Found: Herald Column Called 'Hub-Bub' About WBUR

Published August 30, 2010

A newspaper clipping from the Boston Herald Traveler shows an edition of the "Hub-Bub" column from February 23, 1971.

I think my head just exploded. Apparently, the Boston Herald Traveler (a precursor to today’s Herald) used to run column titled “Hub-Bub.” And in this recently uncovered archive from Feb. 23, 1971, the hubbub is about a WBUR “radio soap opera” called Harvard Square. It sounded awesome:

WBUR, BU’s enterprising radio station, broadcasts “Harvard Square” Sundays through Thursdays at 11:15 p.m.–a program that centers around (sic) Harvard Square as seen through the eyes and experience of Scott Langer, a fictitious BU sophomore.

The first such show ever produced in the Hub! This was, of course, when WBUR was student-run radio (“Boston University Radio”).

For a fascinating historical detour, check the Wikipedia page of the Boston Herald, which has changed names or owners some 10 times since 1846. The American Traveler, eventually absorbed by the Herald, once served as a bulletin for stagecoach listings beginning in 1825, according to the source cited by the Wikipedia page.