***A note to air check traders. Please do not record these air checks and try and trade. I have the original tapes many of which I recorded myself and thus the authenticity can not be in doubt and can be easily traced.
More great audio from the exceptional free form WBCN FM and DJ Charles Laquidara from mid January 1971. You will hear rock bookended by Jazz and Classical. Some nice ads including one one for Capricorn records country rock act Cowboy. The label was distributed by ATCO .
Free Form radio at it’s early 1970’s best !
The BCN clip is quintessential early 70s Underground Radio. It really opened my ears up to a cornucopia of talent, regardless of the genre. Steve Winwood was one I never would have heard of, and that beget lots of other similar artists. Their comedy was also so much more refreshing than the Dick van Dyke show: The Congress of Wonders was another genre that deserves an award. I still quote it now and then.
I loved the loathed “dead air” that these “hosts” (I can’t call them DJs) would provide, giving a moment to soak in what was just heard, whether it music or something spoken.
I loved the unrehersed, blemished announcements, the commercials full of retakes and laughter. Things were simpler, a little slower, but certainly a little louder.
It was a time of the Real Paper and The Phoenix, with articles in synch with the times, and BCN in synch as well. How Charles transformed himself over time is suprising.
Miss those times.
It really changed my perspective on life and of music.
This is the kind of eclectic radio that made this station (and the era of underground radio) so special. An unpredictable mix of jazz, classical, blues, folk, and other genres in with the rock which served as the main ingredient. Commercial radio will never sound like this again. And though you can still find some interesting music on college radio or public radio, it is all SEGREGATED where you’ve got a jazz show, a folk show, or just steady rock on college radio. I’ve heard a bit of this kind of diversity occasionally on the UC Berkeley station when I’m in the broadcast range but I can’t really pick it up in San Francisco, and it really depends on the DJ. On WBCN almost all the DJs served up an amazingly eclectic mix. I loved being surprised with new sounds all the time when I tuned in, but by the mid 70s BCN was pretty much all rock, albeit better rock than what other FM stations were playing, they stayed ahead of the curve within the framework of the AOR format.
Wow, Charles actually does a PSA for the Process Church of the Final Judgment (“The Process”) for short. I guess they had a chapter in Boston at that time. Kind of spooky!
Thank you so much for posting this. I love old AOR FM radio and its so hard to find.