R.I.P.: Baltimore Radio/TV Personality Bob Callahan

Bob Callahan

Robert I. Callahan, a veteran Baltimore broadcaster who worked in radio and television and was honored in early June with a star on Maryland Public Television's Walk of Fame, died of cancer Aug. 28 at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Miami.

He was 76, according to The Baltimore Sun.

"I always think of Bob as someone who could do so many things," said Donna Hamilton, the WBAL-TV news co-anchor who worked with Callahan at WJZ-TV. "He was just an extremely capable and versatile person who could do just about anything and do it well, and he was a super-nice guy in the process."

Callahan began his broadcasting career while a senior in high school hosting "Teen Turntables," which aired mornings on WNAV-AM in Annapolis.

From 1955 to 1957, he attended what is now Towson University and then began his career as a disc jockey at WJDY-AM in Salisbury in 1958.

From 1959 to 1960, he worked as a record promoter for Decca Records and was on air at WFBR-AM from 1960 to 1962.

Drafted into the Army in 1963, Callahan served as an announcer for Armed Forces Radio.

After being discharged in 1965, he joined WBAL radio as the station's overnight man and later became host in 1966 of a disc-jockey show that aired from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.

One of his broadcasting feats included staying awake for 66 consecutive hours in 1966 while broadcasting live from Memorial Stadium in support of the Orioles, who went on to win the World Series that year.

Callahan left WBAL in 1970 and joined WVOB-AM in Bel Air, where its general manager was former WBAL colleague Jim McMahan Jr., and soon the two were on the air hosting "Bob and Jim in the Morning."

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