Charles Laquidara

Charles Laquidara (born November 24, 1938) 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.[10] As described by former station manager Dave Pierce in a memoir, in the late 1960s Laquidara typically began his midnight program with "twenty minutes of bird sounds" and then "juxtaposed The Blue Danube waltz and Emerson, Lake & Palmer".The program included music, news, talk and humor such as making prank phone calls 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.Laquidara retired to live in Stow, Massachusetts for almost two years and was persuaded to return to WBCN by then program director Tommy Hadges, whom he gives credit to for saving him from his drug habit.[3] Now Laquidara's boss, Oedipus convinced him to move his show to sister station WZLX to make way for the more popular syndicated morning program of shock jock Howard Stern.[3][13] 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 War.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.[17][18][19] Laquidara finally achieved movie acting credit in 1998, playing a small part as one of the "phone dates" in the film Next Stop Wonderland, which was shot in and around Boston.