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America and stayed there for five weeks in 1966, remains remarkably ironic.

    Ron Della Chiesa, WBCN’S classical music impresario (from 1987). Photo by Dan Beach.
    The “Golden Chain” that Hastings had worked so hard to forge began to fall apart: WRCN-FM on Long Island was sold, WXCN-FM in Providence cut loose in October 1963, and WNCN-FM in New York unloaded the following year. The network had been whittled down to just WHCN-FM Hartford and WBCN itself, and Hastings was on the brink of losing even these. Ray Riepen observed, “[ WBCN ] was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy; they were not making their payments and it was going to go down.” Frantic, the board of directors granted Riepen an audience to present his views about the merits of a free-form, rock music format. Joe Rogers related, “Ray went to them and said, ‘You have absolutely no income whatsoever during the overnight hours. I can provide you with actual listeners who might, in turn, generate sponsors who, in turn, could bring revenue to your station. Face it, you have nothing to lose.’” Don Law added, “Mitch Hastings was such a classical music lover and saw FM as the salvation for that music.” He shook his head and marveled: “Riepen actually talked him into changing his format.” It wasn’t easy, though, as Riepen picks up the story: “Mitch Hastings was appalled at this thing and fought it all the way. The board, though, were businessmen; they were old friends of his that were trying to save him. The classical music was continuing to flounder and they understood the deal. They were so desperate, they gave me [the time slot] after midnight.” Actually it was 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. and strictly on a trial basis, but it was a shot. Ray Riepen congratulated himself, got on the phone, and gave the go signal to Joe Rogers.

There was an immense freedom; you were defined by your personality and your musical tastes. That was very intoxicating and exhilarating for everyone involved because you realized you were part of something incredibly new. PETER WOLF
    A RADIO
    COMMUNE
    Ray Riepen gathered his recruits for the new WBCN air staff, but, in a surprising move, avoided chasing after professional disc jockeys. “I didn’t want people who were in radio trying to figure out what we ought to do, because they couldn’t. They were swimming in the sea of a Top 40 world; all over-hyped and screaming. As far as [producing] something tasteful or smart, they didn’t have that kind of vision.” Joe Rogers marveled at the idea: “He could have staffed the station with real announcers, but he stuck with rank amateurs because that’s how he saw it. In the end I guess it was the right decision, but it was a peculiar thing to do at the time.” The place where Riepen could find the type of people he wanted, in an environment that embraced freethinking and was uncluttered by format and focused on the music, was on the Boston area’s many student-run radio stations. With Top 40 dominating the AM band and classical programming holding down the FM side, college radio was the place where the sounds of the burgeoning folk and blues revival and growing rock revolution could be heard.
    â€œWhen Ray originally decided to start a radio station, he went to the MIT and Harvard stations: WTBS and WHRB , to find people who would be willing to do this sort of alternative [he envisioned], and that was the core that started [ WBCN ],” Tommy Hadges pointed out. Both Hadges and Rogers were Tufts University students but had found their way onto WTBS . Riepen checked them out as well as several other jocks at the station including Jack Bernstein, plus Steve Magnell at Tufts and Tom Gamache on Boston University’s WBUR . He passed on Gamache but approached the others and set up a meeting at his nearly unfurnished Cambridge apartment to present his plan to them. After floating the idea around the room