benveniste (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} benveniste) wrote,@ 2009-07-15 08:51:00 |
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Requiem for a Radio Station
Okay, the title is a lie. I'm not going to hold a service, nor do I have any intention of setting this to music.
Yesterday, CBS Radio announced they were shutting down WBCN-FM, 104.1, effectively replacing it with a "sports radio" format. There's a shuffle in frequencies involved as well. While WBCN still has a preset on my car radio and stereo, I haven't listened to the station with any regularity since the mid-1990's.
But when I moved to Boston in 1982, WBCN was "my" music radio station. I woke up to Charles Laquidara, listened to Ken Shelton at noon, tried to catch the 5:05 pm comedy segment in the afternoon, and so on. I based my music buys on what I heard on that station. But my enthusiasm had already begun to wane in 1993, when Ken Shelton left and the station started running Howard Stern in the evenings. The "shock rock" style wasn't to my taste.
For many years, I simply attributed this to changes both the music scene and changes in my own tastes. While there's still a lot of truth in that, I also think that the station lost its way during that time.
So farewell, WBCN. I guess time can change me, but you couldn't change time. Like so many of the rock groups that you used to play, you're just a boring story of glory days.
Okay, the title is a lie. I'm not going to hold a service, nor do I have any intention of setting this to music.
Yesterday, CBS Radio announced they were shutting down WBCN-FM, 104.1, effectively replacing it with a "sports radio" format. There's a shuffle in frequencies involved as well. While WBCN still has a preset on my car radio and stereo, I haven't listened to the station with any regularity since the mid-1990's.
But when I moved to Boston in 1982, WBCN was "my" music radio station. I woke up to Charles Laquidara, listened to Ken Shelton at noon, tried to catch the 5:05 pm comedy segment in the afternoon, and so on. I based my music buys on what I heard on that station. But my enthusiasm had already begun to wane in 1993, when Ken Shelton left and the station started running Howard Stern in the evenings. The "shock rock" style wasn't to my taste.
For many years, I simply attributed this to changes both the music scene and changes in my own tastes. While there's still a lot of truth in that, I also think that the station lost its way during that time.
So farewell, WBCN. I guess time can change me, but you couldn't change time. Like so many of the rock groups that you used to play, you're just a boring story of glory days.
