[BC] Underground = Classic

[Rich Wood]

------ At 12:33 PM 1/8/2006, DANA PUOPOLO wrote: -------

>If I recall, WBCN was a classical station owned by T. Mitchell Hastings.
>He sold the evenings to the people who owned the Boston Tea Party nightclub -
>they were the ones that began playing rock on WBCN. It was so successful that
>WBCN went rock 24/7.

Mitch owned WBCN, WHCN, WNCN and another in Providence, I think. It 
was known as the Concert Network. The WBCN studios were go grungy you 
needed shots before entering. It was on Boston's version of Fifth 
Avenue, Newbury Street. I think the Psychedlic Supermaret played a 
part as the format grew. I think the "Network" film scene was 
inspired by WBCN telling its listeners to put their speakers in their 
open windows and crank them up. News was done by Danny Schecter "The 
News Dissector."
Charles Laquidara was the PD, I think. He stayed for years.

>I had an FM radio at the time (I was in seventh grade). Compared to AM, FM was
>a teen's dream. We had WBCN, WRKO-FM (Arko, the automated top 40 robot with
>zero commercials), and even WLLH AM/FM from Lowell was a decent top 40 station
>at the time.

When Arko appeared they changed the WRKO-FM call to WROR. He was 
annoying as Hell. I recall WLLH-FM as Easy Listening, one of many 
that took tiny fractions of WJIB's audience.

>Later, WBZ-FM, WVBF (WKOX-FM), WEEI-FM. WHDH-FM, WCOP-FM and WCGY all went
>rock in one form or another.

I proposed a format to Jim Lightfoot, GM of WBZ-FM. He died before we 
could implement it. I worked at WKOX-FM when it was Easy Listening 
with a 12 bay antenna on a 500 ft. tower next to the building on Mt. 
Wayte Avenue. We could almost hit our heads on the lowest bay. 
WEEI-FM was running the CBS "Young Sound" totally automated from 
studios at the Prudential. The automation often refused to close the 
news mic to return to music. WHDH-FM changed to WCOZ and went Easy 
Listening for a while. I think WCOP-FM simulcast the AM for quite a 
while from studios on Rt. 3 in Lexington. WCGY was a rimshot owned by 
Curt Gowdy. The format was actually pretty good. WWEL, Medford, was 
also Easy, then became WXKS. As WWEL it had Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsberg 
as its GM.

It was a great time to be in Boston radio.

Rich


Rich Wood
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