WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. Today we're taking stock of Boston's airwaves with a focus on how the gigantic conglomerates are dwarfing the diversity on our dial from the programming we hear to the personalities behind the mike. Clear Channel's recent acquisition of the net is a reminder of the independent stations we've lost over the years. True we have an abundance of college radio to tune into. Yes our city is abuzz with low watt broadcasts and pirate radio. But what do we lose when the independent stations go away. What's at stake when these stations with their strong signals an unconventional vibe get subsumed by Big Media's bottom line mentality. From there we check in with improv Boston about its new MBT a musical a tale of what happens in the tunnels beneath the city's streets. Up next Boston sound from the airwaves to the subways. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying a United Nations team has come

under weapons fire after attempting to enter the Syrian town of HOF a monitor say they were turned away by mobs who were hurling stones and metal rods as they tried to enter the area. Meanwhile the U.N. special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan is expected to make another urgent appeal to the international community to help. A spokesman says plans are afoot to convene a meeting as Lisa shrine reports from Geneva. Annan spokesman Ahmed Fauci says the meeting on Syria does not aim to create a new plan but to strengthen the implementation of the six point peace plan already on the table. The objective of creating this group. Is to give teeth to the plan to convince the parties to implement the plan in its entirety Fozzy says the creation of the International Contact Group is another step in an intensifying diplomatic effort to end the conflict in Syria. He calls it an important step in efforts to pressure the government and opposition groups to stop the killing and begin a political process. For NPR

News I'm Lisa engine. However finding consensus on Syria may be further complicated by U.S. Russia dispute according to Reuters News Service Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Moscow's claims that its arms shipments to Syria are not related to the Syrian conflict are quote patently untrue. Meanwhile clashes are reported in the Russian capital between security forces and anti-government protesters there numbering in the tens of thousands. Back in the U.S. a teenager whose report of sexual contact with Jerry Sandusky triggered a grand jury investigation has taken the witness stand at the former Penn State assistant coaches trial. NPR's Joel Rose reports the teen known only as victim number one has given an emotional description of being molested by Sandusky. The young man who is now 18 broke into tears as he testified that he frequently spent the night at Jerry Sandusky's house where he was sometimes forced to engage in oral sex. And he testified that when he tried to tell local authorities they initially didn't believe him. The

witness is the second of eight alleged victims who are expected to testify against Jerry Sandusky who faces more than 50 counts of child sexual abuse. Sandusky denies the charges. Defense lawyers argue that Sandusky's accusers have a financial stake in the outcome of the case. Jewel Rose NPR News Bellefonte Pennsylvania. The first of several reviews of Florida's Stand Your Ground law is underway in Longwood just miles from where an unarmed teenager was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer a few months ago. The meeting is being held by Governor appointed task force created in the wake of national outrage over Trayvon Martin's death. His killer George Zimmerman is claiming self-defense. At last check on Wall Street the Dow is up 84 points a 12000 495 Nasdaq gaining 13 a 20 23. This is NPR. Good afternoon from the WGBH radio newsroom in Boston I'm Christina Quinn with the local stories we're following. A judge deciding the sentence of the long time girlfriend of Boston mobster James Whitey Bulger has indicated that he will side with prosecutors on a longer prison term. U.S. District

Court Judge Douglas Wood Locke said today that Katherine Greg's role in helping Bulger stay on the run for 16 years involved more than mere harboring. The 61 year old Gregg pleaded guilty in March to charges of conspiracy to harbor a fugitive identity fraud and conspiracy to commit identity fraud. Prosecutors have asked for a decade in prison for Gregg her attorney is seeking a more lenient sentence of 27 months. The courtroom has recessed for lunch and will resume at 1:30 WGBH We'll update you on the trial as it continues. A judge has denied a request by former probation Commissioner John O'Brien for public money to pay for his private lawyers. O'Brien has pleaded not guilty to charges he allegedly oversaw what authorities say was a rigged hiring process at the probation agency in Rhode Island teachers at the Calcutta middle school in Central Falls say they had been ordered to graduate students who fail up to 75 percent of their core classes. TV reports students at the school are allowed to fail up to three of their classes in math science English and social studies and still become high school freshman. School superintendent Frances Gallo says there is an internal discussion over whether

retaining students is helpful and said holding students back in middle school significantly increases their likelihood of dropping out. In sports the Red Sox take on the Marlins tonight with Clay Buchholz on the mound and the weather forecast for this afternoon is a cloudy one with the temperature hovering in the lower 70s. Tonight will be cloudy with showers likely mainly after midnight overnight lows in the lower 60s. Wednesday showers in the forecast for the morning patchy fog highs in the upper 60s right now 71 degrees in Boston under overcast skies 75 in Worcester with mostly cloudy conditions and 67 in Providence under mostly cloudy skies. Support for NPR comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supporting games for health using video games to promote health innovations at our WJF dot org slash pioneer. The time is 1 0 6. Good afternoon I'm Kalee Crossley and this is a slice of Boston history. What a 1.7 WFM X would be 52 sturdy backroads by

