Think Tank looks at award-winning film about revolutionary radio station

We all need a break from the endless (though important) discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, this week, we take a look back at the incredible, true story of how, once upon a time, a radio station, politics, and rock and roll changed everything.

“WBCN and The American Revolution” is an award-winning feature documentary that tells the previously untold story of the early days of underground, radical Boston radio station WBCN-FM, set against the dazzling and profound social, political and cultural changes starting in the late-1960s.

The production is directed by Peabody Award-winning journalist Bill Lichtenstein, who began working at the radio station at the age of 14 in 1970. Bill is our guest on this week’s Think Tank. He tells the story, not only about that era, but how he went about creating the documentary.

The story is told through the extraordinary history of WBCN, which in its early days called itself “The American Revolution,” and the personal and political journeys of a compelling cast of characters who connect and intersect through the radio station and exploding music and counterculture scenes, militant anti-war activism, civil rights struggles and the emerging women’s and gay liberation movements.

Women DJs? Openly gay people? These were entirely new concepts. One reviewer called the film “possibly the first film to tell the true story of the 1960s.”

The film includes first-person accounts from the station’s staff and newly filmed and archival material featuring the leading political, social and musical figures of the day, who crossed paths with the radio station, including Noam Chomsky, David Bowie, Abbie Hoffman, Jane Fonda, Jerry Garcia and Duane Allman, Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen (in his first radio interview) and Patti Smith, performing with her band in her first live radio broadcast.

For a taste, take a look at the film’s theatrical trailer.

The Think Tank airs on KTAR 92.3 FM on Saturday from 3-4pm and repeats Sundays 9-10pm.. Podcasts are available after broadcast.

The Think Tank airs on KTAR 92.3 FM on Saturday 3-4 p.m. and repeats Sundays 9-10 p.m.