The next song, East-West from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was, and I don't fear exaggeration here, life-changing. (That song and that band is within three degrees of separation of all of the music that was and is important to me.)
The disc jockey was Mississippi Harold Wilson. The station was WBCN. I listened as urgently as a thirsty man would go face-first into a river. For all I know, that old tuner is in the Westminster dump, set on 104.1.
More than 40 years later, 'bcn is still on one of the buttons on my car radio, but it's been quite a while since I listened regularly. We all got older and all tried to stay young, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. Around the time of Nirvana or maybe it was Green Day, the music was, well, boring, and the disc jockeys sounded like frat boys. Howard Stern came in and brought some new energy, but the music still wasn't getting it done.
They probably should have hung it up a while ago, but they stayed on, like Willie Mays finishing his glorious career with a pitiful stint with the Mets. (Mays later said "growing old is just a helpless hurt.")
Sam Kopper, the morning dj, used to close out his show with 2120 South Michigan Avenue by The Rolling Stones. The song title comes from the address of the old Chess Records studio in Chicago. Let's play that one and say good-bye.
You can read more here:
- Laughing Goose the Weatherman's blog - (sniff) (sniff)
- Dan Kennedy's blog - Forgotten but not gone — until now
- Memorable moments in ’BCN history
- WBCN signs off air in CBS Boston radio shakeup
- Rocking no more Its eye on sports, CBS pulls plug on legendary WBCN
- FM start-up muscling into sports talk A CBS-launched rival to WEEI emerges in post-WBCN shakeup
No comments:
Post a Comment