WJZ's Marty Bass Retiring After 48 Years as Baltimore TV Fixture

Marty Bass announced he will leave WJZ when his current contract expires at the end of May 2026, closing out a 48-year run at CBS Baltimore that began when he joined the station in 1977. The retirement will come just after he turns 73.

Bass started as a beat reporter covering feature stories through the mid-1980s before settling into the anchor chair that would define his career. He spent more than 30 years co-anchoring "Rise & Shine" and "The Morning Addition" alongside Don Scott, a partnership that shaped what morning local news in Baltimore looked like for generations of viewers. "Working with a team of behind-the-scenes SUPERSTARS, we basically invented local morning TV news. THAT was a wild ride!" Bass said of that era.

His reach extended well beyond WJZ's studios. He simultaneously held a role on WPOC FM, appearing on the "Laurie DeYoung Show" while still on the air at WJZ each morning. "Yes, I was (basically) on WJZ and WPOC every morning for two hours, at the same time," Bass said. "My time with Laurie completed me as a broadcaster."

Bass also embedded himself in Baltimore's sports culture as an anchor for the Baltimore Ravens' "Rave TV," co-anchoring the team's Sunday morning pregame report through the NFL season. "At home, or away, I co-anchored the Sunday morning 'RAVE TV' pre-game report. (Flying around the country with an NFL team…amazing.)," he said.

The segment that most visibly stamped his name across the region was "Where's Marty," a recurring feature he produced and appeared in more than 700 times, taking him to neighborhoods, events, and corners of the Baltimore area that rarely surfaced on a nightly broadcast. "I got to see our city and counties from a front row seat," Bass said.

His final day at WJZ, where he has remained a fixture on WJZ at 9, is set for the end of May 2026. No announcement has been made about a successor or how the station plans to fill the role he has occupied for nearly five decades.