GOODBYE WBCN

So WBCN is coming to an end? Another well done job by the powers that be at CBS Radio. I have a few questions How the hell did you make "The Rock of Boston" not work in a town full of white college kids? like how did you find a way to fuck that one up? are you serious?

of course these a rhetorical questions as I completely know the answer to them. I'll preface it by saying I hate when other people say "I'd be better at their job than they are." However in this case, it is so painfully obvious. WBCN is arguably the most famous rock station in the country. Defintely in the top 3. The current state of the radio station could be compared to the Celtics before they got Kevin Garnett. WBCN has 16 time championship level history, but has been in a continuous state of mediocrity since Larry Bird retired. The Larry Bird of WBCN would be Charles Laquidara and his Big Mattress radio program. It was a great show that had better ratings than Howard, but eventually come time to retire. Charles went to WZLX and the station kind of did a well needed spring cleaning of its music library. They were still playing the 70's rock songs with the new 90's stuff and it was a whole mess of a format from what I gather. They basically just pressed reset and started over(Which is what they should have done now.) They still had the Robert Parish of WBCN , Mark Parenteau* ,but could never get that hall of fame quality talent to get the point where they ruled the city. Howard Stern was on, so they had great ratings, but i'm talking about the non-syndicated stuff. They tried for years but constantly struck out. At least in their eyes. I always loved most of the On-Air talent. The DJ's were great, but the corporate big whigs of course found a way to make the station terrible. It was never marketed right. The early 2000's is when I got off board. Once in a while there would be flashes of greatness, but no worth all the other garbage. In the past few years I got back on board and really thought the station was making a comeback. But Obviously, that didn't happen. WBCN needed a Danny Ainge type Character. That person doesn't need to be Morman, but they need someone who is a proven winner who knows what WBCN was like when on top, yet contemporary enough to understand today's game. The thing is, the game of winning over the Boston audience isn't nearly as hard as basketball. I'm not saying I'd be better, but I would be better than whoever makes descisions over there. I was a successful show promoter for many years. It was a my job to what people liked. I can pick a part Boston culture as good as anyone. Kind of in that Ken Casey type way. Ken Casey looked at the greater Boston area and made lemonade.

*I'd only even compare the Chief to Mark Parenteau on a talent level. Nothing else. So Robert, please don't be mad. I Chose The Chief over McHale because like The Chief, Mark Parenteau still had some game left in him and was better and more in touch than Nik Carter. It would be funny if Parenteau's prison number was 00 though

Boston people are simple, but in an un-generic way.. Simple in the way that we know a ton about Sports, Music, and Sarcasm. But we know these three things so in depth that its always sickening. This is why I've never understood why WBCN has this generic as hell play list that was probably brainstormed in an conference room in Los Angeles. Most of their audience grew up buying our music at Newbury Comics. We were so priveledged to have such a great record store chain to buy music from in Boston. Other cities didn't have that. No wonder we demand more from the radio station. I'm being serious with this...If you go to a construction site in Revere do you really think you're going to hear a bunch of guys talking about BUSH or Seven Mary Three? You're obviously going to hear something like "Yo ked, you still wanna hit up that Ducky Boys show tonight, Its at the Abbey in Cambridge or something or some shit like that" Seriously nobody inside of 128 listens to BUSH. Walk down any main street in Eastern Mass. more likely than not youre going to find at least one person that loves the Misfits. If you walk down Newbury St, more than half the people there look like they like the Misfits. So If all these people are so blatenly everywhere, why don't I ever hear the Misfits on WBCN? I'm just using them as an example. You can substitute hundreds of other bands there. Actually, another great example would be The Pouges. I don't even like this band, so i'm not being biased. The station plays the same fucking songs all day. I've heard the argument a million times that WBCN has to cater to everyone, not to your needs Jimmy" Well no shit. But seriously, If you can't get a 25 year old white male from Quincy named Jimmy Flynn to listen to your rock station, you're obviously doing something wrong. I'm as generic Boston as they come. I'm the epitome of your demographic. Being a successful show promoter and just growing up around here, I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about. The thing about Boston is that even the generic people aren't generic. Some 23 year old pipe fitter from Dorchester may not have the brains to get through Harvard, but he still knows more about music than an Ivy league grad from Kansas. Everyone in Boston is the type of person that's in a band or has a buddy in a band. To take it a step further, everyone in Boston is no more than degrees of separation away from knowing someone in the Dropkick Murphys. Underground music in Boston isn't even really underground. In fact, WBCN would have been smart to jst use the whole Dropkick Murphy's recipe as a thing to start over from. It doesn't take a genius to figure out tha a Rock radio station in Boston that was 50% rock n roll, 25% Boston culture, 13% pouges/irishy stuff influenced and 12% SS Decontrol/hardcore to work in this town. Not only in fact work, but own the town.

How would this mixture of format not work in Boston? like seriously

-50% of the time play all the hits and popular RHCP, White Stripes, Weezer, Green Day stuff that. stuff that the casual listener wants to hear.
then mix in:
-25% play old bands- not Classic rock bands, but play the stuff you won here on WZLX. The Clash, Ramones, Sex Pistols, U2, Iggy Pop, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, The Cure. Basically Leftover lunch stuff, but a little heavier. and play it in constant rotation, not just slip it in every once in a while to give your station the false image that you're cool and down with the old school.
-25% etc weekend programming like Boston Emmesions, Classic concerts, Classic BCN moment, Indie shows. Have something that appeals to the above average music listener
-25% Boston Culture- Even though its not the highest percent of what your broadcasting, its the most important. The Dropkick Murphys most famous hits are about Boston, but have you ever listened to a whole DKM record? Most of the songs aren't. People in Boston, not only physically live in Boston, but mentally don't leave route 128. News outside of Boston may as well be in a foreign country. A fistfight in Holyoke is as important as a car bombing in Jerusalem. We'd consider them both war's overseas. We respect our troops in both places, but don't want to read about them unless nothing else is going on. I honestly believe people would read an article in the herald about a silly gose falling down the steps at Kenmore station instead of picking up a USA today and reading about the cure for HIV.
-Play classic bands like the Modern Lovers, Mission of Burma, Bosstones, etc
-Play Songs from the upper echelon local bands that are new
-Play songs of our of town bands that Boston people are obsessed with like The Pouges and anything to do with the Clash
-Interviews with local Sports Heroes, Music Heroes, Politicians. whoever. Talk about local towns too. people love hearing about their city on the radio. For example, love when Crash of the T&R show talks about Quincy on T&R. It gets people talking. I know from first hand experience. I once heard him talking about The Beachcomber and Wollaston Beach. I called my buddy to tell him, then he became a listener of WBCN. He eventually stopped listening to WBCN because T&R are on way too early, but I'll get to that later.

-Also embrace the history of the Station more. They didn't really start doing this until last year and it's a real shame. People always heard about how historic it is, but didn't know why. Some things went up on their website, but there's so much more

Half the town is filled with angry, witty,and bored people. The other half are college kids. Mostly from out of town. So if you just move into your nice freshman dorm at BU and have no prior knowledge of radio in Boston, are you really going to listen to BCN? Of course you're not. Imagine this.. an 18 kid that just moves into warren towers. He just moved up here from Delaware and lost his ipod in the move. He's real bummed out , but luckily he can listen to the radio on his alarm clock. He stumbles upon 104.1 FM and "Icky Thump" by the White Stripes is playing. he's thinking "All right, this is cool. this must be the rock station in Boston, I guess I'll just leave it on here" When that song ends, all of a sudden he here's this wild guitar sound that is about as hip and relevant as tribal tattoos. The Vocals come on the song ans it's some British guy debating whether he should fly to LA to find his long lost asshole brother. In disgust, He immediately finds 101.7 and decides that listening to songs through static is better than Bush. At least this WFNX station has half a clue. 18 year old's were seriously 3 when that Bush song came out. The station library needs another complete overhaul

From what I understand WBCN was insanely popular in the 70's. They owned the town on a Bobby Orr level. The Dj's got to play what they wanted and talk about what they wanted. Infinity (precursor to CBS) radio bought the station and decides to do things their own way and water things down. What happens? you guess it! The ratings went down. The DJ's went on strike and people didn't support the station. They won their fight then, but over time the station has completely gone to hell.My point of telling you that story is that it proves that people in Boston do give a shit. We do care about social issues and good music. I know an strong hippy type Laquidara personality wouldn't be the answer, but WBCN already has what it needs in Toucher&Rich. They at least got me back on board with the station. Smart, whitty, and insanely sarcastic people who know what the hell is going on around their surroundings. I really think they only are allowed to use 25% of the potential. WBCN constantly fucks with their show and somehow they've still managed to keep it great. I've looked like an asshole defending WBCN to people just hoping maybe the station would get better. When it finally did start getting really good about 2 years ago, CBS went and fucked everything up .Lets take the Toucher and Rich show. Here we have one of the best shows in the history of the station. Popular enough to the point that they really don't even need to play music. Definitely the most successful show n the afternoon slot since Mark Parenteau* got fired. Wildly popular amongst the "people that don't get up before noon" demographic. Logically CBS radio moves them right to the mornings. Obviously the correct decision and all. Now instead of going to a party and hearing "hey Jimmy, did you hear Toucher and Rich today?" and discussing how funny is was I'll go to a party and hear "Remember that time T&R did this and that, man I haven't heard that show in forever." Great move corporate people that don't understand anything about Boston

I know that Boston Emissions, they're local rock show's ratings weren't part of the decision to get rid of WBCN, but I'm going to kick a dog when it's down. That local show is so incredibly terrible. The girl that does it seems nice and all, so its nothing personal. but that show should be called "What local washed up Rock act is playing O'Briens this week Emissions." Good riddance to that. You even have Chris Rucker working in the building who had the best local show on and you can't get him? Guy loves music and would play all sorts of local music, not just washed up Allston rock bands.

And what about the logo? Jesus Christ! We live in a town with countless artists and graphic designers. You guys come up with this piece of shit? Mr Butch could have even done something better and more on WBCN's cheap budget. I'd love to meet the guy had the final decision in choosing this. "Whoa! that logo is awesome. Our Audience can relate to that!" I bet that same guy also Drinks Mountain Dew and get vertical on the weekend. The logo looks like a logo for cooling aftershave. In fact, if the logo said "Gillette 104.1" instead WBCN, people could relate to it more because it's a local company. The old WBCN 80's/90's logo's were awesome. So awesome in fact that FNX ripped off, or at least did a new logo that matches your own early 80's logo on their new bumper stickers.

I guess you're wondering why I'm so livid about all this. I know I'm coming off as over passionate about some corporate rock station that I don't work for, but WBCN is really part of the Boston culture. The History of the Station is incredible, and maybe if they started embracing it before last year, people would realize it. I know that musicallyit's been a dying memorial to itself, but I've always held on to the fact that it could be good again. I have an emotional attachment to it. WBCN I got to skate at the old Boston Garden, see pumpkin drops, hang out on boats loaded with the peanut gallery, all thanks to WBCN. WAAF is trashier than trash, WFNX plays too many bands with synthesizers, and I don't even want bring up that WBOS mess. I guess with all this said, maybe it's a good thing that the station will be gone. Probably wishful thinking, but it does allow you to completely tear down the mess its become and bring it back later.