BRIGADOON IN BOSTON: A LISTENER’S SALUTE TO WHAT WAS, Letter About Iran Lies

September 28th, 2009 - by: danny

I wrote about Friday’s last hurrah for WBCN. (For those who don’t get the reference, the Wikipedia explains: “The plot of The Last Hurrah focuses on a mayoral election in an unnamed city in which veteran Irish Democratic Party politician, Frank Skeffington, is running for yet another term as Mayor; a former governor, he is usually called by the honorific title “Governor.” While the city is never named, it is frequently associated with Boston and Skeffington with former Boston mayor and Massachusetts governor James Michael Curley.)

Years ago I was an insider at BCN, Hartley Pleshaw was not. He was a listener and a fan. I asked him to share his take on the final WBCN event. His passion echoes the feelings of many listeners in Beantown.

Brigadoon in Boston: A Rock Radio Resurrection
by Hartley Pleshaw

It was like a dream – literally, like a dreamÃ¢â‚¬Â¦it was, literally, Paradise. The Paradise Rock Club in Boston, that is. The words n”PRIVATE PARTY – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WANT?” appeared on the marquee; something very special, warm and, to a degree, unprecedented was going on inside.

What it was, in cold, definitive terms, was the reunion of the staff members of a recently-defunct radio stationÃ¢â‚¬Â¦It started out by calling itself “The American Revolution” – and, to an unprecedented and unequalled degree, lived up to the promise. Long after Haight-Ashbury became a bad joke, its listeners still depended on it to hear alternative cultural and political voices. Long after yippies became yuppies, its staff fought its management to retain its identity.

Two and a half months before, WBCN’s corporate masters, CBS, euthanized the once-great station which, if truth be told, wasn’t what it used to be, and hadn’t been for some time. For many, it was more like a mercy killing than a murder. But the spirit of What Once Was survived the decay of the corporate flesh; WBCN still, and always would, Mean Something.

What mattered was how it all came to be, and why.

Charles Laquidara went from being part of the bonfire that lit the New England counterculture in the late 1960′s, to being the last keeper of the original flame in the late 1990′s. More than anyone else, it was Charles who invented morning rock radio. People who will never know his name feel his influence every morning in every city in America.

With one brief interregnum, Charles was WBCN’s morning announcer from the early 1970′s until 1996, when he was replaced by a de facto protÃƒÂ©gÃƒÂ©, Howard Stern.

With his legendary eye for and appreciation of talent, Charles Laquidara could have been, had he been more ambitious and, yes, ruthless, a counterculturalist-turned-captain of industry, in the David Geffen/Jann Wenner mold. But, he chose to stay at his Boston post for three decades, never to give up or sell out. Such a man is certainly worthy of at least one celebration.

But, rather than get it, he gave it Ã¢â‚¬Â¦ If it was nostalgic – and it was – it was nostalgia not for the myth of the 1960′s and ’70′s, but for the reality – at least in Boston.

Boston was where the hippies meant business, where the ’60′s generation meant what it said about changing the world, beginning here. For one brief, shining moment, WBCN gave its announcers the freedom to say what they thought about everything from the Vietnam War to the latest Dylan album; its listeners appreciated this blessing bestowed upon them and responded in kind. On this night, one of them sought to thank the heroic figures of his otherwise callow and misspent youth, such as:

Danny Schechter, “The News Dissector,” who was the great alternative news voice for Boston in the Vietnam/Watergate era, and who later gave up a big-time, big-paying job in network TV because he wanted to practice serious journalism;

Michael Fremer, whose hilarious commercials for a Boston record store predated the Saturday Night Live style of satirical humor by half a decade (and was a lot funnier at it, too);

Billy West, the man who inherited Mel Blanc’s throne as King of Cartoon Voices, and who honed his craft by first displaying his genius on WBCN every weekday morning;

Sam Kopper, the first WBCN Program Director, who keeps the spirit, and the very name, of the original WBCN alive on the Internet;

Debbie Ullman, the first woman radio announcer in Boston;

John Scagliotti, the co-producer of the first commercial radio program in America to deal with gay issues (and who was also the romantic partner of the late Andrew Kopkind, the legendary radical journalist whose commentaries once graced WBCN’s newscasts);

Jim Parry, whose firing by the station’s new corporate management in 1979 triggered The Great Strike, the last stand of the station’s ideals;

Mark Parenteau, who kept the “smoking lamp” lit every night at 5;

And, of course, Charles Laquidara, Himself. The stories are too numerous, but the story itself never changed. Here was a man who urged his listeners to acquire Shell credit cards, solely for the purpose of destroying them, to protest Shell’s support of the apartheid government of South Africa.

