Dave Durian, Beloved WBAL Anchor, Dies

Dave Durian, a former longtime anchor for WBAL Radio, died early Monday morning after a brief illness. He was 72 years old.

Durian was a familiar face and voice in Baltimore for three decades. The Iowa native came to Baltimore in 1982 from KDKA in Pittsburgh, becoming a lead anchor at WBAL-TV 11. He left WBAL-TV in 1986 and joined Maryland Public Television in 1987, hosting news breaks and specials. The following year, he came back to TV Hill as a fill-in talk host at WBAL Radio, and at WBAL, he found a home.

Dave Durian and Rod Daniels host the 11 p.m. newscast on April 1, 1985:

For a time, Durian pulled double duty, anchoring and producing the morning news at the radio station, then going downstairs to prepare and co-anchor the noon news on WBAL-TV 11. And on Saturday mornings, he'd do another four hours of news on WBAL-TV 11

"Either you know what you're talking about or you don't.. Either you enjoy what you're doing or you don't. And either you really like this business or you coast. And if you coast, I think people can tell immediately. I really like what I'm doing," he told WBAL-TV 11 in a 1992 piece on his packed schedule. "If you like the news business, this is the best job there is."

Jeff Beauchamp, WBAL's former vice president and station manager, hired Durian for his second tour on TV Hill.

“Dave had the ability to connect with almost everyone," Beauchamp said in an email. "He not only informed and entertained a generation of Marylanders, he also befriended them. People invited him into their homes and cars every morning because they trusted him and, more importantly they liked him. He was the real deal... what you heard on the radio was who he really was. A great guy who was loved by many."

In 1990, he was named the host of WBAL's morning show.

"He was the guy who would anchor the big events," Mike Wellbrock, WBAL's Assistant Program Director, said. "He was the guy who would be out in the community a lot."

Dave Durian's final appearance as full-time host of Maryland's Morning News:

Malarie Pinkard-Pierre produced Durian for more than six years, leaving the morning shift and then returning just to work with Durian again.

"Dave was absolutely one of the best of the best," Pinkard said, saying Durian would prepare meticulously for every interview, making sure to have something on hand to leave listeners more informed.

Durian's studious manner impressed no less an interviewee than Bob Schieffer, then the moderator of "Face the Nation" on CBS, who made a point of coming up from Washington to be in studio every Friday.

"He was someone who traveled to see us and have breakfast with us," Pinkard-Pierre said. "He's someone that wanted to meet Dave."

Durian's television experience helped him behind the microphone, she said, in striving for perfection.

"He always, to me, performed in radio like it was a television show," she said.

John Patti worked with Durian in some capacity for all of the 22 years he was with the station.

"I found him to be the most comfortable 'cold reader' that I have ever known. He was an even better writer," Patti said. "His style was always concise and he knew how to make every word count. His conversational style of delivery on the air made him impossible to trip."

Patti joined the broadcasts from locations as exotic as Disney's Animal Kingdom, Vatican City, Hawaii and several National Baseball Hall of Fame inductions in Cooperstown, New York.

And one day, Durian had to think on his feet and take the show outside of the building. In 1999, a construction crane atop TV Hill's candelabra tower came unhinged, and the staffs of two broadcasters, the residents of a nursing home and the residents of dozens of homes were told to evacuate.

"Dave never missed a beat...broadcasting in the pouring rain from a small parking lot off the 41st [Street] bridge," Beauchamp said. "His coverage was informative, compelling, accurate and reassuring. It was what Dave did best."

Dave Durian and Bill Vanko launched the morning show's new format in 2009:

For reporters, being on with Durian was like getting a front page story.

"Whenever there was a big story, you had to be on with Dave Durian," reporter Scott Wykoff said during Durian's last appearance as a full-time morning show host in 2012. "And if you were live and somewhere at a convention or a ballgame or a hurricane or something like that, you had to be on with Dave Durian. And someone might say, 'Scott, we can’t have you on, you were up til 2:00 in the morning.' I would say, 'I want be on, I want be on with Dave.'"

But for all his professionalism, Durian could always keep it loose.

"From time to time, Dave would bring his 'potato gun' to work," Patti said. "Those working the early morning shift would join him on the roof of WBAL to watch him shoot potatoes from the roof into the adjacent landfill."

A few of Dave Durian's exchanges with John Patti:

One year, Patti drove with Durian and other WBAL colleagues to a convention in Ocean City.

"While I was driving, Dave and the others were feasting on steamed crabs on the floor of my cargo van," Patti said. "Once we arrived in Ocean City we all recorded the song 'Under The Boardwalk; in a Boardwalk recording booth."

Durian also took the morning show on the road to Valley View Farms, beginning an annual tradition with WBAL's holiday fundraiser for the WBAL Kids Campaign. Even after his semi-retirement, he still turned up to co-host the morning show on both days of the fundraiser and paid a visit the following year.

"It was so popular and did such good things, and it was one of the few times he could actually meet his listeners," said Johnny Goldsmith, who produced the morning show later in Durian's career, including the visits to Valley View.

Goldsmith said Durian was "on top of his game" and valued perfection.



Durian is survived by his wife, Martha, daughter Amy D. Backhaus, brother Steven Durian, sister Diane Maxwell, six grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

Visitation is set for Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. at the Ruck Towson Funeral Home (1050 York Rd.). A funeral will be held there at 1 p.m. Friday. Interment is private.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be made in his name to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Jacksonville Volunteer Company or the WBAL Kids Campaign.