WBCN

WBCN is a New England commercial alternative rock radio station based in Boston, Massachusetts and is owned by by media conglomerate Viacom. It competes with two other Massachusetts alternative stations, WFNX and WAAF.

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Before the middle 1960s, the station played classical music exclusively. The call letters stood for the Boston station of the Concert Network. One of the on-air personalities at that time was Ron Della Chiesa, who also served as music host and program director. Della Chiesa is still active in classical music broadcasting on WGBH.

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The station changed to the alternative music format around 1967. It also began supporting non-mainstream investigative reporting and such novel concepts as a show oriented toward prison inmates, health warnings about the hazards of street drugs, and live updates on the traffic problems at Woodstock. Alumni of the station around this time include Peter Wolf and Danny Schecter.

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In the early 1980s, Carter Alan, the station's then-musical director, heavily promoted then-unknown band U2, helping the group break into the United States.

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WBCN is currently the primary carrier of game broadcasts for the New England Patriots, featuring the voices of Infinity sister station WBZ sports personality Gil Santos and former Patriots star Gino Cappelletti. Due to this affiliation, the stations that rebroadcast WBCN's feed are referred to as the "Patriots Rock Radio Network".

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New England: :This article is about the region in the United States of America. For other uses, see New England (disambiguation)....

Alternative rock: The terms alternative rock and alternative music were coined in the early 1980s to describe punk rock-inspired music genres which didn't fit into the mainstream genres of the time. At times it was used as catch-all phrase for rock music from underground artists in the 1980s and rock music in genera...

Radio station: A radio station is a sound broadcasting service. Traditionally, radio stations have broadcast through the air via radio waves (a form of electromagnetic radiation), sent through a transmitter and antenna. Today, many if not most stations broadcast via cable FM, local wire networks, satellite, or th...