WBCN & The Marshfield Fair

[Lucylu]

Not at all. I listen to it when I get board with real stations (so that's about every other day), and I find things like dead air, reading news stories verbatem out of the paper and not giving credit and 'scrape the sh*t right off your shoes' refreshing.

I did try to interview for a sales job many years ago, but all Ed wanted to do was 'talk about it over lunch, not in the office'. I don't do business that way, but I have been told since, that Ed is notorious for it. To each their own.

 

[pioneer765]

Not at all. I listen to it when I get board with real stations (so that's about every other day), and I find things like dead air, reading news stories verbatem out of the paper and not giving credit and 'scrape the sh*t right off your shoes' refreshing.

I did try to interview for a sales job many years ago, but all Ed wanted to do was 'talk about it over lunch, not in the office'. I don't do business that way, but I have been told since, that Ed is notorious for it. To each their own.

I tell you all something its very hard to talk to people at the station it is better to go somewhere else where people wont call you on the phone or just walk in off the street. The real work gets done out side the station

 

[Lucylu]

I tell you all something its very hard to talk to people at the station it is better to go somewhere else where people wont call you on the phone or just walk in off the street. The real work gets done out side the station

Spoken like a person with an expense account. ;D

[EDIT]


[EDIT=inflammatory comment directed at a deleted post]

 

[pioneer765]

Everybody in radio knows thats "IT A TRADE" ;D

 

[Lucylu]

Too true. We would have ending up eating at Cubby's Clubhouse.

 

[pioneer765]

our trades are at the better places on the south shore

 

[Neggy]

Jamies?

Hell it is the closest place to Enterprise Drive

 

[chitchatjf]

WATD is a far superior station to BCN, dead air or not.

Ed Perry is a radio legend

If I was to come out of retirement, I'd work for Ed before I set foot near BCN

Please; ATD is a hobby station and one that won't be around for much longer if they keep doing things like playing The Stone's Sweet Virginia, unedited, like they did a couple of weeks ago. Legend or not, just one of the new FCC fines would crush Perry, and none of his 'Aww shucks, I'm just a simple farmer' rap will hold much water with them.

Have there been a lot of calls for you to come out of retirement?

I think if they play it AFTER 10pm they might be OK

 

[wkrpfm]

From one of the first posts on this thread---...the one episode of wkrp that people always reference is the old turkey's out the window...

 

[Lucylu]

WATD is a far superior station to BCN, dead air or not.

Ed Perry is a radio legend

If I was to come out of retirement, I'd work for Ed before I set foot near BCN

Please; ATD is a hobby station and one that won't be around for much longer if they keep doing things like playing The Stone's Sweet Virginia, unedited, like they did a couple of weeks ago. Legend or not, just one of the new FCC fines would crush Perry, and none of his 'Aww shucks, I'm just a simple farmer' rap will hold much water with them.

Have there been a lot of calls for you to come out of retirement?

I think if they play it AFTER 10pm they might be OK

There is no longer a 'safe harbor'. All hours are held to the same standard by the FCC.

 

[Varulven]

Safe Harbor still exists on Public Access TV. I'd love to have LucyLu on for a one-on-one debate - in the safe harbor of course,[EDIT]


*Oedipus said that at the infamous dinner with Pete Shelley. He was referencing the P.D. (at the time) of WBOS, Maxanne Sartori, who had struck fear in his heart because...oh My God...he finally had some competition.

Shortly after that WBOS went Country - but it was fun to see Oedipus in shock and in crisis mode - even for a few months.

p.s. The postal clerk in Ogunquit Maine yesterday afternoon was NOT impressed when I tried the Oedipus line in regards to Sally Struthers! Sally Struthers was in Maine at the Playhouse. "Oh, you mean Greenpeace didn't tow her back into the water???" (My friends were watching the clerk and said she was NOT happy with the slam on poor Ms. Struthers...oh well, what does she expect in a campy town like Ogunquit!!!)

