Tom Marr

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Tom Marr is an American radio talk-show host on WCBM (680-AM) in Baltimore, Maryland known for his conservative political views. His radio career spans close to 45 years, mostly in Baltimore, although he has worked in other major markets during that same period of time.

[edit] Biography

Marr began his career in radio at a young age on WWDC AM in Washington D.C. doing a high school sports show. He graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. When his service obligation ended Tom began working in radio full time.

His early years as a newsman found Tom working at radio and TV stations in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Virginia. In the spring of 1967, he joined the award winning news team of WFBR Radio (1300-AM) in Baltimore and remained at that station for more than two decades. He was a regular panelist on WFBR's award winning program "Conference Call", a popular weekday news program which consisted of a panel discussion covering political topics of local, state, and national interests. The show was moderated by longtime newsman Ken Maylath. Other regular panelists included WFBR's general manager Harry Shriver, as well as various local politicians from the city of Baltimore and throughout the state of Maryland.

Possessing a solid background in covering news and politics, Tom also maintained an equally extensive background as a sportscaster. In addition to his on air duties as a news anchor and reporter at WFBR, Tom also did extensive work for CBS Radio Sports (of which WFBR was an affiliate), covering the Baltimore Orioles, the Baltimore Colts, and the NBA's Baltimore Bullets during the late 60's and early 70's when all three teams reached the World Series, Super Bowl, and NBA Finals, respectively. He also called the play-by-play during the Orioles historic goodwill tour of Japan in 1971, when they played a series of exhibition games against several Japanese teams. During the mid-to-late 1970's, Marr spent three years as the weekend sports anchor on WMAR-TV (Channel 2), which was Baltimore's CBS television affiliate at the time.

In 1979, WFBR became the radio flagship station of the Baltimore Orioles. That same year, Marr became part of the Oriole's radio play-by-play team and stayed in that position through the 1986 season, working alongside two of the games most respected broadcasters, Chuck Thompson and Jon Miller. During his tenure as an O's broadcaster Marr did the play-by play for the ALCS and World Series in both 1979 and 1983. He also broadcast the Orioles play-by-play once again from Japan in 1984, when they made a second goodwill trip to that country.

After the 1986 baseball season ended, the Orioles sold their broadcast rights to another station and Marr remained at WFBR to begin a successful career as a radio talk-show host focusing primarily on news and politics.

Marr and a number of his fellow on-air personalities from WFBR joined WCBM Radio in 1988 when WFBR was sold and changed to an "oldies" music format. Tom remained at WCBM until 1996. He then joined the talk line up at WWDB in Philadelphia before returning to Baltimore two years later, signing an unprecedented 10 year contract with WCBM.

In 2002-2003, Tom hosted an evening show in New York City, following Bob Grant on the legendary WOR (710-AM) and was nationally syndicated on the WOR Radio Network.

During his years as a radio newsman, Marr broke many stories including a number that had national significance. He has taken his talk show on the road to Israel, England, The Republic of China, Ireland, Scotland, and Bosnia.

In July 2006, he spent three weeks in Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar with the Coalition Forces. He has also practiced his craft with assignments to Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Japan, South Africa and Taiwan.

Marr was named one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in America for 7 straight years by Talkers Magazine, the leading trade publication for the talk radio industry. He has also made frequent television appearances on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and C-Span.