Musician mourns loss of WBCN, 'the rock' that will no longer roll
Boston, Mass.
Staff writer
NEWBURYPORT — For Joe and Donna Holaday, the sounds of WBCN have been the background music to much of their lives.
Donna Holaday, a Newburyport city councilor, remembers being a poor college kid and walking down to the WBCN headquarters to request songs through an open window. Though she had yet to meet her future husband, the love of Boston radio would one day turn into something they shared.
"It was great," Holaday said. "There you were; you could see the whole Boston skyline."
Joe Holaday credits WBCN for much of his musical success.
"This is the end of an era," Holaday said. "Radio has been slowly dying for years."
Holaday, a 51-year-old Newburyport resident who has played bass with The Fools since 1976, has witnessed 30 years of musical evolution and is as passionate about it today as he was decades ago. He said much of that evolution was carefully documented for all Boston music fans on WBCN.
In an unprecedented shake-up in Boston radio, this week WBCN's owner CBS announced the station will no longer be a place for progressive rock.
The new 98.5 "The Sports Hub" will air sports talk shows and play-by-play of the New England Patriots and Boston Bruins. The Patriots most recently were heard on WBCN. The Bruins have been airing on CBS-owned WBZ-AM.
CBS also said it is moving its "Mix 98.5" station, WBMX, from its spot to WBCN's old position at 104.1.
WBCN began playing underground rock in 1968 before it evolved into a more mainstream, album-oriented rock format. Once the nation's first rock station, WBCN helped launch U2 among other prominent artists of the 1970s and '80s
"WBCN was so integral to the Boston music scene in the 1970s and 1980s," Holaday said. "You didn't do anything over the weekend without listening to BCN first to know what bands were playing or what new events were happening."
The Fools was a mostly tongue-in-cheek band whose major hit in 1979 was "Psycho Chicken," an X-rated parody of the Talking Heads song "Psycho Killer." Holaday now also plays in Beatlejuice, the well-known Beatles cover band, as well as Velvet Elvis.
"WBCN was extremely helpful in signing The Fools," Holaday said.
For nearly two years, Holaday and his band would play each Friday morning on WBCN. Although they didn't get paid, the exposure to Boston radio fans was priceless.
"We were doing 200 shows a year at that point," Holaday said. "But we would go each Friday morning and play on air. We were doing it for free and loving every minute of being part of something very special."
Holaday said some of his best memories were made on the air.
"Jay Leno was there before he was on the Tonight Show. He had his mom on the phone and was singing along with our songs over the air," Holaday said. "We wrote a song for (television newsman) Jack Williams one morning. The craziest things would happen. They meant the world to the Boston music scene."
Holaday said when WBCN goes off the air next month, it will not just be the end of an era but also the end of an era of disc jockeys who cared about their listeners.
Holaday still calls some of those DJs even while some have left the station or retired. Charles Laquidara was a household name for his "Big Mattress" show, and Oedipus hosted "Nocturnal Emissions'' featuring local bands on Sunday nights. Ken Shelton and Mark Parenteau still stay in touch with The Fools and sometimes attend shows.
Holaday said Carter Alan was one of the reasons his band was signed to begin with.
"They helped our career; they were friends," Holaday said. "Carter Alan heard our song "life sucks then you die" and said if we recorded it, he would put the song in rotation."
Holaday says the days of disc jockeys who cared about bringing music to their fans is dead, making way for shock jocks and major media conglomerates to decide what songs will be played.
"There was a time radio was regional and they talked about places and people you knew. It was our hometown station," Holaday said.
Holaday said WBCN represented media at its best, when the content mattered to the people who were consuming it. The station made it easy for local bands to get on air and played what local people liked.
"The DJs cared about the listenership. It was like they were friends and wanted you to listen to this new band they had found."
Today, Holaday is still creating original music with the Fools and Beatlejuice and Friends. While he stopped listened to WBCN about 10 years ago when he says radio changed and it lost its cutting-edge appeal, he will remember and credit his hometown station always.
"I will remember the station as great friends and a big part of not just our lives but the Boston music scene," he said. "A lot of Boston bands can credit them for their success. Boy, we'll miss them."
No comments:
Post a Comment