request. I'll certainly cure with the blood. Eight minutes now past one o'clock Saturday afternoon Tony Vienna 2 I'm Bruce McDonald here till bad times bringing you news if you like longer hiders color field in the Delta way go at the Channel tonight with rods and cones and sit down an avenue grade line up checkout out his winter's pass to one of 1.7 W. AF annex. That's a w f n x air check from 1985. The alternative rock station was recently bought by Clear Channel It will air its final broadcast in July. Donna helper as a radio historian how do you regard the sale of W F N x to Clear Channel is it a death knell to independent radio or is it a natural course of media evolution. Well first of all thanks for having me on. I regard it as a wake up call. Radio could go in one of two directions now. The only thing that

keeps radio alive is live local interesting compelling broadcasts or else why would people listen to homogenize ation of the industry is is killing it. And within X was a wonderful example of being alive being local being unusual being compelling. If we allow it to die if we just say oh OK fine now radio it was just inevitable. No it wasn't and if we can find something to take its place if we can create something to take its place there will be reason for people to listen to what ever that is. So no I'm not totally pessimistic but I gotta say I'm worried just for clarity's sake for people who don't know Clear Channel describe Clear Channel and why it's considered to be a be a must if you will. Now in 2001 a writer for the then Salon magazine a guy named Eric Boehlert referred to it as THE BORG of broadcasting if you know the Star Trek metaphor of the Borg resistance is futile you

will be assimilated. And at that time Clear Channel because of deregulation owned twelve hundred radio stations and now they're down to I think 800 but still it's an inordinately large number of stations now. Disclaimer I have nothing against the people of Clear Channel. I don't I know many of them I've worked with many of them. But the idea that one corporation can own Twelve hundred of something it really does put a chill on the freedom to broadcast in many cases now I know people will disagree with me. You know it's just business. Yeah but when you are run from a corporation they very often determine what your format is going to be what music you can play what programming you can do. And that's why independent radio really is so important. It may be a dying breed in some cities but it's really necessary as a counterbalance to corporate radio.

All right that's Donna helper She's a radio star and author of Boston radio one thousand twenty to 2010 a history of Boston stations and the personalities behind the mike but didn't or you know what it takes to keep an independent independent radio station going. JCL in Bath Maine and WJ I be in Cambridge. So how have you managed to survive in what is a an environment that Donna has just described where the smaller being a small and independent are being eaten up. Well first of all I don't think I would be able to do it survive if we did it the same way that most commercial stations doing that is to sell advertising. Why stations. The one in Bath and 730 on the dial and the one in Cambridge at 7:40 on the dial. It's basically a listener supported pretty much like public radio even though we're not a nonprofit organisation and I state so when I do fundraising every summer and the listeners come through every year on both stations even in Maine

which is quite amazing. And if I had to. Do the commercial route without. Doing lesser support it would be very very tough because in this business it's either feast or famine Clear Channel is feasting little guy like me as the Boston Globe once described to me I was a minnow in the media universe. As a man now what do you play us on the air What's it what's on the air. I'm playing adult standards music. Artie Shaw Glenn Miller some of the softer Elvis Presley Tony Bennett Frank Sinatra Doris Day early Beatles The Chiffons even and some of the Supremes but basically 1940s through the 1960s and some I go back home for drunks hits from the 70s and there's a nice nice blend of music really is going to be able find you by the way I mean it all it just fine I've been doing it for 20 years in Cambridge 21 years almost and they find me just word of

mouth and the station does have quite a large listening audience. It's mostly people over 50. Which brings to point another problem with doing radio or good radio with old music let's say and that is most advertisers don't care one bit about people who are over 50 once you cross over that 49 to 50 you're dead meat. They don't care about you. And there's reasons for two actually legitimate reasons because advertising agencies say that older people have. They're tougher to convince to buy something buy something new I guess buy something new just buy anything OK. Because we have our minds made up we're more experienced as opposed to aiming for the 22 year old who can't afford it doesn't need it and will be stretching it on credit cards for the next five years. OK that's what really drives the economy in America is credit and it's not the actual sale of the item so much. Let's make it kind of like buying a