Leslie Uggams is at the Playhouse tonight. [EDIT**]

There...I got the thread back to whacky WBCN promo stunts...I think...


[EDIT=inflammatory][EDIT**=ad hominem attack]

 

[Lucylu]

[EDIT]

That being said, if, in fact; there is still a safe harbor on Public Access Cable, I think that speaks to how inconsequential Public Access Cable is. I wonder who is scarier: people with cable access shows or the people who watch cable access show… Trick question: no one watches cable access shows.

Joe likes to name the impress line-up of guests he’s had on his show, but how many of those people have been on twice? All you need to book a guest once is persistence. To get them to return you must actually have a good/interesting show.


[EDIT=ad hominem attack]

 

[TowerBuzz]

Recently management at stations have been telling staffs that there no longer is a safe harbor. I dont know if it is because of the FCC becoming more aggressive since Janet Jackson or it could be management trying to be extra cautious themselves. Safe Harbor may exist in public access because it's first cable and it's not watched by many compared to the many who listen to fm radio.

 

[Varulven]

Plenty of people watch access television - all one has to do is look at the stations come election time and the politicians lining up to get the free air time. Lucy Lu has often published her hyperbole and libelous (as well as false) information on this site. Access Television is alive and well. Just because these stations aren't rated doesn't mean they don't have an audience. Indeed, the remote control puts my program on the same playing field as Jay Leno and David Letterman when people cruise the cable channels. More people spin the dial with a remote control than scan the radio dial. That's something people mostly on this board do - the fanatical radio fans. John Q. Public has their pre-set and doesn't know if it is WBCN or WATD at the Marshfield fair. They only know they heard it on the radio. Jocks who feel so self-important are treated like mere commodities by the suits because talented and creative on-air personalities are not a requistite of the business model for the new millennium. Less personality, less entertainment, more commercials. WBUR is not seen in the Arbitrons, and people like LucyLu thinks no one is listening when - in fact - WBUR kicks WRKO's ass. Access Television, especially when a show is on a couple of dozen stations, gets a huge audience.
That's why Richard Branson, Professor Stephen Hawking, Dennis Lehane and so many other published authors - Barbara Bush, Laura Joplin, thousands of book authors every year come to Public Access, not FM radio outside of the bigger stations like WBUR.

Isn't that intriguing? Oh Howie Carr gets a book author or two, but do you think he has the intelligence to interview authors one-on-one for an hour straight week after week after week. And by the way, Lucy, I had to cut my Maine trip short by a day to get back here to interview an author from Albany New York who made the trek just for my show. Let's see - he has a book, [EDIT].

[EDIT]





[EDIT=ad hominem attacks]

 

[TowerBuzz]

While public access surely does have an audience it's not very realistic to rationalize it being as popular as Fm radio because while some people amazingly still dont have cable, everyone has access to an fm receiver . I dont say nobody watches public access but very few do which could explain why the fcc does not enforce as stringent indeceny regs on public access and granting it a safe harbor still/ Less folks watching. If a tree falls on public access and no one sees it.

 

[Neanderpaul]

Plenty of people watch access television - Indeed, the remote control puts my program on the same playing field as Jay Leno and David Letterman when people cruise the cable channels. Access Television, especially when a show is on a couple of dozen stations, gets a huge audience.

"my program on the same playing field as Jay Leno and David Letterman"
"huge audience"
"plenty of people watch access television"

Please show ONE example of data from ANY legitimate, proven research project that can prove any cable access show is on the "same playing field as Jay Leno and David Letterman." Show ONE example of a public access show. ONE!!! That HAS even one TENTH the audience Leno/Letterman have. ONE SHOW! Show me a number. Please. Show me this data. Proven, hard fact. Tangible numbers that truly exist. And I will NEVER post on this board again.

Not "potential exposure." Not "broadcast into x amount of homes." Please print this real factual number.

Good luck!

PS..As of 2/16/06 Leno reaches 5.9 Million a night. Letterman 4.4 Million. 10.3 million people per night. That's U.S. alone.

