Certainly no bad omen, that day marked the beginning of a fruitful and famous association that lasted nearly seven years. It was quickly evident that Maxanne, as she called herself on the air, liked to rock, as Debbie Ullman observed: “I was motivated by the counterculture – Jesse Colin Young, Incredible String Band, Jefferson Airplane, [but] she was really into rock and roll. She was much more tuned into what [would be] happening with ‘BCN by the later 70‘s.”
When WBCN disc jockeys were allowed to do their own programming pretty much as they wanted, the new music that otherwise was only being heard on the college stations got its first commercial play on WBCN from Maxanne.
Later, in 1971 other women joined the on-air staff: Debbie Ullman, Dinah Vaprin and Marsha Steinberg. (Debbie had actually had an earlier on-air stint predating Maxanne.) Each had their specialties and strengths, but none had Maxanne's authority, or her calm, warm, friendly, highly knowledgable on-air presence.
Maxanne will always be remembered for her association with a young Bruce Springsteen, who dropped in on the afternoon show with a truncated version of the E Street Band for a pair of famously-bootlegged and beloved unplugged performances in January ’73 and April ’74. Indeed, the unique and hilarious performance of “Rosalita” from the latter visit is easily one of the most memorable nine-minutes in WBCN’s entire history.
Infamous for running the studio speakers at maximum volume, Maxanne would be credited with championing Boston artists like The J. Geils Band, The Cars and Billy Squier, also counting some less famous names from the area as favorites, including Reddy Teddy, Nervous Eaters, Fox Pass and Willie “Loco” Alexander.
Then there was Aerosmith: “The first person ever to play our record was Maxanne,” mentioned Steven Tyler. She persistently championed the group to program director Norm Winer, who refused to let her play the band at first: “I thought they were too derivative. But, of course, she was right.” She had become WBCN’s most powerful and distinctive personality.
Maxanne with Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris on WBCN in March, 1973.
Maxanne left on April Fool’s Day 1977. She would join Jazz outlet WRVR-New York. In 1983, Maxanne went to program WBOS-Boston and the following year joined WNEW as md and dj until 1987. Following her stint on the East Coast, Maxanne worked Seattle and Monterey radio stations.
Maxanne would trade in her headphones, pick up a job doing regional promotion for Island Records, later work in the national offices of Elektra-Asylum, and eventually become an independent promoter.
Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Music Museum of New England, Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame, Bill Spurlin's Blog.
