RE: 94 1/2 FM

["David W. Harris" <dwh@totalnetnh.net>]

    Ah yes, I remember it well.  I was listening to "Talk to the People"
(a public affairs/call-in show for under-21s that aired Saturdays from
10am to noon on WBZ-FM) when "Captain Ken" (Shelton) announced just
before noon that he wouldn't be on the next show...he was leaving the
station...and then said something about how he was going to get cozy.
There were knowing groans from others in the studio.  "Clark" (as Mr.
Smidt was known on WBZ-FM) had left a few weeks earlier.  My memory has
it that Westinghouse had recently decided to let WBZ-FM go largely
unannounced so there wasn't much reason for a good announcer to hang
around 106.7 MHz.
    While WCOZ went from easy listening to rock on August 15, 1975, WEZE
went in the other direction at the end of the month.  'EZE proved no
threat to WJIB-FM, but WCOZ certainly gave WBCN a run for its money for
a few years there.
    As has been mentioned, WCOZ had some great talent at the mikes.  The
July 1979 issue of "Waves" magazine (a.k.a. "Radio Waves") has this for
the lineup:
    6am  Dave Lee Austin
    10am  Lisa Karlin (with listener suggestions on the Blue Plate
Special at 11:55)
    2pm  Andy Beaubien
    6pm  Ken Shelton (with Album of the Week Monday at 9, Superartist
Spotlight T & Th at 9)
    10pm  Lesley Palmiter
    2am  Larry Miller
All except Austin in Boston worked weekends, where they were joined by
Jack Broderick, Bob Slavin, ND Jim Cameron, and PD Tommy Hadges (hosting
"BSA"--Boston's best-selling albums Sunday at 10pm followed at midnight
by Palmiter with an hour of "The Boston Beat").
    Smidt had moved over to WEEI-FM by this time and Shelton was soon to
follow (if he wasn't there already by the time "Waves" went to press).
It was a short stay for Shelton--in the spring of 1980 he moved into the
midday slot at WBCN after Matt Siegel left to host "Five All Night/Live
All Night."
    Now, the WCOZ lineup from the April 1980 "Waves":
    6am  Tom Doyle
    10am  Lisa Karlin (still with the Blue Plate Special)
    2pm  Steve Clean
    6pm  Anita Gevinson (9 o'clock features continue)
    10pm  Andy Beaubien
    2am  Cindy Bailen
Most also worked a weekend shift, joined by Bob Slavin and Lesley
Palmiter (who, if I remember correctly, had moved over to doing
newscasts during the week).
    Now, can somebody who remembers WCOZ's easy listening days answer
one for me?  When I think of WJIB-FM, I see and hear a bell buoy with a
gull or two flying overhead.  That I understand.  But how come, when I
think of WCOZ, I see and hear a fireplace?  Did they use that on
billboards?  Did they have the sound of a crackling fire under an ID?
Or do I just have an association between the word "cozy" and fireplaces
that exists wholly independent of any radio station image campaigns?
    Finally, a little item from page 22 of the Boston Herald American of
7/28/75:
"Add this to your 'nothing is forever department.'  Look for WEZE and
WBCN to shift to the good music category, and look for WCOZ to take the
rocky road to rock.  And this too shall pass."

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