More exposure than he wanted
-- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/5/2000
Fifty-six-year-old sportscaster Bob Lobel of WBZ-TV Boston may have gained some TVQ among an audience celebrating sex, drugs and rock' n' roll, when he agreed to introduce a band at the River Rave at Foxboro Stadium.
The show was promoted by WBCN-FM, which, like WBZ-TV, is owned by CBS and where Lobel is a frequent quest of DJ Nik Carter.
The show turned rather raucous, and there were more than 120 arrests-breaking a record for the stadium set by a Grateful Dead show more than a decade ago, according to the Boston Globe.
Lobel says he felt quite out of place in front of thousands well under half his age when he took the stage to bring on The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, especially when Carter encouraged the young women in the audience to flash Lobel.
Apparently, hundreds did-and probably not for the first time that day.
Among criticisms of the show was the preoccupation with the female form displayed on the big screens at the stadium.
Much of Lobel's rapport with Carter, Lobel says, employs the "hip vs. conservative" schtick, played out again onstage when Carter turned Lobel's cap a fashionable 180 degrees, "so the Titleist [golf logo] wouldn't show."
A local paper ran a news photo of Lobel holding up the arms of two scantily clad Rave Girls "like they were champions. I had to think of something to do," Lobel explained, "except stand there and look stupid. I had talked to those two girls backstage. We had a real talk, but you wouldn't ever see it in those pictures."
His wife loved the photo, he noted, and at least he avoided the mosh pit.
Would Lobel do it again?
Maybe, for his friend Carter. "But I'll go in with my eyes open," he said, quickly adding, "and I'd bring a blindfold."