printer for $79 and then spend $600 and toner for the next year or two. That's my guess Bonaire He's runs WJ T.O. in Bath Maine and WJ B in Cambridge. Back to you Donna helper because Bob touched on this generational gap. You wrote a piece talking about the sale of the W F N x for my be depressed colleague Dan Kennedy's blog Media nation which you talked about. You shared an anecdote really which I wish you'd share here which speaks to a generational gap. Well actually funny you should mention that because I just had the same thing happen to me last week and I'll do both of them condensed. I was at a car dealership getting my car repaired and I asked the guy that was waiting on me what his favorite radio station was and he was maybe 24 or 25 and he said Oh I never listen to radio but my mother does. And I just had the same thing happen I was speaking at a

conference the other day interestingly enough a call of a conference about media ecology which is how each new medium accommodates and changes other media that's what I was talking about. And there were a bunch of kids out on the lawn and I figured I'd just do my little survey. And I walked up to them and I said you know what your favorite radio station. And they all looked blankly up at me except for one who said dumb I listen in the car when I'm commuting. And it just when I hear things like that it makes me sad because again I don't want to beat a dead horse but what I said in my column was that by allowing the kind of deregulation that we have by homogenizing voice tracking playing the same personalities in 500 different cities we've taken away the reason that kids have to listen to radio and we've taken away its personality. I really believe that that's an issue. And the fact is we're not apprenticing in the new generation. When I was a kid and I'm not that old when I was a kid I

remember listening to the deejays and thinking wow I want to be one of those deejays. Today we're not doing that because it's the same deejay in like 50 different cities. If we could develop. The new generation of deejays maybe people would listen if we could play new music if we could do exciting talk programming instead of people screaming at each other. Now you guys are doing that and God bless you for it. But I'm talking about in the local markets in many cities. That doesn't exist. So the only time kids listen is when their parents force them to listen. But they no longer bond with radio they no longer have radio dreams. And yet as Bob has pointed out there is still a passion for radio. We saw this with F N x which is why so many people were so disappointed when it went off the air. Those were young people who found something they wanted and they listened to it. We could do that again if we wanted to.

Bob I want to do something that Donna said because when people when she talks about a monetization I just want to be clear that people understand that that means that the same guy that's on a Clear Channel station here in Boston will show up in Phoenix will show up in Memphis will show you the playlist will be the exactly the same. Now what I find interesting is that you say because you're doing something different but you say that people don't seem to be upset about the same playlist over and over again in some of those stations can you talk to me about what is this balance between wanting what an independent station can sensibly bring. But at the same time people are responding to a clear channel by accepting the same ole same ole playlists. They do except but done a lot of radio listenership is way way down and it's not that they're mad at the station but they've been listening to for all the repetition and all the sameness they just turn away and they go to

i-Pods or Pandora or somebody else. OK. And this is this whole thing with fanatics. They had. A situation where first of all I don't relate to the people that listen to Doug F and X I don't relate to the music whatsoever. But I realize it was an extremely important radio station in Boston. They broke a lot of the local bands and they could make making them national and they expose lots of new music. Like other stations like owned by Clear Channel or Cumulus sort of Citadel wouldn't do OK because they only played one to play tested music. But f n X was the heart and soul of Boston radio for the nightclub scene and local musicians and a fantastic station. I can't stand it myself but I. I realize the importance that it must be there but I don't that b.s. and have that be

simulcast now we don't know if her channel is going to simulcast. There are twelve hundred station with the frequency one 1.7 dubbed the next. We don't know that for sure but if they do which is something they've done in other markets then that would be a shame to have a simulcast of two singles have 50000 what AM station on twelve hundred so I will cast in this FM station or the other way around. That's a waste of spectrum just so a big company can get one or two more ratings points for their AM station to have it tied with the FM. That is a that's a shame to have to do that just for somebodies gain. When you and at the same time killing off an important Boston institution like fanatics want to add something to day. Actually this week a new album by a rock group called Rush came out and as many people know I discovered them and we're friends and etc. but what I could do back in the 1970s was put that

record their first record on the air get it played get the deejays behind it etc.. There's been a domino effect with deregulation. Not only are there fewer record companies where a band like Rush could go to get signed there are fewer bookstores there are fewer stations this fewer everything. And as a result a station like an if an X which was one of the few places where a local untested unsigned band could in fact audition in some ways we used to do this a w o m m s all the time we'd have like a lunchtime concert where a new band would come in they do a couple of two. It was almost kind of like the Gong Show in a way except they didn't get gonged but that was real radio. Oh yeah. But that's my point. People would respond to it because they felt they were helping to make a hit. And today it's all been decided in some ways. And there's so few choices it seems like there's more choices but there's light in Cleveland.

