Radio Free Boston (25 page)

WBCN
poster from 1973 designed by the master of macabre illustration Gahan Wilson. Wilson was hired by the station to do the artwork and traveled from Chicago to sketch in the studio during a shift by Old Saxophone Joe. By kind permission of Gahan Wilson. Poster courtesy of the David Bieber archives.

WBCN
“Chrome” bumper sticker, early eighties. From the author's collection.

WBCN
“Comic Book” bumper sticker, eighties. From the author's collection.

The air staff in Fenway Park. Taken from the 1986
WBCN
Rock 'n' Roll Calendar. Photo by Ron
Pownall/RockRollPhoto.com
.

On the parquet at the old Boston Garden. Taken from the 1988
WBCN
Rock 'n' Roll Calendar. Photo by Ron
Pownall/RockRollPhoto.com
.

Wicked Yellow's license plate. Saved by Tank moments before the legendary radio station vehicle plummeted from a crane to her death on the asphalt during
WBCN'S
famous “Drop Era.” Courtesy of Tank's personal collection.

LEFT
First
WBCN
River Rave in 1995, the only one by a river! From the author's collection.
RIGHT
1996 X-Mas Rave All X-Cess Pass. From the author's collection.

The famous eighties period “yellow-winged” and purple
WBCN
Aerosmith bumper sticker. From the author's collection.

“Rock Revolution” sticker created in 1995 to announce
WBCN'S
new alternative music focus. From the author's collection.

Pearl Jam bumper sticker. From the author's collection.

WBCN
/Patriots Super Bowl Champions bumper sticker, 2002. Courtesy of Tony Berardini/New England Patriots.

Steven Tyler and the author at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, November 2012, talking Aerosmith and
WBCN
. Photo by Tim Staskiewicz.

Miller shook his head at the memory of the remarkable
WBCN
moment. “It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen: all those people just showing up at the station, because they didn't know where else to go.”

Later that very same night, Mike Wiener and Gerry Carrus took Berar-dini out for a previously scheduled business dinner. The pair had already begun working on a plan to leverage
WBCN'S
equity into purchasing more radio properties (they would acquire
WXRK-FM
and
WJIT-AM
in New York as well as WYSP-FM in Philadelphia the following year). “They told me, ‘We're buying more radio stations; we can't be in Boston all the time, so we want you to be general manager.'” The statement hit the program director like an 18-wheeler. But after the shock passed, Berardini politely declined. “To me, being in the programming end of things was getting away from the music, and I didn't want to get even further away.” Wiener and Carrus smiled, finished their meals, paid the check, and bided their time. “They kept asking me, and this went on till the following April. I said, ‘I don't know anything about being a general manager. Gerry's comment to me was, ‘You didn't know anything about being a program director either.' So, I finally went ahead and said I'd do it.”

Berardini immediately chose Oedipus to replace him as program director. His bosses wanted to know why. “I told them, ‘Yes, he doesn't know anything about the job, but he's passionate and loves music, and that's what this station is built on.”