Re: Hub radio legend will say aloha this fall

[mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Bob Nelson wrote:
>Yes, Charles has meant a lot to Boston radio. He will
>be missed
<snip>

        The Charles story that comes to mind for me is hearing him way back
in the early '70s come on after a McDonald's ad and go on for a long time
about how that was absolutely the end, the lowest of the low, as low as you
can go, and he would never complain again about any of the ads being
accepted by WBCN. And he was very serious.
        In its very first days as alternative rock, the station wouldn't
take ads from car companies (pollution) and other accounts that were deemed
to be overly corporate or selling something that didn't meet leftist
political standards. As time went on, more and more ads were accepted.
Charles used to be much more political than he is nowadays (he must like to
keep working), and he used to say very negative things about the ads. He
wasn't the only one. Pretty much, the air staff would come out of the music
and sort of apologize before and after playing the commercials. Stuff
that's hard to imagine today.
        So I actually heard his speech when he was confronted with an ad
for MacDonald's (supposedly representing total crass commercialism and
unhealthy food, etc., etc.) Wish I had an aircheck.
        I was going to enter this in the contest WZLX ran awhile ago for
Charles' 30th anniversary asking people to submit something about their
favorite Charles moment, but I figured there was no chance they'd use mine
:<)