Yeah that's right point. All right I'm Kalee Crossley we're talking about Boston's airwaves with a focus on what we lose when our independent radio stations go away. The Boston radio conversation continues on an eighty nine point seven. WGBH. Funding for our programs comes from you and the Massachusetts Teachers Association reminding everyone that adults play an important role in encouraging children to read. Reading is the key to success. So read to your children every day and encourage them to love books and conquered lamp and shade. If one of my colleagues in another business asked me about sponsoring programming on GBH I would answer very positively am acard owner. If their customer base is anything like customer base that's being served by Congress and the G8 there is no doubt in my mind that they would benefit.

To learn how WGBH can benefit your business. Visit WGBH dot org slash sponsorship. As a deejay it's my job to. Break new music and globe trotting taste making deejay Diplo has been doing just that mining dance scenes from Rio to Washington D.C. and Amsterdam to New Orleans. I'm really influenced by wells out there and how how exciting it could be to me to Steve's kind of different people. The World According To Diplo later on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. This afternoon at Fort Huron eighty nine point seven. WGBH big community campaign has ended here at WGBH isn't that great. Super. Really really cool. And you are responsible for its great success for other ways to support your community through WGBH visit WGBH dot org slash volunteer and thanks. Welcome back to the Calla Crossley Show. We're taking stock of Boston

airwaves in the wake of the sale of def u w o f an X radio station. Here with me to take on looking at the State of the media particularly Boston radio media radio historian Donna helper. And Bob in there who runs two independent stations W.J. T.O. and Bath Maine and W. J. B in Cambridge. So there's been some fair amount of gnashing of teeth since the sale was announced. But yesterday Scott Helman in the globe sort of pushed back and said some of you people are just whiners that yes it's not good to lose an independent station but after all it was it was commercial and that there is plenty of room for the kind of independent fertile creativity and the hearing of new songs and artists on the college radio stations and we both know we all know that Boston has plenty of colleges in the area and there are a number of college radio stations he cited a few as examples of doing the kind of thing that he said in the past.

If an ex might have done but not so much in recent days. I like both of you to respond to that Donna. Yes while it is true that there are some college stations that are doing these sorts of things when you're dealing with college radio and I mean I got my start in college radio I will always love college radio but it's sporadic You never know if those programs are going to still be around if the student graduates maybe they continue it maybe they don't continue it. Maybe the administration makes an arbitrary decision kind of like a format change. Oh no we're not going to play this anymore we're going to play some other kind of music and you really are seeing more and more that where radio stations at the college feel they used to be a student activity. Now a lot of administrations regard them as a business. There are student stations that are expected to turn a profit they're expected to sell advertising. So the the myth of the independent College Station where the young announcers just do their thing. That may be as endangered as

some of the stations like WFAA next. So while it is true that there are a few stations in Boston that have individual programs that have been on for years doing just amazing things when God forbid the announcers of those programs die. Will those programs live on. I don't know because you really are at the mercy of the administration. But what do you think. I agree that it's not centralized anymore without the fanatics for the you know the the the street scene or the nightclub scene and things like that and for that kind of music. The color stations are not a good substitute for that not even all of them put together because as Donna says schedules change all the time and less and less color students are even interested in radio and they probably have lots of spaces to fill sometimes and you never know what they're going to you're going to hear. But on F and X you knew what you're going to hear. OK and that's why that is so so very important. And one of the point I'd like to make when you have

too many stations in the hands of too few people or corporations democracy is actually threatened. That's quite a statement but think about it. OK we're thinking about it I'm going to add something to that Don Oh yes I know I don't yes I think I do but particularly now if we could segue away from music for a second and I'll add something to what Bob just said. I've said on more than one occasion. That democracy depends on a wide variety of not just views about music at you know different personalities different announcers because everybody brings something different. If political talk radio is all one sided. If there's only one viewpoint if the ethnicity is all just pretty much ninety nine point ninety nine percent of white in Upper Class 101 we can talk about in Boston because that's pretty much the same. Absolutely. I'm saying that these kinds of things are dangerous to democracy because they don't give agency to people to speak about

their own issues w at the next was really good in that regard for a commercial station and yes I know they sold commercials but for a commercial station you had a wide range of music you had a wide range of views you had a wide range of programs. Those kinds of things are essential if society is to continue to progress if we're just going to homogenize and I'm sorry to keep coming back to that word. But if we're going to totally be dominated by a small oligarchies a small group of corporate voices makes tons of money for them but boy it excludes an awful lot of voices and we need to hear those voices. You're listening to 9.7 WGBH an online at WGBH dot or what. Talking about Boston's airwaves with Donna helper and Bittner Donna helper is a radio historian and neurons and operates two independent radio stations in New England. I do want to talk about the lack of ethnic radio or if you will for a long time there was W I L D I mean we should put the F N

