimore businessman Nick Mangione, Sr. purchased the station and resurrected it from bankruptcy. Mangione was an avid listener of talk radio and had been a fan of the WFBR's news/talk programming that was discontinued under its new ownership. So once he acquired WCBM, Mangione hired Marr, along with most of the other displaced talk show hosts and news anchors from WFBR to replicate the same format on WCBM.
Marr stayed at WCBM until 1995 when he was offered a full-time weekday show on Philadelphia's WWDB-FM where he had been hosting a Saturday evening show since 1987. Marr returned to WCBM in 1997 when they offered him a long-term contract to return. Additionally, Marr cited displeasure with WWDB's programming structure which devoted too much time to commercials, traffic reports, and news updates each hour, along with an ownership that pressured him to avoid hot-button political issues in favor of more light-hearted topics, such as "pizza toppings." Marr had always been a staple on WCBM's talk-radio line-up, and after returning to the station in 1997, his show was the station's lead-in program to the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Marr was frequently called on to do fill-in work for nationally syndicated radio hosts such as Bob Grant, which helped lead to Marr's own nationally syndicated weeknight show on the WOR Radio Network in New York City. Marr made frequent television appearances on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and C-SPAN. He also routinely filled in for host Mark Levin on the nationally syndicated The Mark Levin Show, and for Lou Dobbs' nationally syndicated program on the United Stations Radio Networks.
As a newsman, sportscaster, and talk show host, Marr has covered events all over the world. On two separate occasions, Marr broadcast Baltimore Orioles exhibition games on the team's goodwill trips to Japan. Additionally, he has taken his talk show internationally, including 7 trips to Israel. He has broadcast from the Republic of China, Ireland, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bosnia. In July 2006, he spent three weeks with Coalition Forces in Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar while covering the Iraq War. That same year he also broadcast his show from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has also practiced his craft with assignments to Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and South Africa, the Soviet Union, and the people's Republic of China.
Marr was consistently ranked by Talkers Magazine as one of the most influential talk show hosts in the United States as part of their "Heavy Hundred" list. At the time of Marr's death, TALKER'S publisher Michael Harrison issued the following statement: "All of us at TALKERS are devastated over the loss of our dear friend and broadcasting treasure, Tom Marr. Tom was one of the true greats and a perennial member of the Heavy Hundred. His accomplishments in radio go back well before the modern era of talk radio that he played such an important role in building. He was an outstanding, kind, compassionate man who cared deeply about his fellow human beings – qualities that he brought to the airwaves day-after-day, decade-after-decade. The radio industry has lost one of its greatest players."
In addition to broadcasting, Marr was an avid traveler with a lifelong interest and passion in aviation. He was twice appointed as a commissioner on the Maryland Aviation Administration, first by Governor Bob Ehrlich, in 2003, and again by Governor Larry Hogan in 2015.
Marr died at the age of 73 on July 7, 2016 as a result of stroke following back surgery.
He was the father of five children, ten grandchildren, and had been married for over 50 years at the time of his death.