Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN

Foreword

foreword steven tyler Imagine a time when you could get good in a band by practicing in a basement or garage, when you could play in local bars or clubs, and when local radio stations were actually running themselves. Real human personalities owned the music as much as the bands that wrote it; they frequented clubs, knew personally the pulse of local talent, and knew the goings-on of a community or city. This, in fact, is how everyone from Willy Dixon to Elvis, the Beatles, the Beastie Boys, Run DMC, and a little unknown band from Boston called Aerosmith got their foot in the door and proceeded to wreak havoc and bring the house down for the next forty years. It’s all Maxanne Sartori and WBCN’s fault. We were ruffling our feathers one night when we caught her attention at a club called Paul’s Mall. And before you knew it, I was sitting on her lap in the studio at 5:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning doing a cat-and-dog public service announcement. I tickled her fancy, so to speak, into playing “Dream On” and turning the daytime jocks on to our demos, which we had just recorded at Intermedia Studios on Newbury Street. The timing was perfect, and the rest is history. Due to the passion of these local DJs, we were able to ignite a fire that would burn in the hearts of millions . . . thank yoU wbCn, Steven ...