Iconic Boston rock station WBCN will be going off the air!

[Kat45]

This station has been around forever, since the days when FM radio was vibrant, before the days of playlists. Though it hasn't been what it used to be for a long time, it's still sad to see it go. There are not many rock stations around any more (besides classic rock or oldies).


http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2009-07-14-boston-radio_N.htm

[NightWatcher]

1. terrestrial radio is dead. Long Live Satellite Radio

no commercials and you can pick the channel and format you want to listen too and you dont drive out of range just as a good song comes on.

As long as I can afford gas for my car, I will subscribe to satellite radio.

[eShirl]

10. that's just sad. n/t

[NightWatcher]

11. an insane amount of commercials on Clear Channel Radio and the lack of good local dj's

aided this death to terrestrial radio. I cannot stand the fart joke morning zoo crew and cannot handle 15- 20 minutes of commercials an hour thrown between repeats of Top 40 schlock.

[-..__...]

22. I don't think satellite radio is a significant factor...

for the demise of live radio.

I don't know a single person that subscribes to it, and I really don't see that many vehicles with the small shark fin radio antenna (unless they've come up with something else less obtrusive that I'm unaware of).

I had considered it a number of years back when both XM and Sirrus (SP), were in competition with each other, but held off because I
reasoned that there wasn't enough of a marketplace to support two competitors for something like that, and I didn't want to shell out the $$$ for equipment that might be useless or obsolete in a year or less.

Personally... I think the flexibility and advances in transportable technology has caused more damage.

Why tune in to a radio station to hear a few songs you might like, a few others you love and a few that you hate are interrupted by commercial breaks and idle chatter when you can download, copy, burn to disc any song of your choosing and listen to at your leisure?

How many songs does an Ipod hold now?

And no... there's no comparison to the time gone by when we borrowed/"pirated" music to copy on cassette tapes.

[csziggy]

2. OK, I am officially too damn old

I remember when FM first started being a major aspect of radio. The first three or four cars I owned only had AM radios. And now FM is on the way out and the only things keeping AM alive are hate-filled talked shows. This is depressing.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. Same here -

it was a big deal, at night, to pull in stations from Buffalo, NY and Boston - WBZ was the one I remember.

And rock'n'roll was our sound........................

[AndyA]

13. AM/FM radios were first offered in most American cars in 1963.

Stereo FM became available in 1966 on some, in 1967 in pretty much everything. (If you wanted FM stereo on some cars in 1966-1967, it was an extra cost option over and above the AM/FM radio!)

Allowing big corporations to own so many stations in so many markets is what has killed broadcast radio. They can't afford good programming, because they have to pay that fat f*ck Rush Limpballs!

[csziggy]

19. Gee, thanks for reminding me how old I really am! LOL!

Cars: 1958 Buick Special, 1967 Buick Skylark, 1966 Toyota (?), 1968 Datsun station wagon. Heck, I am not even sure if the Datsun HAD a radio at all - if it did, it didn't work. I did install an 8 track in the Skylark since the AM stations sucked in this area.

I first listened to FM in 1973 while working on a farm in the middle of the National Forest. The barn owner would leave the radio on the local rock station, volume turned way up. When the station started playing whale songs (which was big for a while), it was really eerie hearing them echoing through the forest in the middle of the night.

[chelsea0011]

3. Where's Dwayne Glasscock when you need him?

[Kat45]

5. Forgot to mention, they're going to put on a sports station instead.

[chelsea0011]

6. Hopefully it won't follow the RW racist track that WEEI follows

Buy anyone in Boston late 60's into the 70's knows how important WBCN was. Charles Laquidara(sp?) was one of the great radio personalities and his Morning Mattress was brilliant radio.

[Kat45]

15. You're right. I loved that show.

[Ian David]

7. I'm sure it will become a right-wing talk or chrisTian radio station. n/t

[Old and In the Way]

8. I remember Charles Laquidara (sp) and his show, the Big Mattress

And Danny Schechter was the 'News Dissector'. That was radio worth listening to.

[chelsea0011]

17. "if the creek don't rise, and the good lord is willing"

[Warpy]

9. I lost interest in the flying mattress

but I still remember what a force that station had been in the late 60s when it changed to album rock from a classical format and how it continued in the early 70s. By the mid 70s, I'd tuned in to the niche college stations, gawd knows there are enough of them in Boston/Cambridge.

Still, I'm sad to hear of their passing. It's like another of the sleazy characters and no hopers I palled around with back then has died.

[Atman]

12. A once GREAT station. I grew up on WBCN.

Back when it really was a cutting edge station, introducing new bands, hosting great club shows. And the 'BCN lunchtime program was the best. Very sad news. 'Cept for that I'm a satellite radio guy...I haven't listened to a terrestrial radio station in three years.

.

[david13]

14. So what. It has long been known that rock music rots the brain.

[ovidsen]

16. There's at least one free form guy left at a big city FM

He's Jim Ladd, the evening host at KLOS in Los Angeles. He gets to play what he wants, when he wants, guided either by listener input or whatever part of his muse is in the driver's seat that night.

He gets impressive ratings, which is probably why KLOS keeps him under contract.

KLOS was originally owned by ABC, which was then taken over by Capitol Cities, which was then taken over by Disney. Since then, Citadel has put up the bucks to own a chunk of KLOS, although Disney/ABC also owns much of it. Despite these changes, air personalities there are generally given more playlist leeway than their peers at other so-called "progressive", or "classic rock" stations. And Ladd gets the most leeway of all, with the suits apparently sticking to the rule, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Due to his ratings, his popularity, his clout, or other factors that don't immediately come to mind, Ladd remains almost unique in radio, and I don't see him leaving anyway except feet first.

Here's his KLOS website, which includes a place where you can click and listen.

http://www.955klos.com/showdj.asp?DJID=1579

He gets to play whatever he wants, in sets he regards as almost poetic.

If only there were others like him in radio.

[crickets]

18. Jim Ladd is great.

I *loved* KLOS when I was in SoCal. There's one great show after another: The Seventh Day, Breakfast with the Beatles, Five O'Clock Funnies... I miss decent radio. It was so sad when KMET bit the dust, particularly in the way it was handled. Nice to know KLOS and Jim Ladd are still around. Thanks for the link!

[cherokeeprogressive]

20. Catching the beginning of Jim Ladd's show on KMET at 10:00 every night...

stoned, drinking beer if we could get someone to buy it for us at the liquor store, sitting in someone's car at the park. Ahhh, but those were the days.

[KharmaTrain]

24. The Sound Did A KMET Flashback Friday...

It was great to hear Whooya back on the radio for a day...including an hour with Dr. Demento. Too bad the 4 KMET jocks at KLOS (including the great Jim Ladd) weren't allowed to participate.

The real bastion for Progressive Radio is now the Internet...some of the stations run by REAL Progressive broadcasters include:

Zecom Radio - http://home.comcast.net/~zecom/listen.htm
WORJ - www.worj.org/
Okemos Brewing Company - http://www.okemosbrewing.com/

[-..__...]

21. Better they die with dignity...

than change their format to rap crap and or hip-hop that's more "mainstream" these days.

[texasleo]

23. No Stern, no ratings. Can't imitate an icon.