John Scagliotti:

Andy Kopkind and I (the first gay couple at WBCN) came from Washington DC (where we were part of the Unicorn News service covering the Vietnam war) on the insistence of Charles Laquidara so Andy could help write for the Big Mattress TV show… It flopped. The TV big wigs were fools for not doing it.

But any way we stayed in Boston and Andy and I started working in the News and Public Affairs Department of WBCN in 1972 with Danny Schechter . Besides the news we did many documentary programs and Andy did great news commentaries for six years or was it seven. Can’t remember. We were paid for our work and we helped form the union with the lefty leaning United Electrical workers.

An historic moment: Andy and I did the first Gay Radio series (it was short lived) on commercial radio in the world called “The Lavender Hour” on WBCN Sunday nights in 1973. We actually got letters from young gay kids who said the program saved their lives as they were contemplating suicide at the time (gay kids still commit suicide at higher percentages than straight kids). Who knew we had such an effect? It was a sobering surprise for us as Andy and I were just having a good time doing the show. However “the Lavender Hour“ made me realize the power of electronic media’s ability to get into someone’s home and I went on to make PBS documentaries about gay issues (Before Stonewall…Emmy Award in 1987) and After Stonewall. And created the first glbt issue television series on PBS (still going after 18 years) called “In the Life” . All of that was done with the help of Andy Kopkind.

Andy Kopkind and I also won the first “Major Armstrong” Award (Oscars for FM news broadcasting) for WBCN back in 1974 for our radio documentary show on homeless folks in Boston called “Down and Out in Boston”. After we won the award we were sent by the station for a week to New Orleans to collect the award. After such an extravaganza week of eating at some of the best restaurants in that wonderful city, we felt so guilty every time we went pass one of our homeless interviewees on the streets panhandling, that we upped our giving from 10 cents to a dollar every time they asked. . They thought we were nuts but enjoyed our largesse anyway.

Funny moment: John Scagliotti interviewed Bob Marley and the Wailers in the small WBCN news production studio on the top of the Prudential. But the Wailers brought so much ganja and Scagliotti got so stoned from second hand smoke (the spliffs were gigantic and they all were smoking them that the small room was filled with so much smoke that you could only see as far as your nose and the microphone.) . Being that stoned Scagliotti forgot to push the record button. After they left and Scagliotti came down he realized that the interview had been a virtual one. So it’s just John’s word you will have to take when he says it was the best interview Bob Marley ever did for radio. It really was.

I think Andy Kopkind and I talked Charles Laquidara into the morning show slot on a vacation trip to Italy but not really sure. He wasn’t sure it was a good idea to have to start at 6AM which probably would interfere with his night time activities (I still have the pull out couch here at the farm where many of those night time activities took place - I think the couch should be put into the WBCN museum)…. I think we changed Charles’s mind about the night time concept with the idea of the Italian siesta after a big lunch. Many a young American tourist gal was taken in by Charles’s fake Italian accent into believing he was actually an Italian during the afternoons spent in St. Mark’s Square in Venice. After those delightful afternoons, the concept of afternoon activities took on a new meaning for Charles and the morning show concept seemed like a good possibility. History was made.

Andy Kopkind passed away in 1994. We now have a living memorial which operates journalism and filmmakers camps at his old farm in Vermont called The Kopkind Colony. Some of the campers who come are radio journalists and I enjoy telling them the many funny stories of Andy and I at WBCN in the ‘70’s. You can see great pictures of our camps by searching Kopkind at Flickr.