Charles Laquidara
Encyclopedia
Charles Laquidara is an American
radio
disc jockey
whose show, The Big Mattress, was broadcast in the Boston, Massachusetts area for nearly 30 years (1969–1996) on WBCN. He spent four years doing The Charles Laquidara Radio Hour on WZLX
. Throughout his career in broadcasting, Laquidara has been known for playing a wide variety of musical styles alongside rock music
, including classical
, jazz
, disco
, soul
and funk, and for being an outspoken critic of corporate governance
and American right-wing politics.
, Laquidara attended Milford High School, where he was voted "most artistic" in his class. Upon graduation, he attended the Rhode Island School of Design
for two years, and then in 1961 moved to Pasadena, California
, where he received a bachelors degree in theater arts at the Pasadena Playhouse
. He spent the next eight years in the Los Angeles
area, trying to get work as an actor in television and films. His successes in the acting field were limited to several stage roles and one appearance as a contestant on The Dating Game
. He lost, but was awarded a tape recorder as a consolation prize. He was also considered for the lead in the film, The Boston Strangler
, along with Alan Bates
and Tony Curtis
, but Curtis was ultimately awarded the lead role as Albert DeSalvo
.
announcer at KPPC-FM in Pasadena, California
. After several moves back and forth to his home state of Massachusetts, he eventually ended up working at KPPC full time. A columnist for the Pasadena Star-News
called attention to Laquidara's unusual style in 1965. The writer described Laquidara as an aspiring actor doing radio in a then-radical way, including using long, dramatic pauses in his descriptions of the opera
La bohème
and often playing passages of music he admired two or more times in a row, both practices strongly discouraged by accepted radio hosting standards of the time.
. KPPC soon followed KMPX in adopting the new "Underground Radio" rock format known as "freeform". Laquidara's classical music background and interest in jazz also helped form the eclectic nature of the influential radio station. As described by former station manager Dave Pierce in a memoir, in the late sixties Laquidara typically began his midnight program with "twenty minutes of bird sounds" and then "juxtaposed The Blue Danube
waltz and Emerson, Lake & Palmer
."
, to replace disc jockey Peter Wolf
, who was leaving to join the newly-formed J. Geils Band. In 1972, Laquidara took over the morning shift on WBCN — dubbed the show "The Big Mattress" — and stayed there for almost 25 years, before moving to WBCN sister station WZLX
in 1996.
to unsuspecting listeners, elements that are now a widely used characteristic of "drive time
" radio. One feature of the program was a segment called "Mishigas" (Yiddish for "craziness") where the group led by Laquidara would quiz listeners, including celebrities, offering prizes for correct responses. If the listener was unable to answer the quiz, a penalty of having to "dance the Funky Chicken" was issued. The Big Mattress was a top-rated Boston area radio show lasting for over twenty years.
The program's name was retired in 1996 when Laquidara, who at that time was one of the most highly paid disc jockeys in the country, was persuaded to move to WZLX by Oedipus
, WBCN's program director
. Oedipus had risen to prominence during the punk
and New Wave
era of the late seventies as one of Laquidara's unpaid writers. Now Laquidara's boss, Oedipus convinced him to move his show to sister station WZLX to make way for the more acerbic syndicated morning program of shock jock
Howard Stern
, who was ironically a Laquidara protege but based his show in New York
. The new program, called The Charles Laquidara Radio Hour, was broadcast from the Prudential Tower
in Boston's Back Bay.
, Duane Ingalls Glasscock, who Laquidara later described as "vile, sexist". Glasscock spoke with a thick Boston accent and was used by Laquidara to point out the hypocrisy of political correctness
. Duane Glasscock initially used a vulgar catchphrase suggesting anal sexual assault. When he was told not to utter the phrase on the air any more, he "cleaned it up" into the similar-sounding "Have you even been phoned in Upton, Mass.
for being a lucky wise guy?" Duane opened most of his broadcasts and segments with the phrase "Hello, Rangooooooon!", following a signature sound effect. Laquidara revealed in an interview that the Glasscock character, who hosted his "own" show on Saturday mornings at WBCN, actually received higher ratings than Laquidara's regular weekday broadcast.
. In December 1968, just prior to Laquidara's return to Massachusetts, Pierce and his wife and children went with Laquidara to Elysian Park in Los Angeles for a fund raising gathering they had helped promote on the radio for the Free Clinic
, a local charity. The event, which was at that time a frequent counterculture
form of activism, attracted 5,000 people, many of whom openly smoked marijuana. However, without warning or announced intentions, shortly after the event began several dozen carloads of Los Angeles riot police appeared and proceeded to forcibly remove the crowd from the park. After escaping a full scale assault from the police with the Pierces, Laquidara headed immediately to KPPC and delivered a scathing ten-minute on-air diatribe against the LAPD
.
