End of the Rock
I was listening to the end days of WBCN on the way to work today, and it almost made me sad to lose something that hasn’t really been what they would like to think they’ve been for at least the past 15 years.
As they played The Kinks, into the Flaming Lips, into Johnny Cash, I was thinking that this would have been a really good radio station. Too bad that for more than a decade, WBCN was nothing more than a shadow of its former self, a station with a constant identity crisis. I’m pretty sure that the final benediction for WBCN won’t feature much Limp Bizkit, Korn, Creed or the other dregs of the 90s that they glommed onto for a time.
This is a station that found its only success in the wilderness years by paying for syndication rights to Howard Stern and lucking into New England Patriots game rights as the Patriots began their run of NFL domination. This is a station that turned to the heinous Opie and Anthony on several occasions in an attempt to make itself relevant. In a recent years, it has gone to playing a mix of the same old tired tunes, not too alternative, not too classic rock, that you can probably hum in your sleep.
So while I will miss all they stood for, maybe, and feel a little sad about missing out on the much cooler station many people who worked there perceived it to be, I’m sure there are plenty of other stations out there that can feed us a dispiriting mix of Foo Fighters songs and interchangeable DJs.
As they played The Kinks, into the Flaming Lips, into Johnny Cash, I was thinking that this would have been a really good radio station. Too bad that for more than a decade, WBCN was nothing more than a shadow of its former self, a station with a constant identity crisis. I’m pretty sure that the final benediction for WBCN won’t feature much Limp Bizkit, Korn, Creed or the other dregs of the 90s that they glommed onto for a time.
This is a station that found its only success in the wilderness years by paying for syndication rights to Howard Stern and lucking into New England Patriots game rights as the Patriots began their run of NFL domination. This is a station that turned to the heinous Opie and Anthony on several occasions in an attempt to make itself relevant. In a recent years, it has gone to playing a mix of the same old tired tunes, not too alternative, not too classic rock, that you can probably hum in your sleep.
So while I will miss all they stood for, maybe, and feel a little sad about missing out on the much cooler station many people who worked there perceived it to be, I’m sure there are plenty of other stations out there that can feed us a dispiriting mix of Foo Fighters songs and interchangeable DJs.
posted by endangered coffee at 1:09 PM
Very much the station that supplied me with my own personal soundtrack, circa 1972 - 1976 or so. Not so much since then.
In all fairness, as I sit hear listening to my iPod, radio will never be what it used to be, but BCN has seemed even further behind the eight-ball for a very long time now.
I agree that the iPod has pretty much made music radio obsolete, but I do think back to the good ol' days. Songs like "Summer Breeze", "Band on the Run" and "Horse With No Name" instantly take me back to my childhood, riding in the car with my folks.
I think they've been gone a long, long time. In the last several years, the main money-makers were Howard Stern and game rights, but this station really was legendary in its time.
Modern times and the modern music industry are why they're going away. Maybe I haven't really listened in years because I've "aged out" of the demographic. I used to be in radio myself...and this was IT in those days. Would have loved to work there then. (I never got to go The Channel either!)
Maybe in new radio they'll get their groove back. Who knows, probably not, but for today, I'm skipping the Sox game to catch the last show.