After forty-one years Boston's progressive rock station WBCN FM went off the air forever on or around midnight on Wednesday August 12 at midnight. In its place was the new Mix 104.1, formerly Mix 98.5. A few DJs from WBCN, Toucher and Rich and a few to be named later moved to the new All Sports station at 98.5 FM.
WBCN had forty-one years of history, but it was no forgotten relic. In the beginning, in the late sixties, Peter Wolf was a DJ before he hit it big with the J. Geils band. Chalres Laquidara was a DJ for decades. The station frequently had on-air celebrities and live music. It also had the guts to play local musicians on the air. A Battle of the Bands called the WBCN Rumble became an annual tradition. In the seventies and eighties the station was a hard rock station, but some time in the nineties the station changed its format to so-called Alternative Rock. That made it appealing to young people and college students, but it may have turned off older listeners.
In the late eighties or early nineties WBCN aired the Howard Stern show, a raunchy comedy/talk show with very little music, with the shock jock known for pulling racy stunts and R-rated content on air, which likely turned off more potential listeners.. After Stern moved to satellite, BCN aired those other notorious shock jocks Opie and Anthony, whose mean-spirited comedy bits and stunts also likely turned off a lot of listeners. Not too long ago, BCN had some success with DJs Toucher and Rich, but they played little or no music and talked on and on about such inconsequential people as this insignificant guy Adolfo, a slob who probably lived with his parents. Anyway, I'm sure these guys turned off potential listeners who tuned in to hear music.
The consolidation of media by such giants as Clear Channel and Greater Media may also have hastened BCN's demise on free radio. Fortunately, the station is still available on WBCN.com and on high definition radio. Unfortunately, a receiver for high-def radio can run into hundreds of dollars, but I understand that a portable receiver may be available for under sixty dollars at certain stores. I hope that new sports station crashes and burns. I hope no other stations on free radio that I enjoy listening to will fade to black anytime soon.
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