My first set of call letters is going off the air.
What began as a great adventure in individual creativity had mutated over the years, freedom diminishing as the financial stakes increased. Yet for all the resources its current owners (CBS) have at their disposal, there hasn't been that much of a buzz about "The Rock of Boston" for years.
Rock, itself, isn't doing all that well as a musical genre.
Rolling Stone says: For the third time this year, an iconic rock radio station in a major city is shifting formats: Boston’s 104.1 WBCN, “The Rock of Boston,” will leave the airwaves (along with WXRK New York & LA's Indie 103.1).
The Boston Herald describes the road from freeform to progressive rock, then to album-oriented rock, then to modern rock including the perspective of former PD Oedipus (Edward Hyman), plus additional comments from distinctive long time air personalities Charles Laquidara, Mark Parenteau and News Dissector Danny Schechter.
Earthquake, tsunami,
The poet says, "The moving hand of time has writ, and having writ moves on. Rock lives. Life always changes. The Waltz was the "Rock" of 200 years ago. Hendrix jams with Strauss this morning. Joplin whirls in a pink taffeta ball gown. And the beat...always...goes on.
ReplyDeleteDick Summer (WNEW-FM's First Morning Man)
We were all very lucky to be in the "right place at the right time" & accumulate so many great memories!
ReplyDeleteTommy was present on Day One of WBCN's rock era as Peter Wolf (yes the one from J. Geils Band) played Cream's "I Feel Free" on March 15, 1968 from backstage at the legendary "Boston Tea Party" tucked behind the "Green Monster" of Fenway Park.
ReplyDeleteWe worked together at WBCN 1970 - 1977, and again 1982 - 1985 at KLOS, Los Angeles.
We surfed the trends of our generation, and the combination of "the baby boom" and "rock 'n' roll" made one helluva wave
Anybody still doing it old school?
ReplyDeleteCan't say for sure, but the historical trend would suggest no.
ReplyDeleteThe kind of freedom to pick & sequence your own music that typified the "underground/progressive" era of FM rock radio was largely gone by the mid-late 70s. That was followed by the regulated DJ selection of pre-limited tracks for insertion into a pre-determined sequence of categories (representing various time periods, moods, or types of appeal) for another 10 years. And since the mid 80s, commercial radio of all types has been dominated by computerized selection and sequencing.
While working for a program director who had already known and respected my work for 15 years before he hired me, I was allowed to "free form" as a fill-in on the overnight shift. That was 15 years ago and at the opposite end of I-90, in Seattle.
Actually, I'd never done that before. At WBCN when they were, I was first an intern, then the morning show producer, a newscaster and lastly a production guy (commercial maker), I was never a DJ there in the free form era, but 'BCN is where I learned how.