On a snowy Saturday morning in 1984 I was invited to the
WFNX-FM studios as a guest DJ. There was no training, just show up, sit down, figure
out the board and start spinning vinyl. There was no posted rotation of songs,
no hot song of the week that must be played, no pile of records in the studio
you had to play during your show. It was totally free form.
I had brought along a few of my own records and browsed the
adjoining extensive library and put together what i hoped would be an
interesting assortment of what I was calling modern rock music. I wish I had
saved a copy of my playlist that day. So many great songs, so little time in
those short four hours.
I had another job at the time and I spent a lot of time on
planes crisscrossing the country to consult with customers. I carried a Walkman
with FM and made a point of listening to FM radio everywhere I went. Rarely was
I satisfied with what I heard and I never stumbled onto a commercial station
that came close to what the was the WFNX experience.
About an hour into the show the phones started to ring. The
first call was an old friend I had worked with at the Ski Market on Comm Av. We
had lost touch for 5 years and we had a nice chat. I was having so much fun
being back on the air I almost forgot this little dynamic station in Revere had
a pretty large listenership of faithful fans.
Other listeners called to ask about songs I played or making
a request. The time went too quickly and the 2pm jock had just showed up and my
little taste of airtime on WFNX was over.
Fast forward twenty years and as of yesterday it is over for
WFNX. It seems like yesterday the station played their first new wave and punk
tunes and time has slipped by to the end of their show. (At least on FM, they
will continue in some form on the internet.)
A new owner of the station has other ideas. That is their prerogative.
It is Boston's loss. In this age of maximizing profit few seem willing to run a
station with a small comfortable profit to keep us entertained and informed on
the cutting edge sounds of the day as well as WFNX did for 29 years.
I played a very small part in its history and wish I could
have contributed more. But so have countless others that graced their airwaves.
My hat is off this morning to each and every one that put the music first on
WFNX-FM to make it a part of the Boston and national fabric.
There is a short story from the Boston Phoenix this morning which includes a recording of the last hour.
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