But Is He Already In An Institution On Maui?

This is an essay I wrote for a writing class in 2000, a few weeks before Charles Laquidara announced his retirement.

A BOSTON INSTITUTION, OR SHOULD HE BE INSTITUTIONALIZED?

A veteran of Boston radio since 1969, Charles Laquidara is outspoken and outrageous.  The first time I saw him in public was in 1994 when he was the morning disc jockey at WBCN-FM.  The New England Broadcast Association (NEBA) was holding a workshop that featured guest speakers from the broadcasting industry who would talking about their careers.  Although NEBA didn’t advertise who the guest speakers were ahead of time, I attended and was surprised to see Charles walking around.

How did I recognize him?  Easily?  The year before he was on the cover of the Improper Bostonian magazine wearing nothing but a pair of multi-colored boxer shorts over his hairy body.

On the day of the workshop he was fully clothed, of course.  He was dressed in black from head to toe, although his shirt had thin white vertical stripes.  He wore no tie.  I’ve never seen him wear one.  He’s a bit under 6 feet tall, but I’m taller.  He was in his mid-50’s at the time when his dark hair and beard were graying.  Years later, it would go completely gray.  Recently, though, he dyed it blond.  He did it to embarrass his daughter at her high school graduation by making himself look like a “Surfer Dude.”  He’s married and also has a son.

Charles comes from a large Italian family in Milford, Massachusetts, where his father was a barber like Charlie Brown’s Dad.  At the NEBA workshop, he talked about his original career choice: acting.  He lived in Hollywood back in the early 1960’s.  When he got the chance to play the lead in the movie The Boston Strangler, the director got a call from Tony Curtis and fired him from the role.  That’s how Charles ended up in radio.

Charles’ voice makes him sound like a wise guy, especially when he disagrees about something, and it has gotten him in trouble over the years.  When he boycotted Shell Oil on the air and burned his Shell credit card back in 1988, he refused to play any of their commercials because of their ties to Apartheid.  It almost cost him his job.

A few years back, he got in trouble with me once when he picked on Three Dog Night, a famous1970s Rock’n’Roll band, because the band didn’t write their own songs.  I was incensed because I gave him a copy of my college radio documentary that I made about them about a year before he moved to WZLX.  I wrote a couple of letters to him telling him that he was wrong to say that.  I doubted that I would change his mind because he’s not the first stubborn disc jockey I’ve met. But he was kind enough to read one of my letters on the air.
I called him up and thanked him.  He asked me not to tell anyone that I love Three Dog Night as a favor to him.  Of course, I refused.  Although I called his remarks stupid, I think he’s a little crazy.