Way before she was the Queen of All Media, Oprah Winfrey was an on-air personality at WJZ-TV. She had been brought here from Nashville, Tenn., in 1976, to co-anchor the 6 p.m. news alongside local legend Jerry Turner. That didn't work out so well.

Ultimately, she was teamed with onetime radio personality Richard Sher for a new morning talk show, “People Are Talking.” It became a hit (despite an opening-show review in The Sun headlined “A breath of hot, stale air”), and the pair remained together until 1983, when an offer from Chicago lured Winfrey away.

Sher remained in Baltimore, stuck with “People Are Talking” for another five years and remained a fixture on WJZ until his retirement, in 2008. He now hosts a 30-minute Sunday morning edition of the venerable “Square-Off” franchise on WMAR, Channel 2. And Winfrey? Well, she's done OK for herself since leaving Baltimore.

Winfrey was in town recently filming scenes for HBO's “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” (which she is producing as well as acting in) when she and Sher met for lunch at Harbor East's Four Seasons Hotel.

Accompanied by Sher's wife, Annabelle, and friends Arnold and Arleen Weiner, the former co-hosts chatted away, even finishing each other's sentences. Approached by a fan who spoke with her for several minutes and then asked for a selfie, Winfrey smiled, perhaps a tad impatiently, and posed as asked.

Later, posing harborside with Sher, Winfrey spoke with affection of her time here (“I feel like I was groomed and became a real woman here in Baltimore,” she says). But when she started talking about her departure for Chicago, Sher interrupted — and made it clear just how much his friend has been missed.

“Your last day was December 16, 1983. I remember it well,” he said with a trace of sadness.

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Oprah Winfrey, 62, and Richard Sher, 74, photographed on Sept. 22, 2016, outside the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore. Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis.