Boston's heritage rocker WBCN to die.

[Dan Sys]

One of the first Underground/Progressive Rock radio stations in the U.S. WBCN 104.1 in Boston will cease to exist on August 13, 2009. The "Rock of Boston" has been rocking the airwaves in Beantown since 1968. CBS will move Hot AC WBMX (Mix 98.5) to 104.1 (logically to become Mix 104.1) while 98.5 will see the debut of the "Sports Hub" (WBZ-FM), Bostons first All Sports station on FM.
http://www.cbsradio.com/press_center/re ... -2009.html
http://www.wbcn.com/

[johnsykes]

Dan....Boston's heritage station must be WBZ and for that matter WBZA in Springfield. WBZ was a marvelous station in the early days of r 'n r. In fact, Norm Prescott and Alan Dary were huge in the 50's. Prescott was one of the first DJ's to be nailed for payola. That charge really hit WBZ hard....thousands of their listeners wrote in supporting Norm.

WBZ was one of my favourite stations awaiting my turn in radio when living in Montreal.

[jon]

WBZ was my favourite radio station on the planet during the winter of 1964-65, as I could hear them most evenings that winter in Burnaby, while doing my homework in Junior High School. #1 on my list of Likes about WBZ was that they played the hits first, before any other station I could hear at that time.

But I was also aware of the later time period when WBCN debuted. I traded airchecks with Boston DX'er Paul Zec, which also included recordings of MIT and Cambridge campus FM stations, where really had the Underground format down pat. I think it was the Cambridge station that came out of an E. Power Biggs classical organ piece, seamlessly into the start of "Chest Fever" by The Band. First time I ever heard The Band, and it was a while before I realized their Canadian Connection (Robbie Robertson). Still my favourite cut by them.

There was also the Boston Underground Music Scene, where the groups were referred to collective as The Boston Underground. Stereo Mart stocked some of the albums, most notably the group Ford Theatre which was my favourite at that time.

Interesting to look at the directional patterns of WBZ and WWL (mentioned in another thread). It is no wonder that they were heard in Vancouver: unlike most 1-A Clear Channel stations of that era, they had two tower directional arrays that gave them the equivalent of a lot more than 50,000 watts in Vancouver's direction. Both did it to avoid wasting any of their signal over the ocean, though WWL did switch patterns until well into the mid-1960s while doing a Cuban propaganda show in Spanish for several hours each evening. To push more of their signal into Cuba. Not sure if they just reversed their pattern or went non-directional, as they could still be heard in Vancouver, though not very well.

[Dan Sys]

Couldn't agree with you more John, WBZ was a great station. Like Jon I used to be able to pick them up on those cold winter nights in Vancouver in the 60's which to me was "beyond awesome" at the time. However I would class WBZ as Boston's heritage Top 40 station which is a bit different than a heritage rocker. A heritage rocker generally refers to a station that took on an AOR format in the late 60's/early 70's and for the most part has kept up with it through the years. Many people around here refer to CFOX as Vancouver's heritage rocker, while CFUN seems to own the heritage Top 40 title (although some might say that status should be equally shared with CKLG).

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Hi everyone, Just listened to WBCN's last evening of broadcasting on l04.l FM in Boston, MASS.. It was interesting to say the least and I did several cassette tape airchecks of them. That includes their official sign-off at Midnight (Eastern Time) tonight which was followed by a wave of static. They had quite a few old sound clips of WBCN sound history plus interviews and phone calls from former on-air djs like Tami Heidi. One of the weekend jocks did the last air-shift on WBCN and did a pretty good job of it. I listened to all of it on my Grace Wi-Fi radio. After they signed off I switched over to WBZ l030 for their local all-night talk show, they were talking about WBCN and Bradley Jay from WBCN was coming on-air to talk about it shortly after midnight WBZ time. WBCN FM and WBZ as well as several other Boston FM stations are all owned by CBS. Apparently WBCN will be moving to the Mix 98 FM frequency on Thursday with a sports format and in HD FM stereo. On normal radios you will just get the one format on 98.3 but if you have a HD FM radio you can get 3 different formats on the frequency. One of them will be WBCN's greatest rock music format. You do require a HD FM radio to get it but they are supposed to be streaming it on the internet at WBCN.com. It will be mainly the music, don't think many of the l04.l djs will be on-air. However the l04.l current morning team will be doing the morning sports show on 98.3. I have been taping the WBZ talk show with all the WBCN topic which is on right now!!! The WBCN website has a lot of info. about what is happening with the station changes, history etc... Anyway thought I'd just comment on it. Good listening, take care all!

[kat]

Eldon-Mr.CAFE:

Did you actually go to Boston and walk around town or hang out at a bus terminal or airport to listen to these stations?

Or did you listen to them online here while you were sitting in a park or just hanging out at a Starucks?

[Steve Sanderson]

Eldon-Mr.CAFE:

Did you actually go to Boston and walk around town or hang out at a bus terminal or airport to listen to these stations?

Or did you listen to them online here while you were sitting in a park or just hanging out at a Starucks?

Kat...I hope Eldon wasn't astral traveling without a license!!

[Dan Sys]

Actually, Eldon was a bit confused. In reality he was in Boston Bar and what he thought was WBCN turned out to be the local CFMI rebroadcaster.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/81/23620 ... 82.jpg?v=0