The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 53

EDITOR: LINDA CAGNETTI, 369-1011 THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1987 SECTION Weekend Church newsD-1 0 Puzzles, gamesD-10 'Toast' of the townD-12 TEWi "1 Cliff On the JhJ. record A scene from the controversial "lunatic fringe" commercial (left) starring Robin Wood and Eddie Fingers. An early WEBN post card (below) promoting the station's irreverent spirit. Michael Jackson grows up Michael Jackson, Bad, Epic, The winner the world awaited is on the air. Michael Jackson's new LP, Bad, is on the radio and might be ringing in your ears right now.

The gloved one's follow-up to Thriller, the 1982 release with the most copies sold in history 38.5 million worldwide wasn't supposed to be aired until it went on sale Monday. But WBLZ-FM and WKRQ-FM (Q102) are giving the city a sneak preview of one of the rock era's most anticipated discs. WBLZ started Photos courtesy of WEBN ti jl wo aecaaes on aecMemce t'r i i playing the record af- v. iter it arrived lhurs-JFyito I day night. When gen eral manager reter Eden was informed that his station jumped the gun by al most four days, he replied: "If they didn't want us to play it, why did they mail it to us?" Eden reported he was playing two Bad Michael Jackson songs every hour and receiving requests for more.

"The phones are hot." Jim Fox, Ql02's program director, received the LP Friday afternoon. After a quick listen, he said he would put it on the air pronto. "Bombing will begin in five minutes." The excitement about Bad is justified. Not only is the 10-song LP, 11-song CD, a worthy successor to Thriller, this number stands on its own as a very hot production by an artist who is desperately trying to mature. The Bad Michael Jackson is not the squeeky-voiced man-child of Thriller.

The difference between the two is immediately apparent by listening to Bad's tone and content. On Thriller, Jackson declared in a pretty voice, "This Girl Is Mine." He starts Bad's title track, and first song, with a little huskiness in his voice and some spunk in his lyrics. He doesn't sing, "This Girl Is Mine Part Two." No sir. "Bad" is a fighting song that begins: "Your butt is mine." After "Bad," Jackson becomes a lover, not a fighter with "The Way You Make Me Feel." The tune's tough beat just barely keeps it from being a clone of "On Broadway." Next up, "Speed Demon" and "Liberi-an Girl." On the former, Jackson sings about getting a ticket for driving too fast: "Pull over, boy." On the latter, he slows down and falls in love: "I love you, Liberian girl." The gossip rags will have a field day identifying the mystery woman from Liberia. The fifth cut, "Just Good Friends," is a JacksonStevie Wonder duet.

Like the recording's next song, "Another Part of Me," the duet is a high-energy powder puff for the disco circuit, i Bad turns serious with "Man In The Mirror." Aided by gospel singers, the Andrae Crouch Choir and the Winans, Jackson uses clipped tones to deliver this fiery message: "If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself." Amen. Following "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," the JacksonSiedah Garrett duet that's the number-two song in the country, Bad rocks with an ode to girl groupies, "Dirty Diana." With Jackson's heavy metal screams and the buzz saw solo from Steve Stevens, Billy Idol's guitarist, this song offers another glimpse of Jackson as Mr. Tough Guy. "Smooth Criminal," whose step-wise bass line resembles Thriller's "Billie lean," contains the sound of Jackson's heartbeat and a tale of urban violence. That cut closes the LP.

The extra song on the compact disc of Bad is "Leave Me Alone." Is this just another love song? Or is this Jackson's message to the masses? After all, he knows he is the man under the microscope. As he sings on "The whole world has to answer right now, just to tell you once again who's bad." Cliff Radel is pop music critic for The Enquirer. Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor. No Taking a Spin' Alan Vonderhaar is on vacation. His "Taking a Spin" column, which normally appears today, will resume when he returns.

1 20 years old Disc jockey Robin Wood delivers a knockout punch in a WEBN poster. 1965 by Frank Wood, the younger. "I was home from school (Harvard Law School, where he was in training to become a Wall Street lawyer) and I noticed that dad had amassed several tape machines and a huge collection of jazz and classical tapes. I told him, 'the next time I come home, you're going to have your own radio And he did. The elder Wood wanted to call it WBFC, the BFC standing for Brute Force Cybernetics.

"But WPFB in Middletown protested to the Federal Communications Commission that WBFC sounded too much like WPFB. So, dad asked the FCC what call letters were available," Wood the younger recalled. "They sent us five sets. We picked WEBN out of the blue. It doesn't stand for anything." That's a lie.

WEBN stands for rock 'n' roll, homegrown album projects, T-shirts, controversial TV commercials with adults in showers and DJs in srraitjackets and two annual affairs, one imaginary the Fools Day Parade and one real, the Riverfest Fireworks, whose 10th edition (Please see WEBN, Page D-5) dies at 81 Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, 1957. The Barbarian and the Geisha, 1958. The Roots of Heaven, 1 958. The Unforgiven, 1960.

The Misfits, 1961. Fraud, 1962. The List of Adrian Messenger, 1963. The Night of the Iguana, 1 964. The Bible, 1966.

Casino Royale. opening segment, 1967. Reflections in a Golden Eye, 1 967. Sinful Davey, 1969. A Walk with Love and Death, 1 969.

