THE CULPRITS WHO DESTROYED WBCN
---the final word on: THE SCHLOCK OF BOSTON
By Janis Reed
Now that the dust has settled somewhat and CBS has - thankfully - pulled the plug on the last vestiges of a once great and mighty station, let's be honest about the termites that wormed their way in and infected the pioneering and beloved radio station. Few people talk about the computer virus that got hold of 104.1 FM and destroyed it from within.
In the wake of Michael Jackson, Sky Saxon of The Seeds, Gordon Waller of Peter & Gordon, Farrah Fawcett, Walter Cronkite do you really care about the death of a stupid station that engaged in payola, was drenched in all sorts of drugs, was absolutely guilty of Tortious Interference With Advantageous Business Relationship – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortious_interference - and after all that - betrayed the employees, the fans and the advertisers with a multitude of corruptions that go beyond the pale.
When a rock radio station throws football on the air and Howard Stern - and God bless him - this is a positive statement about his ratings - there's no incentive to let the music drive the ship. WBCN didn't need music with The Patriots and with Howard Stern. The failed photographer turned program director could fleece the record labels because the station had its built-in cash cows.
It was the awful programming that infiltrated the station simultaneous with Howard Stern and The Patriots coming onboard that allowed the individual "in charge" to start sinking the ship. "Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull. This can be achieved in several ways"
If Mel Karmazin is Satan incarnate, the anti-christ, then the devil's handmaiden would be Edward Hyson, alias Oedipus. How feared and hated was the fruity megalomaniac after Karmazin gave the corrupt weasel virtually unlimited power to gnaw away at the foundation of WBCN? Very.
But when the dust settles some more...really settles... I think a lot of people are going to come to the podium, more than just yours truly and a local publisher, the only two voices telling the world that something was very, very wrong with the way business was conducted at 1265 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215 when Eddy Hyson's little white van drove off into the sunset with cases and cases of promotional discs which he sold to the local retailers in violation of FCC law.
Alan Freed had nothing on Oedipus Hyson, because Alan Freed is, at least, interred in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame while Oedipus belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Shame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Freed
"Ken Shelton Is Irrelevant"
Unbeknownst to Sold-Your-Platters-puss, Ed Hyson, one of my editors was an intern for Charles Laquidara. We shared a business office as well as writing articles together. I warned him that the moment "Aunty Oedi" found out he knew me that he would be removed from WBCN. But before the paranoid and delusional program director found out that my friend, Eugene Anthony Sylvester, was actually at the station, lots of information flowed my way. One of the most repugnant things that was said by Oedipus, according to the late Gene Sylvester, was a dismissal of Ken Shelton, one of the building blocks of all that was great about WBCN. "Ken Shelton is irrelevant" Oedipus was said to have stated coldly.
When you don't respect the individuals that built the business, when 'the boss" is ruling by allegedly threatening the very livelihood of a star at the radio station, when major and independent record labels have to pay off the corrupt Program Director or not get airplay (in itself a threat to the hard-working promotion men and women who had to deal with the creep), how in God's name can the radio station survive?
It didn't.
So when Emily Rooney has Oedipus Hyson on her show...well, this should explain it to you:
http://www.beatthepress.org/blog/ralph-ranalli/389
Oedipus on WBCN's demise: "Woefully mismanaged."
posted by Ralph Ranalli on July 15, 2009
Former WBCN-FM Program Director Oedipus blasted CBS management last night on "Greater Boston," telling host Emily Rooney that "the suits" wrung all the creativity out of the station as its ratings dove over the last five years.
CBS Radio said yesterday that 'BCN would soon go silent, replaced on the dial by adult contemporary sister station Mix 98.5. A new sports station featuring New England Patriots and Boston Bruins games, "The Sports Hub," will take mix's spot down the dial.
Comments
posted by Janis Reed (not verified) on July 18, 2009
Edward Hyson, alias Oedipus, is the individual that woefully mismanaged the station. Who is he kidding passing the buck and blaming someone else. Maybe Emily Rooney would like to invite O.J. Simpson on Greater Boston to discuss those horrible people who killed his wife? It's the same darn thing. Oedipus killed WBCN and Rooney is clueless about how he not only participated in the station's demise, how Hyson/Oedipus orchestrated it.
Mel Karmazin personally wrote me when I alerted him to the misconduct at WBCN and he said he found no wrongdoing. Right, Mel. Take two Tylenol and call me in the morning.
