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Let me start by acknowledging that I'm not a big fan of talk radio. In fact, I rarely listen and have usually turned down invitations to be on after one of my columns. But, it's clear that talk radio — particularly the conservative version — has a following and impacts the political debate in Maryland and the nation.

With the goal of understanding the phenomenon better, I recently spent part of an afternoon with Ron Smith, host of a popular talk show on WBAL in Baltimore. Actually, Smith is more than popular. His name is practically synonymous with talk radio in that market, having been on the air for 25 years as of this coming August.

Smith readily agreed that most talk radio is conservative and attributes that to his view that most of the mainstream media is dominated by liberals. Smith himself is not that easy to label.

If you listen to the Ron Smith Show on weekend afternoons, hear his exchanges with listeners, and read the postings that he puts on the WBAL Web site as previews of what he will be discussing that day, you'll have no doubt that you are at the conservative end of the radio dial. Some topics are red meat, such as any mention of limiting, restricting or saying a bad word about guns. Others are predictable fare, such as the evils of big government, taxes and Democrats.

Yet, when I was preparing for my afternoon with Smith, I noticed that his Web site asserts that the goal of his program is to "achieve civilized conversation." Given my impressions about talk radio, that comment left me skeptical and wary.

It turns out that Smith in person is civilized, thoughtful, well read, and articulate as well as holding strong opinions. He has had almost a quarter century to develop his on-air persona, to hone his skills, and to reflect on the issues that he discusses.

Smith is constantly dropping quotes into his remarks, probably more for his own enjoyment than to impress any listeners. The allusion to someone being Panglossian—a reference to Dr. Pangloss in Voltaire's "Candide" — is not the standard stuff of political talk radio.

Some of the literary citations are reflections of his stated political philosophy. He quoted, approvingly, Lord Acton's famous dictum, "All power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely," as a way of supporting his opinion that all politicians are corrupt. He didn't say all liberal politicians; he said all politicians.

Smith had some interesting reflections on his time on the air. One of the biggest changes that he noted was the impact of technology on talk radio. Most important, he said, has been the advent of the cell phone that allows talk radio to be a much more interactive and participatory medium than it originally was. He also pointed out that the key piece of electronics when he started was the fax machine, and today the studio doesn't even have one.

Smith credits Rush Limbaugh with inventing the modern form of talk radio by demonstrating that politics could draw large audiences. Of course, entertainment has to be part of the package, and any radio host has to be enthusiastic and have a rapport with his audience.

Still, despite the homage to Rush Limbaugh and the anti-government slant of much of what Smith discusses and his callers are eager to endorse, I came away from my afternoon thinking that Smith doesn't neatly fit into the category of a right wing ideologue. One very specific example of his sometimes unpredictable perspective was his early opposition to the war in Iraq, which, Smith says, cost him 30 percent of his audience for a time.

Smith is, without a doubt, a talented talk radio host who understands his audience and what it takes to keep it and has a political philosophy that is quite compatible with his largely conservative listeners.

More than being ideological, however, Smith comes across fundamentally as a pessimist about the state of the country and where it is headed. That point is less about the current economic problems and the proposed solutions — although those get lots of air time on his show — and more about changing fundamental values in society and his historical reading of the decline and fall of previous empires.

If I listened regularly to the "Ron Smith Show," I'm pretty sure I would disagree with him on many issues. And I wouldn't want to debate him because he is so skilled at what he does. But I have to give him credit for being more thoughtful and complicated than the image I had started with.

None of that experience, however, changes any of my views about Rush Limbaugh and my willingness to criticize his irresponsible rants. Having spent time with Ron Smith, I know that he's no Rush Limbaugh. I hope he will forgive me for revealing that to his listeners.

Laslo Boyd is a partner at Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies. He also teaches courses at both Towson University and the University of Baltimore. His e-mail address is lvboyd@gmail.com.