The Kremlin Letter, 1970. Fat City, 1972. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, 1 973. The Mackintosh Man, 1 973. The Man Who Would Be King, 1975.

Wise Blood. 1979. Phobia, 1980. Victory, 1981. Annie, 1982 Under the Volcano, 1984 Piizzi's Honor, 1985.

The Dead, to be released in 1987. I iiinmmi mi mini WEBN-FM is BY CLIFF RADEL The Cincinnati Enquirer Everybody sing: "It was 20 years ago today Hold that tune until Sunday. Then belt it out at the stroke of 5:45 p.m. That's when WEBN, 102.7 on the FM dial, officially turns 20. And what a long strange trip it has been.

The station that began as a ragtag, counterculture cult hero or creep depending on your tastes in music and your sense of the absurd has evolved into the brand-name of Cincinnati radio and the rock 'n' roll flagship station of the high-powered Jacor Communications network. As one of the great success stories in American radio, the tale of WEBN has everything: sex, power, money, fireworks, frogs and insanity. So, let's get on with the show. WEBN, this is your life: August 30, 1967 It all began at a little FM station on Considine Avenue in Price Hill. At precisely 5:45 p.m., Frank Wood, the elder, flipped the switch and his baby, WEBN, was on the air.

As soon as the amiable Cincinnati attorney was sure Stravinsky's "Persephone" could be heard in radioland, he took a nap. "Dad had been up 24 hours straight, wiring the station and getting everything ready for the big day," said his son and eventual successor, Frank Wood, the younger. "When he collapsed into bed, he left everything to five amateurs (including Miles Duffy, a dog who doubled as the station's program directorengineer) and one pro." The pro was Ty Williams. A jazz DJ with eight years of service at WNOP, Williams was the only employee who had ever been in a radio station. "When old Frank hired me, he invited me over to his house, played a bunch of jazz tapes, plied me with scotch and said he was going to start an FM station that played classical music and jazz," Williams said.

"This was before everybody had an FM radio. So, I thought sure, right. But somehow I didn't doubt him. You have to believe a guy who keeps a stuffed dog in his office." The seeds for this odd radio station were casually planted one summer day in Films of John Huston John Huston joined Warner Bros, as a writer in 1937, working on such films as The Amazing Dr. Clilterhouse, Juarez, High Sierra, and Sergeant York.

Warners promised Huston that if High Sierra proved to be profitable he could write and direct a film of his own. It was, and Huston elected to do Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, the first of 40 films he directed. He won two Academy Awards, for writing and directing The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Here is a list of films Huston directed: The Maltese Falcon, 1 941 In This Our Lite, 1942. Across the Pacific, 1942.

Report from the Aleutians, with the Army, 1943. The Battle of San Pietro, with the Army, 1944. Let There Be Light, with the Army, 1945. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948. Key Largo, 1948.

We Were Strangers, 1948. The Asphalt Jungle, 1950. The Red Badge of Courage, 1 951 The African Queen. 1951 Moulin Rouge, 1952. Beat the Devil.

1 954. Moby Dick, 1956. Anticipating anticipation Don't hold your breath for the WEBN Album Project Number 1 1. The next edition In the series of homegrown albums won't be in the stores until late 1988 at the earliest. The radio station wants to give it some breathing room and create some anticipation for the record featuring original songs by local musicians.

"Number Nine sold wonderfully," WEBN program director Tom Owens said of the 1 986 LP with the Made In The U.S.A. subtitle and the cover parody of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. "That LP was coming back from an absence of nearly two years. That absence developed a desire for the project." The 10th album, subtitled Two Decades of Decadence, sold well, but not at the same pace as Number Nine. "We like to move the product rapidly and make as much money as we can for the United Way," Owens said.

Proceeds from the album go to the United Way. "But with Two Decades of Decadence (released in March) there was definitely a problem with demand. So we're going to lay off the project for 1 8 months and create a need for the next one." Iltl VIHII Legendary ENQUIRER NEWS SERVICES John Huston, a restless talent who bucked Hollywood, drank hard and directed classic films including The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The African Queen, died in his sleep Friday. At 81, he was on the location of yet another movie. In a long and adventurous career, the stuff of movie legend, Huston caroused with Humphrey Bogart and Ernest Hemingway, broke his nose in a fistfight with Errol Flynn, directed Clark Gable in his last film and unwittingly led Katharine Hepburn into an elephant stampede.

At a 1983 testimonial, a longtime friend, the actress Lauren Bacall, described him as "daring, unpredictable, maddening, mystifying and probably the most charming man on earth." Huston directed 40 films over more than four decades and co-adapted and acted in more than 20. He won Academy Awards for writing and directing The i 7 The 10 album projects produced by WEBN during the station's history, including the most recent album (left). director John Huston Treasure of the Sierra Madre. He made movie history by directing both his father, Walter Huston, and daughter, Angelica Huston, in Oscar-winning performances, Walter in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Anjelica in Prizzi's Honor. His 40 films en compassed the Tennessee Williams play Night of the Iguana and the elaborate musical Annie.

"If there's a pattern to my work it's that I haven't made any two pictures alike. I get bored too quickly," he once said. Huston's career began with a brief John Huston action man fling as an actor, following in the footsteps of his actor father. But after working successfully as a (Please see HUSTON, Page D-3).