In his early 50s, he has been the top sports anchor at Channel 45/WBFF since the station, also known as Fox 45, debuted its newscasts in 1991. Currently, he does the 5:30 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts for the Sinclair-owned station.

Until late February, Cunningham also had been doing a two-hour slot on CBS sports talker 105.7 The Fan, WJZ-FM. He says he had been leaving his house at 10 a.m. to prepare for his noon-2 p.m. radio show at WJZ-FM's studios, and then it's off to prepare for his Fox 45 sportscasts.

Oh, and then there's a sports news update he tapes for Channel 45's next-day morning show late at night, and then he heads for home -- often arriving there after midnight. He is also the co-host of "Sports Unlimited," which airs at 10:30 p.m. every Sunday on Fox 45.

So, Cunningham's cutting back. As of early March, he dropped the weekday radio show.

"I just can't keep up the grind anymore," Cunningham told his listeners on his last regularly scheduled weekday radio show Feb. 25.

Bob Haynie took over Cunningham's radio slot, which has been moved to the 1-3 p.m. time frame.

"The Scott Garceau Show," with Scott Garceau and Jeremy Conn, remains in its 3-7 p.m. slot, followed by "The Ken Weinman Show" from 7-11 p.m. and Michael Popovec at 11 p.m.

Now Cunningham's workday will begin at 2 p.m. and last until midnight -- a bit more manageable 10-hour workday. But he still plans to do a weekend show for 105.7, starting March 19, and weekday fill-in work for the station. The new Saturday radio show will have a slower pace, be more retrospective, and be more "guest-centric," he said.

"I resigned, pure and simple," Cunningham said to the Baltimore Sun. "I had worked 70-hour weeks for the last two and a half years and simply wanted my life back."

Cunningham grew up in the Hampton Roads area of southeastern Virginia. He went to high school in Yorktown, Va., where he worked at the school's radio station.

In the late 1970s, he went to college at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where he landed a weekend sports gig at the ABC affiliate there, then WXEX (now WRIC). After Richmond, he headed north to join WBFF, which was launching its newscasts in 1991.

During those early days in Baltimore, Cunningham kept himself busy doing play-by-play for the Baltimore Blast for "Home Team Sports," plus lacrosse for the Baltimore Thunder on WCBM. He also hosted the "Gary Williams Show" on Fox 45's sister station, Channel 54/WNUV, during the late 1990s.

He has also been the public address announcer for the Ravens since 1999 and is the PA voice for Towson University football.

Cunningham joined 105.7 The Fan when the sports talk radio station launched in November 2008, doing the 12-2 p.m. slot on weekdays. Before that, he also worked at the old WFBR, covering the Stallions' CFL team for eight years in the 1990s, and he did a Saturday Ravens show at WNST radio.

Through the years he has won numerous awards from groups such as the National Sportscasters And Sportswriters Association, the Associated Press, and the Society Of Professional Journalists. He also hosts the Channel 45 Baltimore end of the "Jerry Lewis Telethon" on Labor Day weekend.

Cunningham said he never received any pressure to talk up or promote the Orioles during his almost three years at CBS-owned 105.7, which had carried the team when he was there. "We all had a lot of freedom to talk about the Orioles -- good or bad," he said.

Cunningham noted Baltimore sports TV had remained remarkably stable through the years. "There's very little turnover," he said. "There's a lot of continuity on the TV side." Channel 11's Jerry Sandusky is the longest-tenured sports TV veteran in the market.

Jim Williams, a Baltimore sports media veteran who writes for the Examiner, agreed. "Jerry Sandusky on 11, Mark Viviano on 13 and Bruce Cunningham on 45 are all very good at what they do," he said. "They all like the city and they aren't looking for somewhere else to go. That explains much of the stability with sports anchors in the market."

While Cunningham has been at Fox 45 two decades, he has nurtured talent at his station, working with up-and-coming local sports media personalities such as Kristen Berset, Amber Theoharis and Amy Fadool. Berset recently left 45 for D.C.'s Channel 9.

"Bruce is much like George Michael, who did sports on D.C.'s Channel 4 for several decades," Williams said. "He has a good eye for talent. Bruce has a great sense of humor, he's generous and he's very helpful to his co-workers. He is the face of Fox 45 sports."

Cunningham said Channel 45 was bucking a national trend, which favors less sports time on local TV newscasts. "I have 10 minutes of the 10 p.m. newscast, and more than 20 minutes of content per day," he said. "Here at Fox 45, they believe in sports."