Laquidara continued his sometimes controversial political activism while on-air at WBCN in Boston. Following a commercial for a camera store, he denounced Honeywell
corporation anti-personnel munitions, which brought on a lawsuit from the advertiser that sold Honeywell cameras. His alter ego, Duane Glasscock, was fired for telling listeners to send "a bag of shit to the Arbitron research bureau". Arbitron
is a corporation that provides the radio industry with market research and listener counts, and Laquidara used Duane to question the integrity of the powerful company. He drew national attention in 1988 for leading anti-Apartheid protests and a boycott of Shell Oil.
, which was shot in and around Boston. After his retirement in August 2000, Laquidara moved to Hawaii
. In 2005, Laquidara sold his home in upcountry Maui for over US$
2 million to Oprah Winfrey
, whose magazine referred to it as a "fixer-upper". In another real estate deal, two years later he sold a sprawling estate in Haiku, Hawaii
that he had purchased for $1.75 million to spiritual leader Baba Ram Dass for $2.3 million.
During the first half of 2006, Laquidara broadcast a show from his home in Hawaii that aired on Boston radio station 92.9 WBOS
called "Backspin". The show was short-lived, however. Laquidara resigned shortly after being chastised for playing Neil Young
's song "Let's Impeach the President
" during the height of the Iraq War. In 2009, Laquidara returned to Boston to mark the closing of his original station, WBCN, doing a series of interviews and hosting an exclusive tribute party at a local nightclub to which only station employees and former employees were invited. While in Boston, Laquidara was inducted as a member of the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in recognition of his pioneering efforts in FM radio.
in Wailuku, Hawaii
. He has held this position since March 2005. Laquidara now permanently resides in Kihei, Hawaii
on Maui
, where he has continued the zeitgeist
of The Big Mattress using a different medium – a blog – which he updates daily with humor, notes on music and culture and political commentary.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
whose show, The Big Mattress, was broadcast in the Boston, Massachusetts area for nearly 30 years (1969–1996) on WBCN. He spent four years doing The Charles Laquidara Radio Hour on WZLX
WZLX
WZLX is a prominent classic rock radio station in the Boston, Massachusetts market. WZLX was one of the first classic rock FM stations in America...
. Throughout his career in broadcasting, Laquidara has been known for playing a wide variety of musical styles alongside rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, including classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and funk, and for being an outspoken critic of corporate governance
Corporate governance
Corporate governance is a number of processes, customs, policies, laws, and institutions which have impact on the way a company is controlled...
and American right-wing politics.
Early career
Born in Milford, MassachusettsMilford, Massachusetts
Milford is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It had a population of 27,999 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Milford, constituting the center of the town, please see the article Milford ,...
, Laquidara attended Milford High School, where he was voted "most artistic" in his class. Upon graduation, he attended the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
for two years, and then in 1961 moved to Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, where he received a bachelors degree in theater arts at the Pasadena Playhouse
Pasadena Playhouse
The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic performing arts venue located 39 S El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engagements each year.-History:...
. He spent the next eight years in the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
area, trying to get work as an actor in television and films. His successes in the acting field were limited to several stage roles and one appearance as a contestant on The Dating Game
The Dating Game
The Dating Game is an ABC television show that first aired on December 20, 1965 and was the first of many shows created and packaged by Chuck Barris from the 1960s through the 1980s...
. He lost, but was awarded a tape recorder as a consolation prize. He was also considered for the lead in the film, The Boston Strangler
The Boston Strangler (film)
The Boston Strangler is a 1968 film based on the true story of the Boston Strangler and the book by Gerold Frank. It was directed by Richard Fleischer, and stars Tony Curtis as Albert DeSalvo, the strangler, and Henry Fonda as John S...
, along with Alan Bates
Alan Bates
Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving...
and Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
, but Curtis was ultimately awarded the lead role as Albert DeSalvo
Albert DeSalvo
Albert Henry DeSalvo was a criminal in Boston, Massachusetts who confessed to being the "Boston Strangler", the murderer of 13 women in the Boston area. DeSalvo was not imprisoned for these murders, however, but for a series of rapes...
.
Broadcasting career
While seeking acting work, Laquidara worked part-time in the 1960s as a classical musicClassical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
announcer at KPPC-FM in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
. After several moves back and forth to his home state of Massachusetts, he eventually ended up working at KPPC full time. A columnist for the Pasadena Star-News
Pasadena Star-News
The Pasadena Star-News is the local daily newspaper for Pasadena, California. The Star-News is a member of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, since 1996. It is also part of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, along with the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and the Whittier Daily News.Ridder Newspapers...
called attention to Laquidara's unusual style in 1965. The writer described Laquidara as an aspiring actor doing radio in a then-radical way, including using long, dramatic pauses in his descriptions of the opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
and often playing passages of music he admired two or more times in a row, both practices strongly discouraged by accepted radio hosting standards of the time.