 

[Neggy]

Joe.. please don't take this the wrong way,( meaning hostile) but let's keep it to principles over personalities OK.

And P/E/G TV is influential, especially where there is no good local radio.

Some places are blessed with both, local radio that does candidates debates in prime time like a certain FM on the south shore and Public/Educational and Government Access TV.

 

[Varulven]

Neggy, I have great respect for your opinion.

I knew that Neanderpaul and those like him would take what I said out of context. So let me explain it to them,
since they want to blow things out of proportion.

Just as people can purchase advertising on Comcast for all of Malden or Burlington Massachusetts, if an Access
show is broadcast to a city of 56,000 people on Channel 3 and Letterman is on Channel 4 that access show is on the same playing field as Leno or Letterman - read - the remote control is going to access Channel 3, Channel 4, Channel 7. When a loud, obnoxious commercial comes on during a Letterman show and people go back one channel and see a Joe Vig talking to Curt Schilling or Suzanne Vega or Jurassic Park scriptwriter David Koepp (Spiderman, Director of Stir of Echoes), or children's author Laura Numeroff (8 million books and climbing. Laura, said our date was her best stop of the tour was Visual Radio), or Dominique LaPierre (author of Is Paris Burning?) who lives in France and said - Best stop of the tour!. So in the CITY or TOWN where a show is broadcast, it is on the same playing field as Leno, Letterman or Nightline or Oprah Winfrey.

For all the slamming Access TV gets from people with NO credibility and NO real name, interesting that I have 359 A List authors/film directors/rock musicians/personalities from CNN to classic rock artists (Mick Taylor of
The Stones, Danny Klein and Peter Wolf of J Geils Band, Mark Farner from Grand Funk, Ian Hunter, Lou Reed,
Linda Ronstadt, etc. etc. etc.) with tons of glowing letters, e mails and inscriptions in their books or promo material.

Access matters to major book publishers because Access gets results. Period. As I said, politicians FLOCK around the Somerville and Medford stations around election time. Of course when I held the door for Martha Coakley and she gave me a nice smile my program director said "Be nice Joey" because my comment to him was "I want to give her a good piece of my mind on the Louise Woodward Case"...but discretion being the better part of valor I held the door for her and returned the smile.

Politicians and major publishing houses would not go to Access if it didn't sell books and get votes.
It happens to do both. But those outside the loop are clueless. Wonder what being a Music Director in
Kansas means in real terms: i.e., what Program Director is going to listen to a jock fired from WAAF over
a consultant. (no question mark needed on rhetorical question) As we know, Carter has a tough enough time at WZLX with the consultants and the PDs infringing on his turf. Consultant Gary Guthrie telling me that he was going to add more Bob Seger to WZLX because he was so impressed with the Texas concert??? Go walk down Newbury Street, Gary, and tell me what is blasting out of the car radios and the windows of Tremont Street in the South End, not what some hit artist is playing to a crowd in Texas.

Music Director in this day and age is about as glorious a title as Senior V.P. Of Regular Programming for Safe Harbor. It's a title. Really, Neanderpaul, what "regional" Kansas band have you broken? Did you find the Kansas version of Aerosmith? Are you playing anything on your station that other stations are not playing?
Do you do the real A & R work so necessary for great radio. The work Maxanne Sartori did when she discovered The Cars or took a chance on Television?

I didn't think so. Howard Stern took the risk and shook the tree. So did John H. Garabedian. We didn't find out about them because they were scribbling on a radio board. We found out about them because they were interesting characters who could communicate. And that's the first time I heard of Neanderpaul, on this board, because his show wasn't even a blip on the radar screen. What has upset more people? WILD being sold or Neanderpaul getting fired?
There are at least two letters in today's Sunday Globe regretting the WILD move to WAAF. Didn't see that kind of support for Paul Marshall, did you?

