Welcome to the fourth annual Boston Phoenix Memorial Day Roast of Massachusetts politicians! I love looking around the room every year, seeing so many familiar faces of elected officials. Your being here tells me that you're a good sport, and more important, that US Attorney CARMEN ORTIZ still can't convince the grand jury to indict.There's a gift bag for each of you this year. I see a number of you have already put on the shirts that say: "My former Speaker won a free trip to Worcester and all I got is this lousy T-shirt, thank God."Which reminds me: I keep getting asked the same question about my new Massachusetts Politicians with Animals Tumblr (mapoliwithanimals.tumblr.com). The answer is no, it doesn't count to get a ... Continue reading →
It's been five days since ADAM 12's final broadcast last week on WFNX 101.7 FM, the result of the sale of the alt-rock station's FM frequency to Clear Channel, and people both online and IRL are still talking about it. Most likely a result of people constantly asking him what he played -- he's probably gotten a bunch of questions like "Hey, what was that awesome song you spun at 4pm?!?!"' -- this afternoon the on-air host posted his entire five-hour playlist. And it's a doozy, ranging from hardcore to folk, retro to modern, and from Boston and beyond. "It was a freeform experience," Adam 12 told me over the weekend for an FNX feature set to run in Thursday's Boston Phoenix. "It was very ... Continue reading →
Passion PitOne of the greatest anti-establishment rallying cries of the 20th century was the notion that you can't trust anyone over the age of 30. If what free speech activist Jack Weinberg famously told the San Francisco Chronicle in 1965 — a year before the creation of the Boston Phoenix — was in fact an accurate caution, then perhaps the sentiment also holds true for alternative rock radio.>> SHARE YOUR WFNX MEMORIES: WFNX.COM/WEAREWFNX <<WFNX, the trailblazing, bratty, and oft unruly rock radio station launched in 1983 to give the music section of the Phoenix an aural presence on the FM dial, will never blow out the candles on its crusty, salty 30th birthday cake. WFNX's 101.7 FM frequency was sold to Clear Channel last week ... Continue reading →