x sale in recent context. So there was B.S. and that went away in 2009 and then W I L D which was an AM station that mostly cater to an African-American audience a local audience. But it's all in the whatever. But then it went away about a year or so ago and it's been taken over by people who live in China and it's really a program for China I mean mainland China not Chinese-Americans in in Boston. We're going to have an interesting actually. Yeah but in any case what we have now is what's widely known as a pirate station 1 0 6 FM touch we really wanted to talk to some of the folks over there but couldn't get ahold of them really to get them on the air with us today but I wanted to give people a sense of what W 1 0 6 FM is like for those of you have not heard it. Here is just a sample of what it sounds like. 4 5 1 0 6 1 is a different favorite and I must show you why right now I don't

know which MORNING. Coming up right now like you know it's number one baby touchdowns It's what a fan. Touch one zero six point one FM. This is Governor Deval Patrick. And you're making your way through the midday with Courtney Boston on touch one zero six point one FM the fabric of the black community feel and hear the difference. Damn that's interesting because yes the governor and it is a pirate station I mean the FCC essentially just said we're not going to you know take you to jail but they're a low watt station that they say exist on the Internet to some large degree. But a huge following and a big touchstone for a lot of people in town. Absolutely. I'm a big sister and that's my little sister and her family's favorite station. What touches doing needs to be done and they do it really well. I mean I was a radio consultant for 28 years I got to tell you they do a really good job God bless them. But it begs the question of why a city the size of Boston has never had a full time

24/7 full power minority voice. OK even W I L D much as I loved it and I used to work there it was a day timer. It went off the air at night so yes there are some stations in Boston including jammin including kiss the do play some black music but we're not talking about playin the hits we're talking about having those voices having those people who are community connection they that's what you want to. 6 has that is exactly right. And time yeah. And the fact that that doesn't exist in a market the size of Boston except on a pirate or a low power or even a day timer has always mystified me. Bob I want you to speak about community connection I went to your website and I just was fascinated with the ultimate transparency you put right up there on the page OK. Here's what it costs to run the station. Here's how much I need you know here the number of people who gave this or that. Here's what you get if you give this amount.

And when I get enough stop fund raising if I don't then I'm not on the air it's pretty pretty solid connection with your listeners. It is it is a good relationship with the listeners. It's just a nice thing to do an independent station. And one thing we were talking about before about independent stations will they last. In general Probably not because the value of the station was if you were to sell an independent station is greater and greater because the Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed any company to own is just about as many radio stations as they wondered to some caps in in the cities in certain markets like eight stations in New York has the most you can have. And in Boston the same thing. But that doesn't mean you can't buy stations or eight stations or six stations or four stations. Even in Des Moines Iowa or Coeur d'Alene Idaho or whatever you can have stations in every market and lots of them. And that's the problem with the Telecommunications Act of 1996 pushed by our friend Newt Gingrich

and as you know his party. Donna blames the Massachusetts legislators too though don't you. Oh I think I blame a lot of people that there's a lot of blame to go around. Once upon upon the kingdom far away the National Association of Broadcasters bless their hearts stood up for the little guy. But unfortunately today no more young. You have much more of a corporate focus. Again I'm not going to bash corporations but I don't think the attitude of favoring corporations over the smaller broadcasters has been good for broadcasting and I think it's driven people away. So Donna let's go back to the point you were making in that in the speech about media ecology how one thing changes and it impacts the shift overall. So as we've seen these you know the rise of low wattage pirate stations are hanging on as he can with the support of his folks and when he doesn't have that he goes away. The sale of ABCL in 2009 and now the sale of an F an X and who knows what else is coming.

What does that mean about the future of Boston radio period. Well first of all BCA has gone to the Web Sam copper in a couple of the other b.s. and folks have tried to revive it as an internet station I don't know how well that's doing but you know long may they run and I hope that they do continue. I just. Radio is constantly changing I was saying to your producer before we came into the studio there has been a history of people predicting the death of radio. OK. When Talking Pictures came along in 1927 every we all know this is the end of radio when television came along in 47 48 Oh no this is the end of radio then it was the Internet. Except look at us. You have a website. You have podcasts. You have a stream. You have accommodated the new technologies and yet you're still doing radio. So I say that radio can continue to survive if it reaches out to a new generation if it creates a live in local programming. But in a corporate environment where it's all

about the profit and saving a few bucks by getting rid of staff. Will there be those independent voices. I don't mind if they play the hits I like the hits hits are good. I don't mind if they have certain talk shows I mean I don't mind any of it as long as it's live and local and what was me is that the next generation is say and what's the use there's no point except there is a point. We're still here aren't we. And we've always been here and there is no mass media of the media ecology school talks about this OK Marshall McLuhan. Neil Postman they've talked about how no mass medium be friends you like radio. Radio is like your best friend it talks directly to you. Paul Levinson of famous media ecologist said that radio is like eavesdropping on the world. There are people listening to us all over everywhere they want to call. They want to react. They want to have a conversation with us. Who does that better than radio. It would break my heart if we gave up on radio. I won't give up on

