I was a late comer to Rock and Roll. Because It was what everyone else listened to I had to listen to something else. 40's big band jazz and delta blues was my thing. It wasn’t until I got to college that I started seeking out rock music in all the places it could be found. I read Creem. I bought dozens of records at the Harvard COOP, Discount Records, and Strawberries. The first rock concert I ever saw was The Ramones at the Orpheum. It’s still my favorite venue for music. Later I would see the Clash, the Police, the Pretenders (original lineup), AC DC, Weather Report (with Jaco Pastorius).

Through it all, in the background, waking me up, putting me to sleep, was WBCN “The Rock of Boston”. Founded in the early sixties, conceived as a classical music station, BCN stood for Boston Concert Network. In 1969 it's format changed to rock and famously, the first song they ever played was I feel Free by Cream. These were days when DJ's played what they wanted and their personalities were real and not contrived broadcast school caricatures.

This station "broke" The Ramones, The Police, The Clash, The Cars, U2, and many other acts of lesser quality but sometimes greater fame. They played some of the weirdest crap I have ever heard on mainstream radio, stuff, the strangeness of which, you can only hear on college stations today. They made stars out of people who did records as a joke. I'll bet you never heard these unless you were within 50 miles of Boston in 1980:

Walkin In The Rain by Flash and the Pan

Dope Sucks by Herman Brood and His Wild Romance

Money by the Flying Lizards

Boogie til You Puke by Root boy Slim and the Sex Change band

They were also the first place you would have heard Alison by Elvis Costello or Breakdown by Tom Petty or Whole Lotta Rosie by ACDC. You could also hear Zeppelin and long tunes by Zappa.They played local music too and I don't mean Aerosmith or Boston. I mean the Lyres, The Neighborhoods, Willie Alexander, The Atlantics, Gang Green, the list goes on.

Oedipus (not his real name, but It may as well be) had a show called Nocturnal Emissions wherein he would play the most extreme punk he could get his hands on and he got some heady stuff. This show was a huge influence on punk rock and punks In general in the Northeast.

The morning show was what connected all the listeners at that time. Charles Laquidara had a show called The Big Mattress where among other idiocy they called Mattress Mishegas he would call people on their birthdays and mess with them until finally asking "Is today a special day in your life?"  Yes it was as stupid as the day is long but it was our guy Charles, aka Duane Glasscock taking us through the morning. "Did ya heah Chahlz this mawnin?" I was lahffin my aahss off."

I left Boston in 1986. By then things had already started changing. The Big Mattress was getting stale. The format was becoming more mainstream.. Oedipus was now the program director, a job that he is both praised and vilified for. I don't remember what year it was now but on one of my return trips to Boston I turned on "BCN" In my rented car and heard nondescript alterna-shit just like every other station in the country. It was over and had been over for a long time. Two days ago the final, merciful blow was dealt. WBCN is no more. The frequency, 104.1, is now a sports station and all the music related personnel have been scattered to the airwaves of other stations or to retirement.

In the end I think this is the best thing for the legacy of WBCN. The real rock station burned out twenty years ago. What ultimately faded away was merely a shadow cast by a short lived but brilliant star of a radio station.

 These are some links to stories about WBCN by people who can write:

Wikipedia article

Globe article

Seth Resler's blog

Phoenix article

 Addendum:

The comment by Aprilshowers motivated me to add something that I originally intended to include in the post. I live in Rochester New York. Never heard of it? That’s OK. It’s famous for many things but you have to do some research to find out what. As much as I loved The Big Mattress back in the day, it was a joke compared to the local radio morning shows we have here. Of all places, Rochester has the best morning shows I have ever heard, and that includes the ones I listened to in Seattle. The most important local personality is Alan “Brother Wease” Levin. His story is amazing. He insists that he fell backward into his current position and that he could never get close to a job like his if he were starting today. His show is absolutely real, spontaneous, and fun. It is low brow and crude but rises above that with its humanity and sincerity. His fight against nasopharyngeal cancer a couple of years ago is legendary. He broadcast every day while undergoing treatment.

He split from his original station a year ago when the station was bought by Clear channel. His supporting cast took over and continue to do a great job in the spirit of the Wease. Wease himself gathered a group of talented people and started a new show on a competing station. It makes it hard to choose what to listen to as they are both extremely funny and interesting. I can only hope that radio of this quality continues to branch out and grow in spite of corporate homogeneity.

Wease

Break Room .

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