Join us as we welcome Peabody Award-winning journalist and one-time WBCN announcer Bill Lichtenstein. Bill will be talking about his new book and documentary, WBCN and the American Revolution: How a Radio Station Defined Politics, Counterculture.

At WBCN, creativity and countercultural politics ruled: there were no set playlists; news segments anticipated the satire of The Daily Show; on-air interviewees ranged from John and Yoko to Noam Chomsky; a telephone “Listener Line” fielded questions on any subject, day and night. From 1968 to Watergate, Boston’s WBCN was the hub of the rock-and-roll, antiwar, psychedelic solar system. A cornucopia of images in color and black and white includes concert posters, news clippings, photographs of performers in action, and scenes of joyousness on Boston CommonInterwoven through the narrative are excerpts from interviews with WBCN pioneers, including Charles Laquidara, the “news dissector” Danny Schechter, Marsha Steinberg, and Mitchell Kertzman.

The amazing, untold story of the radical underground radio station WBCN-FM, set against the dazzling and profound social, political, and cultural changes that took place in Boston and nationally during the late-1960s and early-70s. Told through the actual sights, sounds, and stories of a compelling cast of characters who connected through the radio station, exploding music and countercultural scenes, militant anti-war activism, civil rights struggles, and the emerging women’s and LGBTQ-liberation movements.

A book sale and signing will follow the event. 

We'll be screening the documentary before the event: 

• Wednesday, April 20th, 3:00 PM in Room 138
• Friday, April 22, 10:00 AM in Room 138
• Monday, April 25th, 6:30 PM in Room 133