I'll take my 359 hours in front of a variety of A list guests with a lot to say about wonderful things - from Mystery writers to Red Sox players to musicians I admire ANY DAY over some job in a God forsaken part of the country that any bean counter could do. Creativity makes me happy. Being a "Music Director" in Kansas is cool, I guess, if having that title is your be all and end all. It makes you happy, Great. Watch 60 minutes of a one on one interview to maybe learn something, Neanderpaul. 3 minutes on Good Morning America is going to reach tens of millions of people. But if 1 million homes can get my broadcast, and if 3,000 people stay tuned for 10 minutes or more on one author's book, that's pretty good for someone with 100% creative control and a passion for the subject matter. Since I get paid to write about these people and transcribe the interviews, there is additional value beyond the audio/visual content. But that's something you won't find from a WBCN broadcast or some show from Kansas. What would you rather read? A 60 minute interview with the Doors drummer or keyboard player or guitarist or engineer (I've interviewed all four) or the transcript of Neanderpaul's announcing records on the air. Something any college jock at any college station around the U.S.A. could do. Get a grip.

500 hours of interview tape is content that can be re-distributed on DVD or put into book form. And many of my interviews will be collected for a future book. Public Access is an extension of the First Ammendement.
As a veteran of Access starting in 1979 (with Oedipus as one of my first guests along with Mission of Burma, The Neighborhoods, Pastiche - either Rumble winners or key WBCN bands) I think it is safe to say my "little" access show TV EYE did more to help launch local musicians than Neanderpaul in Kansas.

When Epic artist REHAB did my "Demo That Got The Deal" interview on Visual Radio they were very hot on WFNX. We played their video. Same with Reprise artists the Old 97s (in 1999), Gary Cherone's Tribe Of Judah. When radio doesn't respond to great music, access is an outlet to the masses. And the beauty is, there are tens of thousands of access stations across the U.S. to play an hourlong show of a band like
REHAB that might not be getting the respect they deserve from radio.


What would you rather have in your collection? My Mission Of Burma interview with footage from their first show in The Paradise in 1980 or Neanderpaul airchecks from a 2005 version of WAAF?

I rest my case.

 

[Neanderpaul]

Music Director in this day and age is about as glorious a title as Senior V.P. Of Regular Programming for Safe Harbor. It's a title. Really, Neanderpaul, what "regional" Kansas band have you broken? Did you find the Kansas version of Aerosmith? Are you playing anything on your station that other stations are not playing?
Do you do the real A & R work so necessary for great radio. The work Maxanne Sartori did when she discovered The Cars or took a chance on Television?

Being a "Music Director" in Kansas is cool, I guess, if having that title is your be all and end all. It makes you happy, Great. Watch 60 minutes of a one on one interview to maybe learn something, Neanderpaul. Get a grip.
What would you rather have in your collection? My Mission Of Burma interview with footage from their first show in The Paradise or Neanderpaul airchecks from WAAF?
I rest my case.

Well Joe, even though I said I was done responding to you, you are quite the master baiter, and I will respond professionally to your inquiry.

First of all, the title of Music Director at KQRC in Kansas City is one of the most desirable jobs in Rock radio, and I'm flattered to be doing it every day. I don't need to list my extremely impressive resume' on an internet message board to prove my worth. It suffices to say that I've worked for several of the leaders in Rock radio, and interviewed just about every important/relevant member of every important rock band of the past 20 years. Some of whom I call personal friends. Plus, some of the pioneers in Rock history. It's one of the things I'm most grateful for every day when I wake up and go to my "job." I don't need to tell people how cool I am. I know it. I'm amazing Joe. You'd be awed by my interviewing acumen. Go back, and get some of those WAAF airchecks, and you'll hear the who's who of relevant artists, being interviewed in their prime, when it matters, and exposed to a verifiable audience of hundreds of thousands every day. I continue to do this each weekday afternoon. I've done it for 20 years. Not as long as your career, but you're also around 20 years my senior. I'll put my career next to anyone's with no shame. But, I don't dig myself so much that I have to drop names on this board every third post or so. As a matter of fact, go back and see if I've EVER mentioned anyone I've met, or interviewed, or had on my show in this, or the previous board's space. I don't think I have. But, I could be wrong.