After the Oedipus Virus got into the station via the Trojan Horse of Punk Rock (beware of blue-haired jerks bearing gifts!) he set about attacking the very disc jockeys who helped get him into the station. Oh not right away...like Kahn (not Julie Kahn, more like The Wrath Of Kahn), Oedi played nice, got into a position of power, and one by one he chewed away at all that WBCN was to our radio community.
In 1982 or so at a dinner with Buzzcocks leader Pete Shelley at the old Benihana restaurant in Park Square (I believe Legal Seafood is there now at 26 Park Plaza) Oedi monopolized the conversation with Shelley, not letting the "little people" (the rest of us at the dinner, about twenty-four or so including other on-air personalities) get a chance to get a question in.
Suddenly Oedipus turned to me and started mocking 92.9 WBOS for playing a new single on our label: "Cat In The Dark"
Oedipus puffed out his cheeks to look fat and said "Airplay on WBOS? Not from Maxanne, the Whale...Greenpeace is going to have her towed back into the water." Then without skipping a beat he went back to monopolizing Pete Shelley's time. You can find pictures of this infamous dinner in the old Bang Magazine. Maxanne Sartori is one of the individuals who built WBCN.
It is probably safe to say Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, Ric Ocasek and The Cars and Aerosmith - as well as WBCN itself - owed her a bit of gratitude...probably owed their careers to her. Now that she was head-to-head on a 50,000 watt station in competition with Oedipus, he was scared. He was shaking in his little boots! Anyone ever hear Maxanne say a malicious thing about Oedipus?
And that was a malicious statement, attacking Sartori's weight problem (alleged to be from a Thyroid condition) - what a petty little creep in control of our radio station.
What was Emily Rooney thinking? Let's ask Wikipedia:
"Et tu, Brute?" (pronounced and occasionally spelled "Et tu, Bruté?") ("You too, Brutus?", or "And you, Brutus?" or "Even you, Brutus?") is a Latin phrase often used poetically to represent the last words of Roman dictator Julius Caesar. Immortalized by Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the quotation is widely used in Western culture as an epitome of betrayal.
Maxanne Sartori could easily have said "Et tu, Auntié Oédié???"
Another knife from Oedipus into the back of an individual who helped open the door for him. The corrupt clown got in and he decimated the once proud station, taking advantage of his position, and as an afternoon drive jock with the initials MP said to me: Oedipus could win a car by guessing which records would get airplay because he was getting paid to play the very records that helped him win the car." (paraphrased, of course). The Track Gals at the Herald lauded Oedi for winning that car. Maybe he should drive it on the ice of Secret Lake and see if he doesn't fall in again!
There is tons of information out there about Oedipus and how he destroyed WBCN. So seeing him run around like some kind of hero is truly revolting, repugnant and disgraceful. It was Oedipus who destroyed WBCN.
``He acted in an unfairly competitive, disingenuous, and often slimy way,'' said Stephen Mindich, owner of longtime rock radio rival WFNX-FM (101.7).
THE BOSTON HERALD
Rock shock as Oedipus bolts ‘BCNBy Dean Johnson
Friday, June 4, 2004
Veteran WBCN-FM (104.1) program director Oedipus is out after almost three decades at the Hub's legendary rock station.
According to Oedipus, the time was right to retire. Industry sources say, however, that the Hub fixture was forced out.
``We have a new general manager,'' Oedipus told the Herald. ``The station's going to move to a new (Allston) location, and there's going to be a new culture at WBCN, and that culture should be defined by a new programmer.''
``It's the end of an era,'' said Paul Heine, editor of the radio trade journal FMQB. ``Oedipus played a pivotal role in bringing punk rock and new wave to the airwaves. He's one of the most colorful, controversial, outspoken and influential program directors in the history of rock radio.''
Not everyone is reaching for tissues.
``He acted in an unfairly competitive, disingenuous, and often slimy way,'' said Stephen Mindich, owner of longtime rock radio rival WFNX-FM (101.7).
Oedipus started at the station as a volunteer for morning man Charles Laquidara in 1975. In 23 years as program director - a remarkable run for commercial radio - Oedipus and WBCN won a trunkload of awards.
The station's ratings and profits have sagged recently, and its rock format was tweaked to include a wider variety of music.
That parent company Infinity managers announced his ``retirement'' before a successor had been named suggests Oedipus was told to retire, according to sources.
wow what a piece of s_ _ t
ReplyDeletewow what a piece of s_ _ t
ReplyDeleteBullshit
ReplyDelete