California freeform
In October 1967, KPPC was purchased by the owner of San Francisco station KMPXKMPX (defunct)
KMPX was a San Francisco FM radio station which was best known in the late 1960s as the birthplace of America's freeform progressive rock format .-History:...
. KPPC soon followed KMPX in adopting the new "Underground Radio" rock format known as "freeform". Laquidara's classical music background and interest in jazz also helped form the eclectic nature of the influential radio station. As described by former station manager Dave Pierce in a memoir, in the late sixties Laquidara typically began his midnight program with "twenty minutes of bird sounds" and then "juxtaposed The Blue Danube
The Blue Danube
The Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 , a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866...
waltz and Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, are an English progressive rock supergroup. They found success in the 1970s and sold over forty million albums and headlined large stadium concerts. The band consists of Keith Emerson , Greg Lake and Carl Palmer...
."
Return to Massachusetts
In 1969, he was offered an airshift at WBCN in BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, to replace disc jockey Peter Wolf
Peter Wolf
Peter Wolf is an American Rhythm and Blues, Soul and Rock and Roll musician, best known as the lead vocalist for the J. Geils Band from 1967 to 1983; and for a successful musical solo career to date with writing partner Will Jennings.- Life and career :Wolf was born in the Bronx, New York...
, who was leaving to join the newly-formed J. Geils Band. In 1972, Laquidara took over the morning shift on WBCN — dubbed the show "The Big Mattress" — and stayed there for almost 25 years, before moving to WBCN sister station WZLX
WZLX
WZLX is a prominent classic rock radio station in the Boston, Massachusetts market. WZLX was one of the first classic rock FM stations in America...
in 1996.
The Big Mattress
The Big Mattress, Laquidara's morning program, was a pioneer effort in FM broadcasting. It was one of the first FM broadcasts to feature a shifting cast of on-air personnel, including producers, writers and production staff. The program included music, news, talk and humor such as making prank phone callsPrank call
A prank call is a form of practical joke committed over the telephone. Prank phone calls began to gain an America-wide following over a period of many years, as they gradually became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded amongst musicians, sound engineers, and media traders...
to unsuspecting listeners, elements that are now a widely used characteristic of "drive time
Drive time
Drive time is the daypart analog to prime time for radio broadcasting. It consists of the morning hours when listeners wake up, get ready, and/or head to work or school, and the afternoon hours when they are heading home and before their evening meal. These are the periods where the number of...
" radio. One feature of the program was a segment called "Mishigas" (Yiddish for "craziness") where the group led by Laquidara would quiz listeners, including celebrities, offering prizes for correct responses. If the listener was unable to answer the quiz, a penalty of having to "dance the Funky Chicken" was issued. The Big Mattress was a top-rated Boston area radio show lasting for over twenty years.
The program's name was retired in 1996 when Laquidara, who at that time was one of the most highly paid disc jockeys in the country, was persuaded to move to WZLX by Oedipus
Oedipus (DJ)
Oedipus is an American radio personality. Oedipus’s radio career began in 1975 as a D.J. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s college station WTBS...
, WBCN's program director
Program director
In service industries, such as education, a program director or programme director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services...
. Oedipus had risen to prominence during the punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
era of the late seventies as one of Laquidara's unpaid writers. Now Laquidara's boss, Oedipus convinced him to move his show to sister station WZLX to make way for the more acerbic syndicated morning program of shock jock
Shock jock
Shock jock is a slang term used to describe a type of any radio broadcaster who attracts attention using humor that a significant portion of the listening audience may find offensive. The term is usually used pejoratively to describe provocative or irreverent broadcasters whose mannerisms,...
Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
, who was ironically a Laquidara protege but based his show in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The new program, called The Charles Laquidara Radio Hour, was broadcast from the Prudential Tower
Prudential Tower
The Prudential Tower, also known as the Prudential Building or, colloquially, The Pru, is a skyscraper in Boston, Massachusetts. The building, a part of the Prudential Center complex, currently stands as the 2nd-tallest building in Boston, behind the John Hancock Tower. The Prudential Tower was...
in Boston's Back Bay.
Duane Ingalls Glasscock
As a recurring part of The Big Mattress, Laquidara introduced his alter egoAlter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
, Duane Ingalls Glasscock, who Laquidara later described as "vile, sexist". Glasscock spoke with a thick Boston accent and was used by Laquidara to point out the hypocrisy of political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
. Duane Glasscock initially used a vulgar catchphrase suggesting anal sexual assault. When he was told not to utter the phrase on the air any more, he "cleaned it up" into the similar-sounding "Have you even been phoned in Upton, Mass.