radio I don't think you will either. One thing I want to add that I recently read that someone some young woman has purchased W I L D F M to go on the Internet as well so waiting to see if that in fact happens. Bobinette it cos it seems that when I read your website $75000 a year to run your station Well how do you know what are the other challenges how do you how do you manage. Just it's a simple thing of numbers it costs about 75000 to run and get the 75000 total from many of the checks from the people over 2000 people what are your expenses because it's mostly you right. Yeah and my base expenses for $2000 a year in rent. OK where the tower sits you have to pay. It's not going to be you know it's. Not anymore because BMI categorized me as a noncommercial. I don't know what that is that's about right yeah. To Music. Yeah.

So the royalties are as bad as they were before and now with the new formulas going back to percentage of you know your income it might even be better so royalty rent has now outdone the royalties. But the big thing here is that with so many small station owners suffering and not being able to make money because they're selling commercials for two or three dollars a spot in North Adams Massachusetts let's say they just can't do that. It's just too much time consuming to have their sales people arrange to have spots their commercials aired for two or three dollars a commercial. And when and when it costs more like 100000 or 200000 or 300000 Doris run a station complete with sales people and secretary and a couple announcers and all that. It just doesn't add up anymore. And a lot of these small stations are probably going to disappear. Now as far as my stations go everything looks good. In fact I can't even tell. I can't tell one bit from my audience that they're

abandoning my stations for new technology. A lot of them have new technology but many have said they've tried it out at night time when they can't get my stations. And they come back and they don't want the new technology anymore. Well you know. I have to say that a lot of people just add on other technology they keep the core thing and then they add other stuff to sort of like people watching TV and using the web and all of that but yeah. But those also some away audiences elderly right. They never took the new media anyway. So I do not feel the effect that most stations are feeling. In fact I think my listenership is higher than ever and it's been a gradual uphill since 1991. Well that's been who owns and operates W J T O and Bath Maine and WJ IB and Cambridge. This question what's happening here in Boston with Clear Channel is happening in many cities across Italy. Yes so how would you assess isn't one who writes about history. Radio in a in a larger context. Is there a greater impact in a Boston that seems to have been kind of an incubator for

independent stations or is it about the same. Well as I said earlier I think that Boston is kind of a wake up call. I think that if we don't continue to find ways to be unique then the next generation will listen. So yes I agree that Clear Channel has well managed stations they have in some markets they have a degree of local autonomy but I think that overall it's become an either or situation. Either you have all the stations owned by corporations or you have a bunch of struggling small market owners. I think we need to find a middle ground. I think we need to find some unique interesting compelling local owners and empower them to do what they do. Now again whether they play the hits or whether they have some talk shows I mean what ever that market needs but it can't just be a decision made at a Texas by some guy looking at a bunch of numbers on a spreadsheet. Because what makes people listen is that personal

connection. All right that's a good place for us to stop and be thoughtful and look ahead and perhaps we won't be having this conversation a year at about another station. We hope not anyway. Thank you both so much. OK. I know that I was either. We've been talking about buses Airways with Donna helper and Bittner Donna helper as a radio historian She's the author of Boston radio one thousand twenty to 2010. A history of Boston stations and the personalities behind the mike. Bob owns and operates WJ T.O. in Bath Maine and in Cambridge Thanks again. Coming up we go underground with a musical about the BTA. You're listening to eighty nine point seven WGBH Boston Public Radio. The.

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musical. He doesn't take my weight. That. Day for the. Week. In the end. Anyway. That song is the T with a and it's from t and in beauty a musical part of the creative force behind this work. Join me in the studio. Melissa Caribbean is a lyricist composer and music director and Geoffrey Musser directs the musical. Welcome to you both. Thanks for having us thanks for having us. It's so funny the songs that I've heard man play more of them so people can really get a sense of it. So what inspired you. Melissa All right well so the tea is kind of like one of those things in Boston that you can't imagine life without. It's like the Red

Sox when it's bad everybody loves to complain about about it it's on everybody's mind and when it's good it's just a part of the fabric of our city that we sometimes take for granted. So I came to Boston to come to school and I rode the TE and I was surprised that there wasn't a musical about it already. So did you just sit down one day and just started scribbling out notes or. It actually started off as a sketch for a political sketch troupe I was a part of. It was mosaic and it was at improv Boston Cambridge and it was originally only a six minute sketch and it had Charlie from the Charlie Card in it. It had a party girl it had some bros. It had all of the characters you might find on the T and then we decided it could be a full show. It was a little too fruitful to become just a sketch so we took it and we flushed it out Mike manship and I the writer of the of the script and we made it a full show.

