Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN

I looked forward to the release of this book with great anticipation as I was an avid WBCN listener during my high school and college years in the late 70's and early to mid '80s.But whether you were a BCN listener or not, if you are interested in the early days of underground FM radio and the conception of album oriented rock, you will LOVE reading this book! I knew that Carter Allen would not disappoint me with his "biography" of the greatest rock radio station in history, ....but this book actually exceeded my already high expectations.Carter masterfully takes us through the earliest "visions" of Ray Riepen, the first owner of WBCN as a rock radio station back in 1968, to the selection of this unknown group of crazy geniuses with the same vision to spin the records, through the changes as WBCN began to outgrow its audience, to its downfall in 2009.WBCN was a powerful force among the youth of Boston from its inception in 1968. BCN was not only a radio station that played all the coolest, most upcoming music anywhere, but it was the voice and soul of the young people of Boston. They cared about everything we cared about, and they were not afraid to say it. They were our leaders. The whole crew at the radio station and the listeners had a love-love relationship and worked together as a team (as the legendary Charles Laquidara said, "We're all on one big mattress together!) to promote not only the best up and coming music, but also other important local and global causes of the time. BCN taught us to hate top 40 programming. To listen to the BEST cuts on the albums, and not just the 45's that were being played on WRKO. They taught us to NEVER, ever stop a song before the very final end of the very final last note of a song, like they did on AM radio, with the DJs screaming and fast talking through the end of the last verse! Something that bothers me to this day, since there are no more radio stations like BCN:) They taught us to listen to and promote the newest local bands, where and when they were playing, they'd give out free passes over the radio, show up at the venue in the Wicked Yellow Van and report live, invite the new artists back to the station to talk and play live, and by the time the albums came out, they were hits because of WBCN! So many who started with WBCN became major forces in the music industry and credit BCN for giving them the initial promotion and exposure. WBCN was a major cultural force during its reign as The Rock Of Boston, and is now a distant, but beautiful memory for those of us lucky enough to have been in Boston during those years.Carter Allen shows that being a DJ and so much more on one of the best radio stations in history is not his only talent! Carter is a *writer*, and tells this remarkable and extraordinary story with class, depth, heart and soul, and truly made me cry in the end..... Bittersweet tears:)Again, whether you were lucky enough to be a BCN listener, or you are just a fan of the history of Rock And Roll Radio, this book will touch you and move you. It will rock you and roll you:)Thank you Carter Allen! I am so proud to have been a BCN faithful listener, and I LOVE this book.

Of course if you are a former listener of the late, great WBCN you already know you should buy this book. And to the question “but is it actually good?” the resounding answer is yes! Carter Alan has done a brilliant job of documenting the “rise and fall” of WBCN, chock full of amazing interviews, anecdotes, and rare archival photos.And it will of course appeal to listeners of various eras of the station, in my case the late ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and ‘00s. But also I enjoyed the first chapters dealing with the transition of the station from the initial classical Boston Concert Network (BCN) to the progressive rock station that it eventually grew into.It is true that that there is a small mistake in that throughout the book The Firesign Theatre is referred to as “The Fireside Theater,” and at the first iteration of this I just thought that the person being interviewed was mis-quoting but it is consistently wrong. (The group’s name stems in part from astrology, because the membership encompasses all three “fire signs”: Phil Austin-Aries, Phil Proctor-Leo, Peter Bergman and David Ossman-Sagittarius; although there probably was a nod to FDR’s radio “fireside chats” as well.)But I basically read most of the book in one sitting, that’s how engrossing and nostalgic it is, harkening back to when, let’s face it, terrestrial radio was actually good; what a concept! And the fact that WBCN throughout its storied history survived the perpetual onslaught of rivals and imitators (WCOZ, WAAF, etc) was a fine tribute to its consistent integrity. Personally I did disagree with one or two of the minor conclusions reached by Alan, but the over-arching themes are right on the money. For instance, yes WBCN’s progressive and album oriented rock approach was a big departure from the Top-40 radio format prevalent in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but actually stations like WRKO did at least play an eclectic mix of music during their heyday, even though of course it was a crappy AM signal.And for me the most poignant chapters of the book deal with the ‘80s and ‘90s in which Alan correctly describes the powerhouse triumvirate of DJs which were of course Charles Laquidara in the mornings, Ken Shelton in midday, and Mark Parenteau in the afternoons. The whole day was totally fun, which of course is a far cry from all the garbage and talentless nitwits that inhabit the airwaves today. Personally I’ve always thought Parenteau was the absolute best, a naturally funny man who played excellent music and conducted brilliant interviews. Actually it came to a shock to me that he died in June of this year! The only live ‘BCN event that I went to was their “Toga Party” in which I saw Parenteau but didn’t get to speak to him, but I did get to meet the marvelously clever and quick-witted Tami Heide. And at the event she was attired in an amazingly revealing Roman costume and I can tell you she literally is a goddess!And Laquidara was brilliant as well, of course. When the powers that be put Howard Stern (Ugh, and I’m ashamed to admit that he went to the same university as I did) on in the morning and moved “The Big Mattress” to WZLX in 1996, you could tell things were already spiraling out of control. And then to add insult to injury, they replaced The Big Mattress with “Steve Sweeney’s Neighborhood.” Yikes! I mean sure, he was mildly amusing as the cop in THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY but give me a break, he would make goofy gaffs like calling Michael Stipe “Michael Stripe!” The final straw came in 2005 when listeners suddenly tuned into a “Morning Zoo” radio show (Karlson & McKenzie). Not that I have anything personally against Kevin Karlson, Pete McKenzie, and Heather Ford (compared to absolute cretins like Opie & Anthony) but at that moment I realized that it had totally gone middle-of-the-road. But at least Charles eventually was able to semi-retire to Hawaii, aloha Rangoon!Carter Alan also covers the final last gasps of the once fine radio station in the end chapters, although the fact that they turned into a “Modern Rock” station didn’t bother me since I like a lot of new as well as older music. It’s just that the whole radio dial has become so fragmented and cubby-holed nowadays. As well as finally doing away with actual DJs altogether with the whole “Jack/Mike FM” concept (an iPod connected to a transmitter), with WMKK 93.7 existing as a failed experiment in the Boston market (actually I was reading the Tami Heide actually does voice snippets for the “Jack FM” in L.A.).But actually for me terrestrial radio has become almost totally irrelevant nowadays and I basically listen to internet radio stations, iTunes, and the new Apple Music service which actually to their credit do recognize the importance of having actual human DJs. And as Alan said near the end of the book, the only radio stations in Boston that are even worth tuning into are the small independent and college stations like WXRV (“The River”) and Emerson College’s WERS (88.9 FM), lonely candles of goodness flickering against the background of blazing beacons of crap and stupidity. (For instance: one morning I heard Jesca Hoop’s hauntingly beautiful song “Dreams in the Hollow” on WERS for the first time.)