Upton, Massachusetts
Upton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 7,542 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Upton-West Upton, please see the article Upton-West Upton, Massachusetts....
for being a lucky wise guy?" Duane opened most of his broadcasts and segments with the phrase "Hello, Rangooooooon!", following a signature sound effect. Laquidara revealed in an interview that the Glasscock character, who hosted his "own" show on Saturday mornings at WBCN, actually received higher ratings than Laquidara's regular weekday broadcast.
Social activism
From the earliest period of KPPC freeform radio and continuing throughout his career, Laquidara has participated in social activism and promoted a strongly held liberal political stance. In his memoir of their years at KPPC entitled Riding on the Ether Express, Dave Pierce recalls a close friendship with Laquidara, who was an early vocal opponent of the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. In December 1968, just prior to Laquidara's return to Massachusetts, Pierce and his wife and children went with Laquidara to Elysian Park in Los Angeles for a fund raising gathering they had helped promote on the radio for the Free Clinic
Free clinic
A free clinic is a medical facility offering community healthcare on a free or very low-cost basis in countries with marginal or no universal health care. Care is generally provided in these clinics to persons who have lower or limited income and no health insurance, including persons who are not...
, a local charity. The event, which was at that time a frequent counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
form of activism, attracted 5,000 people, many of whom openly smoked marijuana. However, without warning or announced intentions, shortly after the event began several dozen carloads of Los Angeles riot police appeared and proceeded to forcibly remove the crowd from the park. After escaping a full scale assault from the police with the Pierces, Laquidara headed immediately to KPPC and delivered a scathing ten-minute on-air diatribe against the LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
.
Laquidara continued his sometimes controversial political activism while on-air at WBCN in Boston. Following a commercial for a camera store, he denounced Honeywell
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
corporation anti-personnel munitions, which brought on a lawsuit from the advertiser that sold Honeywell cameras. His alter ego, Duane Glasscock, was fired for telling listeners to send "a bag of shit to the Arbitron research bureau". Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
is a corporation that provides the radio industry with market research and listener counts, and Laquidara used Duane to question the integrity of the powerful company. He drew national attention in 1988 for leading anti-Apartheid protests and a boycott of Shell Oil.
Retirement to Maui
Laquidara finally achieved movie acting credit in 1998, playing a small part as one of the "phone dates" in the film Next Stop WonderlandNext Stop Wonderland
Next Stop Wonderland is a 1998 romantic comedy film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Anderson and Lyn Vaus. * This film was an audience favorite at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998 and set off a bidding war among studio distributors, with Miramax Films paying $6 million for the $1 million...
, which was shot in and around Boston. After his retirement in August 2000, Laquidara moved to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. In 2005, Laquidara sold his home in upcountry Maui for over US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
2 million to Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
, whose magazine referred to it as a "fixer-upper". In another real estate deal, two years later he sold a sprawling estate in Haiku, Hawaii
Haiku, Hawaii
Haiku is an unincorporated community in Maui County on the island of Maui in the state of Hawaii. For United States Census purposes, it is part of the Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii census-designated place, which also includes Pauwela....
that he had purchased for $1.75 million to spiritual leader Baba Ram Dass for $2.3 million.
During the first half of 2006, Laquidara broadcast a show from his home in Hawaii that aired on Boston radio station 92.9 WBOS
WBOS
WBOS is a commercial radio station located in Brookline, Massachusetts, broadcasting to the Greater Boston area on 92.9 FM. The station airs a mainstream rock format branded as "Radio 92.9"...
called "Backspin". The show was short-lived, however. Laquidara resigned shortly after being chastised for playing Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
's song "Let's Impeach the President
Let's Impeach the President
Let's Impeach the President is a Grammy Award-nominated protest song written, produced and recorded by Neil Young. It is the seventh track on his 2006 studio album Living with War....
" during the height of the Iraq War. In 2009, Laquidara returned to Boston to mark the closing of his original station, WBCN, doing a series of interviews and hosting an exclusive tribute party at a local nightclub to which only station employees and former employees were invited. While in Boston, Laquidara was inducted as a member of the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in recognition of his pioneering efforts in FM radio.
Present day
Laquidara occasionally prepares shows for internet broadcast via Mana'o Radio KEAO-LPKEAO-LP
KEAO-LP is a radio station licensed to Wailuku, Hawaii, USA, the station serves the Maui area. The station is currently owned by Mana'o Radio....
in Wailuku, Hawaii
Wailuku, Hawaii
Wailuku is a census-designated place in Maui County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 12,296 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Maui County.Wailuku is located just west of Kahului, at the mouth of the Īao Valley...
. He has held this position since March 2005. Laquidara now permanently resides in Kihei, Hawaii
Kihei, Hawaii
Kīhei is a census-designated place in Maui County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 16,749 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Kīhei is located at ....
on Maui
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
, where he has continued the zeitgeist
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age."Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.The...
of The Big Mattress using a different medium – a blog – which he updates daily with humor, notes on music and culture and political commentary.