"AUSTIN OF BOSTON" DIES

A couple of days ago, I was shocked to learn that Austin Davis (a.k.a. Austin of Boston) died on Sunday, June 4.  I was also surprised to learn that “Austin Davis” and “Austin of Boston” were just made up names for his profession, and that his real name was Malcolm Soll. Since I knew him as Austin Davis, that’s what I’ll call him in this piece.  

I say, “I knew him”.  Austin Davis was the “morning drive” D.J. on “Worcester’s Continuous Soft Rock 96.9 WSRS” for seven years.  As so often happens in radio, he suddenly disappeared from the airwaves about seven months ago.  (Before that, he was “Austin of Boston” on Boston’s “Oldies 103.3”.)  I never met Austin Davis in person, although I did see him “live” at Natick Mall about ten years ago when “Oldies 103.3” did a special Fourth of July event.  Radio is a much more intimate medium than is television.  There is a connection- especially when the personalities share “personal stuff” on the air, you start to think of them as personal friends.  I knew Austin Davis lived in Ashland.  He talked about Ashland all the time.  There were also references to places he went and things he and his family did in the area.   Austin Davis was a regular at the stores and streets of Ashland, Framingham, and Natick as I am- so I related.  He would speak of frustration with the traffic on Route 9 in Westboro, and I’d been in that same traffic the day before.   He’d talk of his son Danny being bummed out that school vacation had ended, and my kids were experiencing the same thing.  Austin Davis HAD to have been much more of a handyman than I was- there were the stories of cleaning the gutters the day before or various household projects he was involved in.  I knew his elderly mother lived in Florida.  I know he came to the U.S. from England as a small child and he grew up on Long Island, New York.  He was a Yankees fan.  I certainly did not like that.  It took some guts to boast of that in New England!  

Back around 1999,  Austin Davis broke a really bizarre story... a woman had been raised from the dead at Matarese Funeral Home in Ashland.  As wild as that story sounds, it’s true!  It was eventually covered on Dateline NBC.  Skeptics said she was just experiencing extreme hypothermia and came out of it, but the Ashland Police who were involved told a different story.  It kind of gave me the creeps that I happened to drive by Matarese Funeral Home yesterday and I realized that Austin Davis/Malcolm Soll’s body was lying there.  His funeral will be conducted there this morning.  I don’t expect any raising of the dead, however.

Now, YOU will probably think this is bizarre:  Have you ever fallen asleep when the radio was on and as the audio was blasting into your head, DREAMED a dream based upon that audio?  I have several times.  At least a year ago, and it’s probably longer, as Austin Davis was broadcasting on WSRS I fell back asleep and dreamed he had died.  Of course, it was a sad dream.  I awoke, realizing my mind had created a bizarre fantasy dream based upon the radio it was hearing, but I genuinely felt sad.  Well, now it’s no dream.

Austin Davis was pretty politically and socially liberal.  He was not the type to have any sympathy with the “religious right” and for that matter, was much more of a Henry David Thoreau than a Billy Graham when it comes to faith matters.  Some of you will not agree, but I don’t believe that bodes well for him as far as eternity goes.  

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment:” (Hebrews 9:27).