So Jeff how did you become involved. Oh man. They phone me they phone me I was brand new to Boston a couple years ago and I was just hoping to find a gig and here these two come out of nowhere and say hey we heard you like to do new theater new works new musicals. Why don't you take a ride with us and I was like yes please and they had some demos of the songs ready I had read the script by and large every minute of it was action packed nonstop. I was right. I saw this as an event more than a theater piece. It was so exciting and so fun and that's what we came away with what we have no talk about that a little bit because my producer went to see the piece and didn't tell me how it stayed so the event part rather than a musical piece is very important. Absolutely yeah. We try to make sure that it feels like you're on a big red train at 5:00 in the afternoon. I'm on a rush hour. We want to make sure that it feels like an intimate small space even though that we're in a club over Iran's very large space and it's thanks to a lot of our designers that make that happen. We have

seating right on the tee where actors are dancing right in front of you immediately in front of you so you're feel like you're sitting right on the train with actors dancers right in front of you. It's really exciting. And we don't take for granted that we're in a much larger space than the first incarnation of the show. We are. Everywhere everyone is taking up every space and thanks to our choreographer and all of our designers we've really expanded the show and to the nth degree. Club Oberon for people who don't know is one of the parts of the American Repertory Theater. Some say it's the hip happening part. OK OK I make my club and part theater so it's perfect Melissa for a musical and for one that would inspire I'm sure people to be yelling out and be interactive. Yes I mean so we have one song called The Bro song which happens when the heroes of our story get to Kenmore Square. And one of them says oh now we have to get off this train. And they hear this accordion

solo and then the train just floods with the Fenway crowd and all these frat boys and Red Sox spirits and the audience gets into it we we encourage them to raise their drinks and hoot and holler along and they all sing this great drinking song together and it makes you feel like you're really on the team. Like it's a part of the tea experience. Well there's one song that I heard that I just think is totally infectious. We all do. It's called the people. That's one of them you know. Oh yes. You added it and it's up. If anybody has ever written that I think even if you heard about this you can relate to it so here it is. It's titled The people on the. Right. He's really proud. That our backs up. Lol. Great place far in.

The dark. Hour. The ability. To. Listen. To. The air. Let's agree we are that's a good one. Thank you so much. So did you write the lyric that's what I did I wrote all the lyrics in the music for the show. And what's great about that song is I actually crowdsourced it a little bit. I asked people what are some of the strangest things you've seen on the TV. And so we had full dance numbers on the TV. One of the actual characters in that song is eating hotdogs out of her purse. And that's from a story that someone told me a girl was eating

hotdogs at 7:00 am on the train. Well I have to ask because if anything like this you wonder if the the officials the folks from the tea run that have come to see and have heard about it. Yes. Tell us about that. At our first incarnation of the show Richard Davies did come see the show and he loved that he was blown away by it. We were watching his face the whole time like to see like oh I said I sat watching him the whole thing. I think that's great. He's got a sense of humor and you know he posed for pictures of the cast afterwards and got a CD and it was great. Well in the midst of all of this turmoil you know with the cuts and service cuts you know you know it's a way to look at it a little bit more light hearted way though you're making some really clear points about service about the direction of the folks the powers that be in terms of how they run the TV as well. Which brings me to my next favorite song.

And that's called a general manager of the mom another new one. I love it so here's another song from TV and MBT a musical It's titled general manager of the month. The city now witnessed the full power of the general manager. Of the month. I'm. I was last. In my class got crawled out. From the crowd. A life's with direct. More ambitious men would scream Tyler. So when the last GM was here I guy. And so I was moved. To.

Mismanage thanks to. The staggering. And if there. Were. No manager that's me. I love that. OK I just have to say it says a lot. Yeah that was our fabulous Ray O'Hare as the general manager of the month. Well you have some great singers. Thank you. We did not too long ago two gentlemen who are venture capitalists and idea people and they're talking about creating a whole space an art space actually in the tea house. That's what they're working on it's gotten some traction they have some funding. So I see this as an annual piece or a regular part of the repertoire that would be great you know we actually put that on our Facebook page which we heard about that too we posted that same posting and that sounds like an

amazing you know connection to make. And I think it would be just fabulous. So I'm interested about the audience the audience people folks who ride the T a lot or theater people or kind of a mix. That's you know we have so many appeals to everybody. The most important part of the story that I can tell you is that it isn't malicious towards the MBT. It's to tell all of our stories and it's towards all of our audiences who all have a story about the train. You could open up the phone lines right now and you'd hear a story of sadness of grief of tragedy of comedy happening breakdancing D.J. Nightrain you would hear a story about every personality you saw on the TV and that is if you read the tea if you have your own t story that's the audience we have that the audience were looking for and that's And we'd love to have an hour with us. We've even had people from New York say that resonated with me as like really we have a song about like Red Sox bros but everybody who's ever been in a pub on a public transit system of any kind knows a lot of the problems that we talk about in the show.