Yes, Charles’s game was primarily comedy, and he and his cohorts were always damned good at it. And yes, the humor was off color a good deal of the time. And, there were so many others, too numerous to name, or to meet. Maybe someday, the Old Fan thought, he’ll get the chance to thank Joe Rogers (a.k.a., Mississippi Harold Wilson), Maxanne Sartori, Norm Winer (a.k.a., Saxophone Joe), Tommy Hadges (a.k.a., Captain Novocain), John Brodie, and all those on the First Team of the Golden Age. And maybe, in the next life, he’ll get to thank J.J. Jackson, who once told a young WBCN personality of a later age that being an original WBCN DJ meant more to him than being an original MTV VJ.

All told, the night was reminiscent of Brigadoon, the delightful, mythical Scottish town that only came to life every seven years. This night was a coming together, for some, for the first time in three decades, but what was remarkable was not what was lost, but what was never lost. And if it was eventually time to fade back into slumber, the feeling of having had the best and most meaningful times of one’s career – and life – at a certain radio station would never fade. Along with the thought that, somehow, some way, like Brigadoon, that time would come again.

The first song played on WBCN on March 15th, 1968, was “I Feel Free” by Cream; it would also be the next to last, on August 12th, 2009. When the Old Fan left the Paradise that night, to face the pre-dawn darkness on Commonwealth Avenue, he felt inspired, empowered, enlightened – just as he did when he was thirteen years old, and discovered an “underground” radio station. Forty years later, he could state, with the validation of the ultimate test – time – that the station had accomplished its mission.

He felt free. ”

WASH POST STARTS CAMPAIGN AGAINST NET NEUTRALITY

Washington Post begins attack on net neutrality
Mon, 09/28/2009 – 11:52am – DCblogger

It seems that the Washington Post has written an editorial challenging the necessity of FCC
enforcement of net neutrality. While not entirely a surprise–the Washington Post Corp.
owns cable systems in Appalachia–it is a very bad sign. Melinda Gates sits on the board of
directors and this may indicate that Microsoft is backing away from its previous commitment
to net neutrality.

LETTER

LY Fong writes from the Left Coast: “Contrary to manufactured MSM framing, Iran is misperceived (as was China and Cuba) for her successful revolt against British Petroleum who housed Iranian oil workers in sizzling hot metal containers and
her overthrow of the U.S.-backed Shah whose followers are active in southern California and the DC-area. Iran suffered the eight year long war against Iraq,when Saddam Hussein was then supported by the U.S., and watched as the U.S. turned against him to use 9/11 as the pretext to attacking and dismembering Iraq. For almost two years, the American military has positioned two nuclear aircraft carrier groups in the Persian Gulf positioned against Iran with Patriot missiles in active strike mode with covers raised. If you were Iran, what would you do? Fire test missiles to warn off possible and probable U.S. and Israeli aggression? Enrich uranium for dual civilian and military use? As usual, our corporate media uses its double standard to feed the American public a false frame and set up more pretexts for war.”

IN MEMORIUM: Lucy of ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ fame dies

SECRET SERVICE PROBES FACEBOOK FEATURE

The U.S. Secret Service is investigating an online survey that asked whether people thought President Barack Obama should be assassinated, officials said Monday.

The poll, posted Saturday on Facebook, was taken off the popular social networking site quickly after company officials were alerted to its existence. But, like any threat against the president, Secret Service agents are taking no chances.

“We are aware of it and we will take the appropriate investigative steps,” said Darrin Blackford, a Secret Service spokesman. “We take of these things seriously.”

It is Yom Kippur. A word to the wise: A T O N E!

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