Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 - Eli Polonsky

My in-studio guest was multimedia producer Bill Lichtenstein, who was an overnight DJ known as "Little Bill" on Boston's pioneering commercial "FM underground free-form" progressive rock station WBCN during the early to mid-1970s.

Also around that time, Bill was also known as "Captain Steamboat Willie" on WNTN in Newton MA, a suburban Boston AM station that also aired a progressive rock format in the early 1970s. Bill is also an early '70s on-air alumni of WTBS (now WMBR) at MIT in Cambridge MA, and WBRU in Providence, RI during his college years at Brown University in the late 1970s, as well as many years as a national television and radio reporter, correspondent, and program producer.

Bill is making a documentary film about the early years of WBCN as a rock station in the late '60s and early '70s, and about what was going on culturally, musically, and politically in Boston and beyond at that time. Named after WBCN's original "underground" rock format, the film will be called "The American Revolution".

At 1:00 PM, we were joined by telephone by Boston DJ legend Charles Laquidara who joined WBCN in 1969 and became host of his extremely popular morning show "The Big Mattress" until 1996, when he continued hosting mornings on WZLX until retiring in 2000.

We were also joined by phone with Sam Kopper, WBCN's first long-term rock Program Director from 1968 into the mid-1970s, now programming the "WBCN Free Form Rock" channel available online at http://www.wbcn.com (click the FREE FORM link on the left to listen), or on HD radio in Boston at 100.7 FM HD3. Then, at approximately 1:20, were were joined by phone by former WBCN/WZLX "Big Mattress" show sportscaster "Tank".

12:03. The Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today
Live in-studio interview with "Little Bill" Lichtenstein
12:22. The Grateful Dead - St. Stephen -> Not Fade Away (LIVE at MIT 5-6-70)
Live in-studio interview with "Little Bill" Lichtenstein
12:44. Saloom-Sinclair And The Mother Bear - Marie Le Peau
Live in-studio interview with "Little Bill" Lichtenstein
12:56. Danny Schechter/Bill Lichtenstein - WBCN Anti-War/Kent State Montage 1973
Live interview with Bill Lichtenstein in-studio, Charles Laquidara and Sam Kopper by phone
Live interview with Bill Lichtenstein in-studio, Charles Laquidara and "Tank" by phone
01:35. Thunderclap Newman - Something in the Air
Live interview with Bill Lichtenstein in-studio, Charles Laquidara and "Tank" by phone
01:43. The Byrds - Ballad Of Easy Rider [LIVE at Boston Tea Party]
Live interview with Bill Lichtenstein in-studio, Charles Laquidara by phone
01:55. Jim Pepper - Witchie-Tai-To

Thanks for listening!
Eli Polonsky

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