Wednesday, April 23, 2014

ROCK AND ROLL AND LAND PRESERVATION: How WBCN Radio Helped Save the Blackstone Gorge


Former WBCN Radio disk jockey Carter Alan, now Music Director at WZLX, will speak on Thursday, May 15th at the First Universalist Society in Franklin, 262 Chestnut Street, sponsored by Metacomet Land Trust. Carter will speak about the impact WBCN had on the culture of the time. Carter will share stories from his book, Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN.

Metacomet is a nonprofit conservation organization based in Franklin, and now active in 13 communities in south central Massachusetts from Norfolk to Douglas. The trust will hold its annual membership meeting starting at 6:30 p.m. and the free program will begin at 7:00 p.m. 
The connection between the local conservation group and the rock music scene of Boston dates to 1992, when a unique and untouched stretch of the Blackstone River on the border between Massachusetts and Rhode Island was at risk of development. Would it be sold for development or could it be saved? 
An unusual grassroots campaign by Metacomet took to the airwaves of Boston’s leading rock radio station, WBCN. In less than a year, the needed funds were raised and this special place was preserved as a bi-state public park. How did it happen? Come hear the story of how a small group of local conservationists enlisted the support of the on-air personalities at WBCN and helped save the land.
Tom Bik, of Blackstone, who has been active in the conservation group since its founding in 1988, said “WBCN was instrumental in getting our message out to save the Blackstone Gorge. The Gorge is a unique place, still untouched by human hands.” Blaring the Cream anthem “I Feel Free,” WBCN went on the air in March 1968 as an experiment in free-form rock on the fledgling FM radio band. It broadcast its final song, Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” in August 2009. 
In between, WBCN became the musical, cultural, and political voice of the young people of Boston and New England, sustaining a vibrant local music scene that launched such artists as the J. Geils Band, Aerosmith, James Taylor, Boston, the Cars, and the Dropkick Murphys, as well as paving the way for Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, U2, and many others. Along the way, WBCN both pioneered and defined progressive rock radio, the dominant format for a generation of listeners. 
Carter was a DJ at WBCN for nineteen years and is the author of U2, Outside Is America, and Life on the Road. In Radio Free Boston, Carter tells story of a city; of artistic freedom, of music and politics and identity; and of the cultural, technological, and financial forces that killed rock radio. 
Carter will answer questions at the end of his talk. Copies of Radio Free Boston will be available for purchase at the event and he will sign copies.

ROCK AND ROLL AND LAND PRESERVATION
ROCK AND ROLL AND LAND PRESERVATION

Find out more about the Metacomet Land Trust by visiting their updated webpage
http://www.metacometlandtrust.org/index.htm

or visit them on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Metacomet-Land-Trust/233206973376705

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