And, just once, with all due respect I will enlighten you.

The Kansas City radio market is technically Missouri. I'd respectfully ask that if you're going to use geography with relation to what radio market I'm currently in, that you do so correctly. Not only do you not work in Boston radio at all, I do not feel the need to belittle you with the fact that your cable access tv show is neither rated, nor considered a job in the broadcasting industry in every post. In the future, please do some fact-checking before presenting misleading information.

You ask:
"what "regional" Kansas band have you broken?"

It would be unfair to take credit for the station's breaking of Puddle Of Mudd, or championing of Danny Carey (arguably the premier drummer in the rock arena today, playing for arguably the best band in the Rock arena today). Nor would it be fair of me to take credit for putting on a radio station festival show that drew over 30,000 people to the Liberty Memorial this year, with the fact that more would have shown had we printed more tickets. How many did the KISS concert draw?

You seem to like to drop names of people with national profiles and then ask localism-based questioning. Please pick a side Joe.

I am doing fine. Thanks for asking. I wish the same for you someday.

I apologize to everyone for this tangential post. What were we talking about again?

 

[Varulven]

You aren't apologizing at all, Paul, you are defensively showboating. I asked a simple question you couldn't answer: what is of more value - your airchecks or my interviews with regional acts like Mission of Burma?

Instead you change the subject to what an influential man you are in Missouri. Not. You have NOT helped establish bands or get them significant airplay by going into the trenches and finding them; promoting them.
Heck, even Oedipus had the good sense to ride on my coat tails and attempt to "produce" Unnatural Axe after I discovered them and nurtured them. That was a conflict of interest, he ran into the studio behind my back, but I still put it out on my label.

My response above was to the Swift Boaters, of which you are one of them.

You got fired from WAAF; I have 100 per cent control and interview fascinating people from all walks of life.

if a radio station CAN'T draw 30,000 people, they'd better hang it up. Especially in Missouri or Kansas or anywhere where most people are bored. Paul, you've attacked me viciously, and you failed to make a dent in the big city. Glad they embraced you in a world that is radio's 300th market out of 50. Good work.
Glad you are happy and can pat yourself on the back in this forum. Please note: This is the BOSTON forum,
where you "resigned" or found yourself fired twice in the last year. I'm still on the air, last I checked.

You are right, currently I am not on "radio". I'm in the studio transferring analog masters I own to digital and redistributing that music. But the truth is, I've been on more radio stations than you - and worked at a 50,000 watt station when radio is ONLY my hobby. Never made it my career, never wanted to make it my career. My record label is my major concern, and preserving the work I did with Buddy Guy (including Joe Perry, Genya Ravan, Nils Lofgren), Willie Loco Alexander, Unnatural Axe, the Jimmy Miller productions from 1983 on, production work from Stuart Dawson, and more regional artists than most labels would take a chance on and try to help reach a mass market - ROCKIT with 21 weeks on WAAF and a Sammy Hagar concert I booked them into, or L-88 - #1 on WBCN and a Blue Oyster Cult at the Worcester Centrum that I booked them into or Extreme opening for Night Ranger at The Orpheum through my advice to their manager (I was their publicist when they were THE DREAM); or acts I helped get into Avalon or opening for Bon Jovi, Alvin Lee - tons of bands that got opening gigs with major artists thanks to my hard work.

So, basically, you have been fired at what you chose as a profession, while many of us could get similar gigs when we didn't even choose it as a profession - only a hobby. Would like to see you produce records, interview people who have made the world a better place, publish those interviews, help indepdent artists get opening gigs with major artists for well over a 15 year period, and run a record label at the same time. All you can do, Paul Marshall, is go on the attack. This is the Boston radio board and you were run out of Boston.