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R.I.P. Boston area folk radio host/promoter Dick Pleasants

E

Eli Polonsky

Longtime Boston area folk music radio host and concert promoter Dick Pleasants passed away at 75 on Tuesday, November 8, after more than a decade of battling Parkinson's Disease, which took him off the air in 2012.

This official obituary doesn't detail his radio career, which I believe began after graduating Emerson in the early '70s at WCIB in Falmouth, followed by folk programs on the former WCAS in Cambridge in the '70s, many years doing an evening folk show on WATD in Marshfield, and 25 years at the former weekend folk music program "Folk Heritage" on WGBH-FM.
Dick also co-founded and programmed former commercial folk music station WADN "Walden 1120 AM" in Concord in the late '80s to the late '90s (when it became WBNW, business news, through today), and as I remember he also had a stint as a morning co-host with Robin Young at 92.9 WBOS at some point during its AAA years in the '90s.
Dick spent the last fifteen years of his radio career at professional public radio music station WUMB during its more strictly folk and acoustic music years when it positioned itself as "Folk Radio". (It dropped that slogan about ten years ago and went to its present Americana and Roots music leaning AAA format).
The many live folk music events that he booked, or had a hand in booking, included the former Boston Folk Festivals on the U.Mass. Boston campus, and he was the Director of the annual Summer Acoustic Music Week camp in the NH Lakes region.

I enjoyed meeting him many times at folk music events, at WADN when I visited, and when I briefly worked at WUMB during his tenure. He was a great guy.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/richard-pleasants-obituary?id=37148042
 
Didn't realize WADN lasted so long with a folk format. I remember listening to it on visits back to Massachusetts in the '80s, hoping to hear a station that replicated the WCAS that I'd enjoyed so much in the '70s, but was a bit disappointed in its purist approach to folk music.
 
freqlost said:
RIP

I always thought him and Dave Palmateer(SP??) made for a solid folk music DJ combo
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They did! Dick and Dave were the only two full-time hosts with decades of consistent staying power at WUMB, and they deserved it! (Marilyn Rae Beyer was also there for many years, but off and on).

Though Dave’s name is pronounced like “Palmateer”, it’s spelled Palmater. (He was eventually unfortunately laid off).

Most everyone else under their previous (original) General Manager was a long line of part-timers (including me) spun in and out of a revolving door, though there were and still are a few longtime weekend specialty show hosts. The revolving door stopped spinning with their new GM about ten years ago, but due to budget (and Covid), new hiring has been very limited since.
 
CTListener said:
Didn't realize WADN lasted so long with a folk format. I remember listening to it on visits back to Massachusetts in the '80s, hoping to hear a station that replicated the WCAS that I'd enjoyed so much in the '70s, but was a bit disappointed in its purist approach to folk music.
Click to expand...
WADN loosened up the format a little toward its end, but too little too late. It was also hampered by a signal that was weak east of Route 128/95, where much of its audience would have been in the Cambridge/Boston and surrounding suburban area, and also fell victim to the lack of AM continuing to be developed as a music medium.
WADN had originally wired their studios and airchain for AM Stereo, but when that platform failed to be developed and well-marketed, they never bothered investing in an AM Stereo transmitter.
 
I used to listen to Dick Pleasants on WGBH radio's the Folk Heritage. His favorite program was the Christmas music program, which I don't have anymore because we had to throw out the junk in my house. I enjoyed taping that show a lot. I heard music from the Celtic countries, the Cajun tradition, and the colonial genre on that 5 hour show.
 
Dick Pleasants' folk show in the early 1970's on WCIB-101.9 was titled "The Sail Loft", and was broadcast on Saturday and Sunday nights (I think it was from 6 P.M. to 12 Midnight both nights).
 
Also, I believe after Dick worked at the Cape on WCIB, he hosted an evening show on the Cape’s then top rated station WQRC. I think it was like 7 or 8 til midnight? That would have been in early 1980s.
 
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