'BCN to go off the air

[statler]

Final chord for the Rock of Boston
July 14, 2009 12:33 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size ? +

By Michael Warshaw, Globe Staff

WBCN 104.1 FM, the long-celebrated Boston radio station credited with leading the progressive rock ?n roll radio movement from the 1960s to the modern day, will no longer rock the airwaves.

Owner CBS Radio Boston said today that the legendary station is going off the air in a complicated shuffle intended to make room for a new sports/talk format.

On August 13, 98.5 The Sports Hub will replace the music station WBMX, or Mix 98.5, which will move to WBCN?s slot on the dial. WBCN will become a web-only operation available at www.wbcn.com.

The Sports Hub will air New England Patriots and Boston Bruins games, according to a release from the station. Local personalities Toucher and Rich will anchor the morning drive hours. The station will take the call letters WBZ-FM.

As for WBCN, it will ?say goodbye to Boston listeners after 41 years on the air with unique programming and stories celebrating the history and heritage of the station,? according to the release.

For decades, WBCN carried a reputation as perhaps the most progressive commercial rock station in the country, featuring such well-known air personalities as Charles Laquidara, with his ?The Big Mattress? morning show, Danny Schechter the News Dissector, and J. Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf, who worked as a DJ there. Musically adventurous and politically activist, the station informed popular tastes both regionally and nationally, in its glory days helping to break such artists as Elvis Costello and The Cars.

I know they have kinda sucked for a while now, but this just feels wrong.

 

[underground]

Oh no! How are we gonna hear all the hits of 1993?

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

What, I didn't hear you, let me turn my iPod down for a sec.

 

[Beton Brut]

Very sad news indeed, though honestly, 'BCN hasn't been the same since Oedipus went over to the corporate side a while back. This can only be good news for that little station up in Lynn.

Fortunately, this isn't going away.

 

[BostonSkyGuy]

Radio is almost a dead medium now anyways. Probably even more so than the newspaper. I only listen to Sports Radio anyways (WEEI) when I'm listening to the radio at all. I have an iPod, there's Pandora, there's CD players, etc. There's really no need to listen to the radio hoping you'll hear that ONE song you want to hear in between hearing the same 20 songs over and over.

Seriously, if you're upset WBCN is leaving from a music stand-point, just download some Beastie Boys, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and whatever new crap they've been playing and hit "shuffle" on your iPod and you'll feel right at home.

 

[statler]

It's not the music, it is more the history. 99% of Boston radio could go off the air tommorow and I wouldn't notice, but of all the stations in the city 'BCN is one of few I would have like to seen stick around. It is less a radio station and more a local institution.

I've always harbored a hope they the would go back to their roots and start breaking new bands again. Unlikely, sure, but now it is impossible.

 

[BarbaricManchurian]

Nah, WCRB is where it's at! Now that is truly one of Boston's cultural treasures, how many other cities have a classical station on the level of WCRB? Classic rock, on the other hand is (or more accurately, was) a passing fad that a very small minority enjoys, I can't stand how uninteresting it is! While on the other hand, classical music radio will always have some rich snob donating to it whenever it seems like it will shut down.

 

[JohnAKeith]

XM Sirius should bring terrestrial radio to the satellite! Bring BCN to the satellite!

 

[underground]

Radio is almost a dead medium now anyways.

I'm not a 100% sure that radio's really dying. As you said, Pod Casts are extremely popular. Talk radio's also doing very well. Both are the same format/medium as BCN. It's really only the content that's different, and when it comes to content BCN sucks. It's got music no one wants to listen to, played by DJs doing bits out of Howard Stern's reject stack from 1992.

 

[statler]

For their last days on the air they should go back to doing coke off the turntables, playing gruesome war sound effects over "Join the Army" PSAs and just let the DJs play what they want to play when they want to play it.

 

[pelhamhall]

I'm reading all these laudatory obits for BCN, and honestly - everything these reporters are saying that BCN was, FNX currently is.

I saw a media study recently, and I can't remember the exact numbers - so bear with me - but on a given weekday the amount of different rock and roll songs that BCN played did not break 25. All day long - just about one different song per hour. Of course, it had already become mostly a talk station - but you can't play 25 songs and call yourself "The Rock of Boston" with a straight face.

Now if only WFNX would drop that smug Henry Santuro and his ignorance-peddling, and if we could get the Sandbox guys to just shut up a little more and stop talking to sad entertainment bloggers... we would have the perfect radio station. The only one that can put out a commercial-free block of the Clash, Franz Ferdinand, Morphine, Nirvana, U2, the Fratellis, Radiohead, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Social Distortion, Sonic Youth, the Raconteurs, Kings of Leon and then take a quick commercial break and come right back at you with another wildly eclectic set. That's the rock of Boston.

Oh yeah, and growing up, I always assumed I'd marry Julie Kramer. It's still on the table as far as I'm concerned

 

[Beton Brut]

Oh yeah, and growing up, I always assumed I'd marry Julie Kramer. It's still on the table as far as I'm concerned

I'm Facebook-friends with her. Bought her a beer once at a Catherine Wheel gig at the Paradise (in 1995). Should I ask if she's single...

 

[unterbau]

turning to the radio for music is like using a microwave for cooking

 

[statler]

Quick, easy & convenient?

 

[unterbau]

yeah but it always comes out mushy

 

[tobyjug]

Some of my first FM listening was WBZ-FM in, dunno, 1972? I was going to wax all lyrical about how FM didn't used to be about DJ "personalities", speeded up turn tables, talking over the intros and outros, and how it was all album cuts and cool.. but soon enough: http://las-solanas.com/arsa/surveys_item.php?svid=10312&lidx=0&lttl=10188&lcnt=20&srt1=tsc_psv DESC

 

[statler]

^^Yikes!

But still, despite that horror show, radio (& 'BCN in particular) used to actually play new music, from bands you've never heard of. They actually served a legitimate, social good. When was the last time 'FNX broke a new band?

 

[Beton Brut]

When was the last time 'FNX broke a new band?

Maybe these guys?

 

[statler]

They gained a loyal local following and went on to win the 1999 WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble.

I wonder what will happen to the Rumble?

 

[Beton Brut]

I wonder what will happen to the Rumble?

Move it to City Hall Plaza. Re-brand it "The Mumble."

I'll be here all week. Tip your waitress. Try the veal.