WBCN

WBCN, fizzles and fades. The once proud station was a pioneering, innovative rock radio oasis that became the cornerstone of a corporate behemoth. To see the devastation, the lack of name and/or talented on-air personalities finally sinking the old ship, is truly sad. The joke in town used to be “Name a band that played last year’s WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble?” with a follow-up - “Name any band that played the WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble??” More recently that joke (which, admittedly, this writer originated) got even more twisted…and telling…as someone asked me to “Name any jock currently on WBCN - 104.1 FM?”

The station that once had household names in Boston - Charles, Mark, Ken, Maxanne with friendly voices that played incredible music - the first demo from The Cars - “Just What I Needed”, the station that launched Aerosmith, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers via the underground classic “Roadrunner”, the first station to play Marc Bolan of T Rex live and in-the-studio when he got off the plane to headline over The Doobie Brothers at the Orpheum - that innovative station turned into a cold, calculating monster that didn’t care about the on-air talent, the behind-the-scenes talent or the listeners.

According to Wikipedia “The station slowly began to change to an ‘underground’ music format on the night of March 15, 1968. The first song played that evening to usher in the new format and slogan ‘American Revolution’ was “I Feel Free” by the rock group Cream.” Interesting that the day before July 15, 2009, 41 years and 4 months later, the venerable Rock doesn’t fade into the sunset with its head held high…it fizzles and fades away in a fashion that reflects how upper management treated the listeners and the on-air talent and other employees.