WBCN

While many progressive rock stations died painful, public deaths, one of the first—WBCN in Boston, Massachusetts—carried on. Founded in 1967 by Ray Riepen, club owner (the Boston Tea Party) and later underground newspaper publisher (The Phoenix), WBCN quickly grew in popularity and power. Its most famous alumnus was Peter Wolf, a rhythm-and-blues and blues fanatic who not only knew the music but performed it as lead singer and songwriter for the J. Geils Band. Wolf called himself “Woofuh Goofuh” on the air; he left the station in 1969 to tour with the band. His replacement, Charles Laquidara, became one of WBCN’s most enduring personalities. Laquidara was at KPPC in Los Angeles when that station became the first underground rock outlet in southern California, and his Big Mattress morning show became an institution in New England.

Punk rock arrived at WBCN with Oedipus, who had established his new-wave credentials in local clubs and on college radio (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s WTBS). By 1981 he was WBCN’s program director, gathering numerous industry honours for keeping WBCN on the cutting edge.