Nestor Aparicio Talks
to Students at CCBC-Dundalk
- Article
& photo by Deb Golumbek
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As part of the
CCBC-Dundalk Honors Program “Mind of the Performer”
series, Nestor Aparicio met with about 50 CCBC students last Friday.
Aparicio is co-owner of WNST 1570AM, a sports talk radio station that
Aparicio has molded into a website that he calls “a product that is
seen around the world.”
Aparicio grew up in Dundalk, attended Dundalk High School and
CCBC-Dundalk. His mother still lives around the corner. He started as a
sports writer for
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Nester Aparicio talks with students at
CCBC-Dundalk about his life as a radio talk show host, radio station
owner and website owner. His website www.wnst.net is on the screen behind him.
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The Baltimore Sun;
he's worked at the News American,
for syndicated radio and is somewhat of a local celebrity in the sports
radio world. But according to Aparicio, the ability to write “opened
every door in my life.” He credits his writing skills with getting him
“every job, every date, everything I ever wanted” and he urged the
students attending to understand that writing is fundamental in
everything they do.
While sports is his mainstay, and he spent the early ‘90s being “Nasty
Nestor” to fans across the Baltimore region and beyond, Aparicio turned
into an entrepreneur in 1998 when he bought WNST, an AM radio station,
and realized after several years that the Internet with all of its
changing technology was the place to be. This idea came to the
forefront when Aparicio organized the “Free the Bird” walkout during a
2006 Orioles game. Over 1,000 fans left en masse from the fourth inning
to protest the at-the-time ninth straight losing season. Aparicio
learned that day when his website crashed due to the 58,000 people who
tried to visit, that he needed to invest more, and he did.
The site now offers streaming video, blogs, Twitter updates and, of
course, the audio from his radio shows. One advantage he sees to all of
the technology is the feedback that a writer can get from their
reader/listener. “When you used to listen to Jerry Turner deliver the
news, you might be talking to the television screen about your thoughts
on what he was saying, but he never knew that,” he explained. “Nowadays
there is immediate feedback, you can blog or send e-mails and let your
opinion be known.”
Aparicio, who started on radio because of his self-proclaimed “gift for
gab,” considers himself in the “information business.” And his message
was well heard as he encouraged the students to hone their writing
skills. “You can get what you want as a writer.”
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