Fascism on the Rise Archives - KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show · Burt Cohen

Laquidara On the Legacy of WBCN

·59 min·3 clips

WBCN beat AM radio by mocking it, then dropping “Layla” and Clapton in stereo.

1. Fascism on the Rise Archives presents KDA Keeping Democracy Alive’s conversation about WBCN and Charles Laquidara. 2. Bert Cohen hosts Charles Laquidara, the WBCN morning DJ from 1968 through 1976, because Laquidara shaped the station’s public identity. 3. The episode asks what WBCN’s lasting influence was, from rock radio to Boston politics. 4. Cohen says WBCN started in March 1968 at 104.1 FM as Boston’s first FM station to play rock music. 5. Laquidara describes the station’s launch with Cream’s “I Feel Free” and stereo sound that AM radio could not match. 6. He says WBCN became the number one rock station in the country through listener devotion and word of mouth. 7. Laquidara names Ken Shelton, Chachi Lopret, Max N. Sartori, Matt Schaefer, Danny Schechter, Matt Siegel, Tank, Dinah Vaprin, and Katie Abel as key WBCN figures. 8. He says the documentary WBCN and the American Revolution by Bill Lichtenstein captures the station’s team and cultural force. 9. He argues that cultural change precedes political change and says WBCN changed culture and maybe politics too. 10. He describes getting the morning slot after Dinah Vaprin challenged the idea that women should take the “shit shift.” 11. Laquidara says the station made fun of AM morning radio, including Arnie Ginsberg, with whistles, cowbells, and surreal banter. 12. He says playing “Layla” and “In the Presence of the Lord” in stereo made the contrast obvious to listeners. 13. He recalls that WBCN spread so widely that people could hear it across Boston without even turning on a radio. 14. He says the station gave away FM radios to prisoners at Walpole and relied on giveaways, ratings, and commercial advertising. 15. He explains that the “big mattress” name came from the idea that listeners across Maine, Massachusetts, and Virginia were waking up together. 16. He says the news department was integral, citing Danny Schechter, Dinah Vaprin, Katie Abel, and the wall slogan “fight the right.” 17. Laquidara links WBCN’s news culture to Henry Kissinger’s hostility toward Danny Schechter’s questions. 18. He says the station eventually became more standardized under management, while FM radio itself disappeared as a mass medium. 19. People who remember Boston FM rock, left-leaning radio history, or WBCN’s activist era would likely enjoy this. 20. People seeking polished chronology, concise answers, or nonpolitical nostalgia may skip it.

As heard by us

A radio legend becomes a story about culture, memory, and the politics underneath both.

The episode treats WBCN as more than a station and instead as a cultural and political force. Charles is folded into a longer account of the station's reach, its listeners, its early freedom, and the way commercial success still left room for chaos, humor, and invention.

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Why you'd press play

Hear why WBCN became more than a commercial rock station, and what Charles Laquadera says made it matter.

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