Which brings me to the minute I heard about this I started thinking how many other songs are there about subways or public transportation and the only one that I could come up with I know you probably know more so you could share. I'm interested. It was the one from New York New York the movie with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra where they're the guys it's an old movie there are sailors in there or the maybe just visiting New York I can't remember and the lyric goes New York New York a hell of a town the Bronx is up but the batteries down the people ride in a hole in the ground New York New York. It's a hell of a town. But that's the only reference I've ever heard of a song on the subway Do you all know others. There's Charlie on the MTA the song that was made famous by the Kingston Trio. OK so when they goes let me tell you about a man named Charlie on a tragic fateful day it's about a guy who got trapped underground because he couldn't pay the exit ferry takes place in Boston and it's actually Charlie is one of our characters in our show. Oh ok ok. Murphy's actually did a remake of it and it's pretty

great skinhead version of it. Yeah but you would think that New York or someplace like that that has a you know kind of famed subway system we have a couple of songs or at least a musical right. I got nothing right. So we're ahead. I think they're winning right now. I think I mean you said a little bit of this in the beginning about the T being a core Boston in some ways but it's a personality as well not talk about the personalities that write it but I mean just the machinery thing. Can you speak to that Jeff. One of the final songs we have is called the TE within and how it's all about how we are all the T you know our person is like the green line the line I start and stop a lot. You know I start something I stop I can't get ahead what am I doing. I'm like the red line. I move too fast but I'm broken down inside. You know there's something there's something wrong with all of this and that's something that we're really speaking to now this entire show is how we the personality of the tea also can be personified in us and vice versa.

You agree. Melissa Yeah I actually in order to find out a lot about what ti seems like to people I actually looked up reviews of the different colored lines on Yelp. Oh interesting. And found people think that you know the orange line is kind of sketchy but sometimes really high end people think that Silverline it's not a train. It's really not it's a little deceiving. You know fancy. Yes yeah. And just I looked up the opinions of what people thought the characters of each line were and that that crowd sourcing through Yelp through Facebook helped me to build a show that resonated with them. Buddy did you have to take into account the history of bringing down the overhead into what the t has become now. You know the elevated tracks and all of that that came down and that settled for a lot of people. Change the personality of the T. It's not in the show but I've recently started reading about especially all the cars the Orange Line just turned a hundred eleven So it's very interesting to me. What do you want people to take away from it. I want them to walk away saying that was a slice of life. That was a great event. That was a slice of

life. It was fun. I loved it. Yeah that's what I want people to say yeah I want people to say that was a show about me and my experience in the city. And man was it fun. Yeah. We should say that this year I think you mentioned a little bit that it started off with improv Boston but it really it's all independent now. Yeah you all are you guys working on it and it's stage a club Oberon through. Mid July is there any chance of it being repeated or you know picked up later on HOUSE. We've been extended to July 13th and we're looking to extend some more if we can. Would you move around or would you try to stay there if you don't know. Oh bronze that's a great question. Yeah if they wanted to have us longer we would probably be open to extending there but I don't think if we end it over on the show because people keep writing the TV as long as the team keeps running. Well speaking of writing the team and you both have to comment on this. OK pointed out to me by my producer that by the time the show gets out you cannot write the t home

let's comment on the irony. Yeah I think that's that's that's one of the conflicts of the show issue one of our characters couldn't get home and I think that's yes it's part of the irony. We chose to chose this time slot knowing that this may be the result. And you know what that's just shows us what world we live in an exactly the slice of life there are the bars the theaters still open till 2 you know there we're going to have a drink with the cast and crew. Were there any people driving home. Yeah we might drive you know. Thank you folks. So we've been talking about T and M B D a musical is now on stage at Club overrun in Cambridge it runs every Friday through July 13 and maybe longer if we hope that everything works out. I've been speaking with the creative force behind the musical Melissa Cara rubia. I get it and Geoffrey Musser to learn more visit WGBH dot org slash Calla Crossley follow us on Twitter at Kelly Crossley and become a fan on Facebook. Today Show was engineered by Alan Mathis produced by

Chelsea Merz will Rose live and Abbey Ruzicka are in turn is Sloane Hiva. We are a production of WGBH Boston Public Radio.