Tag: boston radio

The Bose Wall of Sound

Amar Bose has died. I drive past the Bose headquarters almost every day, and I felt obliged to buy a Bose Wave Music System after having the porch remodeled. There really is no other product that does what the Wave does for its size.

Bose 901 Series II loudpspeaker

In high school, when I was bitten by the stereo bug, the Bose 901 speakers were a big deal. It became a joke that if you walked into a stereo store you were guaranteed to hear Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” played full blast on a pair of Bose 901’s.

Personally, I never cared for the sound of the heavily-equalized Bose 901, preferring instead the designs of Roy Allison, but I have to admire Amar Bose for his marketing savvy and his profit margins. He had the vision to lead the home audio trend away from ever-bigger box speakers by introducing tiny stereo satellites that were coupled with a dedicated bass unit that could be hidden under an end table. The innovative and imitated Bose noise-cancelling headphones are very successful.

Greater Boston has a great and grand tradition in audio, but now it’s mostly in the past. Acoustic Research, KLH, Advent, H.H. Scott, EPI, Genesis, Allison, Snell, ADS, Cizek, Avid and Apt are long gone. Boston Acoustics was sold years ago and NAD is in Canada. Only the Bose Corporation endures with its name and heritage intact, and that is a testament to the leadership of Amar Bose.

Addendum: In 1971 Bose sued Consumer Reports for libel, because its review of the 901 Series I loudspeaker stated that the stereo image “wandered around the room.” Not yet knowing of the CU lawsuit, but having read the review at the library, I had the exact same impression of the Series I when I heard it in early 1972. A year later the 901 Series II was introduced and the “ten feet tall violin” effect had been tamed. I assumed Bose had taken the criticism to heart and fixed the problem, which can also be affected by speaker placement, so I was surprised when I learned of the lawsuit in one of the hi-fi magazines I devoured in those days. Bose should have dropped the case, but it dragged on for over ten years and went all the way to the Supreme Court, where Bose lost.

Addendum 2: Atlantic Technology is still in business, in Norwood, MA.

Bosstown radio

Over the past four years I’ve tracked some of the Boston radio scene events, including:

  • Classical music station WCRB switching frequencies
  • Steve LeVeille let go by WBZ, then brought back by listener demand
  • End of WBCN as on-air station
  • Departure of Barnes Newberry from WUMB
  • WGBH buying WCRB

Deaths:

  • WBZ talk show host Paul Sullivan
  • WBZ legend Larry Glick
  • WGBH Jazz Decades host Ray Smith

The Internet has had a huge effect on the radio industry, of course. Something I didn’t like for a long time was the Web player that the CBS network was using. I don’t know when CBS hooked up with Radio.com to update the player, but I think the results are excellent, despite a couple of pop-ups that have caused Firefox to crash.

The CBS station WODS — Oldies 103 in Boston — is still the best place to catch The Beatle Years and Beatle Brunch. You’ll find them on the WODS podcast page.