WCOZ/WCAS DJ and "FM underground" pioneer Larry Miller returns to the air!

[Eli Polonsky]

I'm pleased to announce that Larry Miller, one of the pioneering
DJ's of the "FM underground" radio movement of the 1960's, is
joining the "Lost and Found" 1960's/70's music program at WMBR,
MIT's all-volunteer non-commercial college and community station!

A little history:

Until around 1966/1967, FM consisted of stations programming
mainly classical, jazz, and background "elevator" music (when
not simulcasting their AM partners). Rock'n'roll music was
represented mainly on Top 40 stations on the AM band. Except for
a few eclectic shows on non-commercial stations (including MIT's
WTBS, now WMBR) there was not yet such a thing as "album rock"
radio on the FM band, nor on any commercial radio stations for
that matter.

In 1966, legendary New York DJ's such as Scott Muni and Murray
The K briefly experimented with a "deeper" approach to rock
music programming on pioneering NYC FM rock station WOR-FM
before WNEW-FM and WABC-FM/WPLJ became established as NYC's
progressive album rockers, and in Boston, Dick Summer on WBZ
evenings explored a "mellower" adult style of rock programming
which was a precursor to what eventually became "soft rock".

The doors to progressive "underground" rock programming were
blown open a few months later in the Bay Area when Larry Miller
joined foundering, brokered-time FM station KMPX San Francisco
for a "free-form" overnight program in February 1967, blending
the album rock of the day with folk, blues, jazz, R&B, and
whatever else fit in while establishing a "flow" and creating
thematic sets, creative elements which were generally not part
of formatted AM Top 40 radio.

Larry's KMPX program also included album material from new local
area artists of the day, which then included Jefferson Airplane,
Janis Joplin, The Doors, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Buffalo
Springfield, The Grateful Dead, and many others who defined the
psychedelic west coast sound at the time.

A few months later in April 1967, the late Tom Donahue took over
as Program Director of KMPX, expanding the concept which Larry
had begun into a full-time format, thereby claiming historical
credit as pioneer of the "FM underground" progressive album rock
format (for the west coast anyway).

Following a labor strike at KMPX in 1968, Donahue and most of
the staff moved over to KSAN, which became legendary as San
Francisco's FM album rock station throughout the 1970's. Many
such stations were springing up in many major cities by then
(such as Boston's WBCN in March 1968), and Larry then returned
to Detroit (where he previously hosted a program on classical
WDTM in the early 60's), and joined Detroit's burgeoning "FM
underground" album rock station WABX for a three year stint
in their "progressive" heyday.

The early 70's brought Larry back and forth across the country
to major FM progressive rock stations including KLOS in Los
Angeles, WPLJ New York City, and WBAB on Long Island until
finally landing in Boston in 1977 where I remember first hearing
him on WCOZ 94.5, a progressive album rock station which gave
Boston's FM album rock leader WBCN a run for their money for a
few years in the late 70's.

When WCOZ switched to a brief flash-in-the-pan hard rock format
in 1979 (it's now urban "Jammin' 94.5" WJMN), Larry moved to the
wonderful but short lived folk/folk-rock station WCAS 740 AM in
Cambridge. (WCAS went under in 1982 and became gospel station
WLVG, and is now WJIB, a great independently owned station in
it's own right). 

As FM rock radio became more mainstream in the 1980's, Larry
decided to retire from the format. He was from the progressive
"free-form" radio school of the late 60's, and he felt that the
more formatted direction it was taking was not for him. He then
briefly played country-rock with a few former WCAS DJ's on WDLW
1330 AM (now WRCA), then returned to classical programming on
WBUR (before they went all-news), WCRB, and WBOQ (now oldies
"North Shore 104.9").

Larry is now retired from professional radio and is teaching
communications here in the Boston area, and is joining WMBR's
all-volunteer staff. He will be hosting the 1960's/70's music
show "Lost and Found" this season in my former (1983 to 1995)
time slot, Tuesdays 12 noon to 2 PM, beginning October 4'th.

"Lost and Found" is WMBR's long-running (25 years!) mid-day
1960's/70's music program, showcasing a wide variety of "lost"
tracks from the era including pop, rock, R&B, soul and more,
with a different host each weekday. Larry will be recapturing
the flavor of 1960's "FM underground" progressive radio in his
Tuesday slot.

I left WMBR for three years in 1995, and returned in 1998 to host
the "Lost & Found" Thursday slot until a year ago last week, when
I retired from the show. (I no longer have the time or finances
in my life to support doing weekly volunteer radio in today's
economy). However, I will be returning to assist Larry some with
his Tuesday slot, and perhaps may sit in from time to time.

My version of the "Lost & Found" show was an imitation of what I
heard listening to "FM underground" progressive rock programming
on Boston area stations like WTBS and WBCN in the late 60's. I
could only emulate what I had heard through young ears many years
before. Larry Miller was one of the pioneers of that radio sound,
he was really there. It will be an honor to be participating in
radio with him at WMBR.

WMBR can be heard at 88.1 FM in greater Boston, northeastern and
parts of central Massachusetts and areas of southern New Hampshire.

WMBR also streams live on the web at http://www.wmbr.org

Eli Polonsky