It came from the '90s: WAAF Unusual Suspects 1996

In the mid-1990s, WAAF had a killer DJ lineup for the most part. Raw, rude and loud. Also during this time, new rock music was tailor-made for rock stations like WAAF. Yes, it was true that this station did the "let's repeat the same 10 songs 10 times every day" crap, but at least what they overplayed was actually good.

Everyone was buying CDs in the '90s because the iPod hadn't even been invented yet (that didn't happen until 2001.) WAAF got into the game of doing this with their own CD in 1996 with Unusual Suspects, which they directly and unashamedly ripped off from the movie The Usual Suspects from 1995.

At the time, a radio station releasing a CD was a new thing. But WAAF very specifically put in all capital letters "PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE GREATER BOSTON FOOD BANKS" right on the front cover at the bottom. I'm 100% sure this wasn't done because they wanted to but rather because they had to. It was probably fiscally better to just donate the proceeds and write it off instead of trying to make a profit.

I've been wanting to buy one of these CDs for years for only one reason. Nobody has ever ripped the disc and put the audio online. It is nowhere on the internet. Not on YouTube, not on Internet Archive, not anywhere. And the reason I had not bought the CD sooner is because idiots were selling it for 15 bucks. It's worth not more than 5.

After the last WAAF 107.3 FM broadcast day, I figured now was the time to buy the CD, even it was 15 bucks. But of course, the day the last broadcast happened, price gougers put all their copies of Unusual Suspects on eBay and Amazon and jacked up the price to 40 bucks or more. I didn't buy it.

A few months passed, I checked online again, and someone FINALLY posted one for the right price. With tax and free shipping, $4.49. That's what I was waiting for. Sold. I bought it.

Published 2020 Jul 9