I can half-remember a live in-studio performance on WBCN by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee in the early 70s. I know they were playing their current record a lot in those days, along with Give It Up by Bonnie Raitt
They always had a great christmas show all day long, djs coming through and jiving, playing live and rare tracks.
Started listing to BCN in 1968. Charles' brother and I were teachers together so it made listening even more fun. Most of the music on my shelves came from listening to that station as well as BRU at Brown University in Rhode Island.
I discovered BCN when home from college on break in 1968. I still recall the eclectic selection of music they played on the morning after the RFK asassination.
Tickets for the December 4 screening of the WBCN documentary are available along with an after-party, with Charles Laquidara, Maxanne, and the rest of them. It's to support the non-profit production.
Started to listen to BCN in late '68. I even remember the first rock song they played...."I Feel Free" by Cream. The last announcer for BCN, Bradley Jay now has an overnight talk show on a local station here in Boston, WBZ. Miss the old days of BCN!
I missed the real glory days, but I remember that during the oil crisis of 1973, our school's starting time was pushed back 30 minutes(?) and for some reason, my mother was listening to Charles Laquidera in the morning, so that was the first time I heard him (and Mattress Mishegass and the Cosmic Muffin), just for a week or two. Later got way into WBCN in 1978 or so -- I recall that Some Girls and More Songs About Buildings and Food were current at the time -- and listened regularly until I went away to college in 1983. Matt Siegal was still at 'BCN when I started listening, and the station itself was still pretty awesome. Deep album cuts from bands like the Stones, Zeppelin and the Dead intermingled with more obscure 60s/70s rock and the latest New Wave from Britain. Those were the days.
I listened religiously from the mid 70’s through early 80’s. I remember Ken Shelton’s first day on air for some reason and was glad to hear he was a Beach Boys fan. They would do a (weekly?) top ten of local singles by bands like November Group, Mission Of Burma, La Peste, etc.. Oedipus’ Nocturnal Emmissions was my gateway to lots of cool Punk and New Wave music. I first heard the Ramones on WBCN and was shocked by how fast they played. At the time I didn’t get it.
Word was that WBCN had a hand in the origination of the Beatles bootleg "Kum Back". That's a pretty impressive legacy. From Wikipedia: On 12 September 1969, John Lennon, along with the Plastic Ono Band, traveled to Canada to perform at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival. Later that month several radio stations in the U.S. began broadcasting recordings of the Beatles' unreleased Get Back album. It was rumored at the time that Lennon had given an acetate or tape copy to a reporter who in turn gave it to a disc jockey.[4] Lennon later said: "They say it came from an acetate that I gave to someone who then went and broadcast it as being an advance pressing or something."[5] WBCN in Boston was one of the first radio stations to air the recording. The station obtained a reel-to-reel copy of Johns' January acetate and broadcast it in its entirety on 22 September 1969. A recording of the WBCN broadcast became the source for the Kum Back bootleg LP.
Tomorrow night is the premier showing of WBCN documentary: Regal Fenway Theatre and after-party at Fenway Johnnie's Regal Fenway Theater Boston, reception at Johnny somebodies! I'm going. Charles, Maxanne, and Fats will be there long with almost everyone else. Can anyone say who the stoners in the poster are? I'm seeing JJ Jackson but I can't exactly take credit for that.
From left: Michael Ward, Steven Segal, J. J. Jackson, Al Perry, Sam Kopper, Jim Parry, and Joe Rogers aka Mississippi Harold Wilson. Taken from this: Documentary chronicles WBCN-FM’s revolutionary impact - Fifty Plus Advocate
Wasn't Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band a deejay there in the early years? And Maxanne Satoris a little later, I remember her quite well. Charles Laquidera, the Cosmic Muffin, Mattress Mishagaash are other names that come to mind. Reggae was big in Boston at the time. "The Harder They Come" played continuously for several years in a small theater outside of Harvard Square in Cambridge. At Paul's Mall saw Bob Marley and Wailers, Toots and Maytals, Winston Rodney and Burning Spear, as well as Little Feat & Bonnie Raitt. At The Jazz Workshop caught Yusef Lateef, who opened his show by wandering through the audience waving a smoldering incense censor, looking like an Egyptian hierophant in his multicolored robes. Great times down in those two little basement clubs hidden away down in the shadows under the Prudential building.
Yes on Peter Wolf, and yes on Maxanne. She's widely known for breaking Aerosmith and the Cars, as well as championing some of the lesser known but still great Boston bands from the 70's.
I so wish I could be there but I am in on the opposite coast and there's no way. The movie is great, I saw it last spring at the actual world premiere in California. I just wish I could go to the Boston premiere with all those great radio people from the glory years...
Oh yeah... I saw my share of great jazz and rock and folk shows at those two basement clubs. Sun Ra with a big band at Paul's Mall was just phenomenal. And at the smaller club I saw Herbie Hancock, Sam Rivers, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and more.
Indeed, I remember Maxanne as an early advocate for AC/DC as well Went to a New York Dolls show in a small venue in Waltham, a suburb of Boston and met her there. Only about 30 people besides us in the audience. Andy Paley and The Sidewinders opened the show WBCN used to play their single "Telephone Relations"
What year did you see the Dolls? I saw a pretty cool show at the Orpheum in Boston in 1972: Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, supported by Larry Coryell's Foreplay second on the bill and New York Dolls opening. It was probably my first exposure to NYD and I wasn't really won over that night though I later grew to love them. It was a weird bill, though, with three different audiences in the theater that night. It was the original Magic Band playing Clear Spot and it was fantastic. Soon after that, he put out that horrible Unconditionally Guaranteed album and they played at a small club in Cambridge the following year. I was a big Beefheart fan but I didn't even bother going, I hated that record so much. I loved Maxanne and she did champion the early glam bands and would frequently play Roxy Music who I adored then and now. But she tended to overplay certain bands like Aerosmith and Queen, IMO. Damn, I wish I could get in a teleporter and be in Boston tonight...
I lived in Waltham for a few years back in the early 90's. Grew up in Newton. Billy Squier played in the Sidewinders. Dolls played all over NE back in the day. I unfortunately never saw them(my mother wouldn't let a 16/17 year old go to a club to see them...what a shock!). Maxanne was also a huge advocate from a great Boston band called Reddy Teddy, or were being groomed to be the next Dolls/Aerosmith, but as these things happen, it never happened. She helped fund their only lp. Their leader and lead guitarist Matthew MacKenzie played with Richard Lloyd's band after RT broke up(he's on Alchemy), also played with the Nervous Eaters(another big Maxanne fave), one of Real Kids' John Felice's many after RK's bands, and Willie Alexander. Unfortunately died way too young.
I moved to Boston in 74 and listened for a few years. When I first got there I was working a crap job with Greg Reibman, who was a Late Riser on WTBS, and we basically listened to WTBS (later WMBR) every morning and Mark Parenteau every afternoon. WTBS was like a farm team for WBCN for a couple of years there, Oedipus, Carter Alan and Tami Heide and maybe others all started there before moving to WBCN. We saw Mark at a show somewhere and Greg was busting his balls about something, and I said "but we still listen every day". He said "I know you do".
The Boston volume of the DIY series (which I compiled) has the demo of "You're All I've Got Tonight." It's the actual cartridge that was played on WMBR (all we could find at the time), so you can hear a couple signs of its age. To my ears the demo isn't all that different from the released version, save for the brighter drum sound and stacked harmonies.
