WBCN Documentary online

[raccoonradio]

For only a couple of weeks the Cabot Theatre in Beverly is presenting the documentary WBCN and the American Revolution online for a small fee. I saw it last night and
enjoyed it (thecabot dot org). I believe it has played at a couple theatres.
It pretty much covers 1967 (struggled classical station) to just around Nixon's resignation in 1974. From studios on Newbury St to Berkeley St to the top of the Pru.
Interviews include Danny Schecter, Charles Laquidara, Tommy Hadges, Debbie Ullman, Sam Kopper, and Joe Rogers (ex WTUR Tufts). There's a clip from a WBZ Jerry Williams Show where he criticizes the station including its use
of female announcers ("They're trying to be men"). Yet their Maxanne Satori was a big help to Aerosmith and she was the first to interview "the face of rock and roll
future", Bruce Springsteen--among the many musicians who brought their instruments to play live.

Surprisingly there is no Carter Alan despite him writing the book Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN, though maybe he contributed some material. Oedipus'
name is in the credits too but no interview. It covers the politics of the time including anti war protests at the Boston Common. Well worth seeing for what it is. You
will not see things about the WBCN Strike or the final chapters of the station, only 1967-74.

 

[johnster]

Surprisingly there is no Carter Alan despite him writing the book Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN, though maybe he contributed some material. Oedipus'
name is in the credits too but no interview. It covers the politics of the time including anti war protests at the Boston Common. Well worth seeing for what it is. You
will not see things about the WBCN Strike or the final chapters of the station, only 1967-74.

The movie ends before these folks started. In the view of the movie maker "WBCN" ends or what they liked about WBCN when it sold out and moved to The Pru. Carter, Oedipus, Mark Parenteau all came later.

 

[CTListener]

(deleted)

 

[raccoonradio]

True...like Ed "Oedipus" Hyson who was at WTBS at MIT in 70s. Alan did write the book
about the whole history of WBCN though either
he or the filmmaker chose not to take part or be included.And yes it only does cover that first wave.

 

[freqlost]

I remember hearing a tape once of Charles and one of the Byrds(maybe Roger) and they were inhaling pure oxygen on air because it was legal I guess.
Quite odd.

I assume it was from that time period, but don't remember.

 

[TheBigA]

Remember when rock stars actually visited radio stations? I mean other than ones they run and pay for at Sirius.

That wouldn't happen now.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

True...like Ed "Oedipus" Hyson who was at WTBS at MIT in 70s. Alan did write the book
about the whole history of WBCN though either he or the filmmaker chose not to take part or be included. And yes it only does cover that first wave.

Carter Alan did a great job of researching the history of WBCN's early rock years from before his involvement there for the book, but he was not there. He joined WBCN in 1979 after a few years at MIT's WTBS/WMBR. The focus of the movie is WBCN's 1968-1974 years, and Carter was not there yet, so the movie as a snapshot of those years would not include him.

 

[johnster]

In Carter's book Don Law is noted as being very involved in the beginning so i thought it was a little odd that the movie doesn't mention him at all?

 

[Cap-n Spackle]

The movie ends before these folks started. In the view of the movie maker "WBCN" ends or what they liked about WBCN when it sold out and moved to The Pru. Carter, Oedipus, Mark Parenteau all came later.

I guess kind of like how Ken Burns' Jazz pretty much ignored or glossed over anything that happened after the early '60s because Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Crouch had no use for what came later.

I started listening to 'BCN around '75 or so and mostly gave up when they were a "rock" station playing stuff like Cindy Lauper and Culture Club.

 

[Oldie919]

Carter Alan (Carter Bondl) worked with me at WKXL in Concord, NH in the early 70s (c. 1972-1974) before moving on to bigger stuff....!!
Yes, he used his REAL name at 'KXL.....

 

[CTListener]

I guess kind of like how Ken Burns' Jazz pretty much ignored or glossed over anything that happened after the early '60s because Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Crouch had no use for what came later.

I started listening to 'BCN around '75 or so and mostly gave up when they were a "rock" station playing stuff like Cindy Lauper and Culture Club.

I listened to WBCN starting in 1968, started listening less around 1972 when Top 40 became more to my liking again, then abandoned it for folk-rock WCAS and the Ken Shelton/Clark Smidt incarnation of WCOZ. (I'd enjoyed their WBZ-FM previously.) By the late '70s, I was no longer in the Boston area and most of my listening was to CHR and, increasingly, country, so I have no first-hand knowledge of WBCN's sound from that point to its demise as a rock station. I'm surprised to learn through your post that it was playing Lauper and Culture Club at any time. I was here in Connecticut enjoying their hits on stations that played the hits; now I wonder if WPLR and WCCC were playing those acts as well.