Mike Lupica, Author at WPRB History - Page 10 of 12
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Mike Lupica, Page 10

“WPRB and Me”

[By Chris Fine]

LISTEN: Mic breaks and news reports from Chris Fine’s rock show on WPRB, February 25th, 1980.

 

Introduction
I write these words about WPRB because I love the station. The people of WPRB were some of my best friends during my years at Princeton. WPRB was the single best activity (including courses – as my transcript reflects) in which I participated during my undergraduate years. My interest in radio, and technology in general, dates back well before my journey to Princeton University in September, 1976. Encouraged by my father, who was an audio engineer and inventor, I started tinkering with electronics and chemistry at a young age. Predictably, a number of shocks and small fires resulted – but fortunately no major injuries, and my family was always patient with me.

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Singing Telegram does “Hip Priest” by The Fall

the_fall

In 2002, a big chunk of the WPRB airstaff engineered an on-air birthday prank by hiring a singing telegram artist to serenade beloved DJ Greg Lyon with “Hip Priest” by The Fall. In order to maximize Greg’s mortification, this had to occur A) without any warning, and B) on the air.

As such, the crafty perpetrators disguised the prank’s introduction as a scheduled announcement in that day’s program logs for Greg to play on the air. As the time approached, and unbeknownst to Greg, the conspirators hid just outside the studio with the singing telegram guy, and waited for their cue.

Here is audio of the incident as it transpired on the air. The first voice you will hear is Greg’s, unknowingly setting the wheels in motion. (Followed by the voices of Dan Ruccia and Jannon Stein.)

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Curtis Mayfield at McCarter Theater, April 1972

In 1972, Curtis Mayfield performed live at Princeton’s McCarter Theater in what appears to have been a benefit for Sickle Cell Anemia research. The event does not seem to have been sponsored by WPRB (quick web research suggests it was a collaboration between McCarter and Princeton’s Association of Black Collegians), but the station aired this commercial in the run up to the April 15th performance.

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“Your Show Sucks!”

[By Ian Auzenne]

The first time I actually listened to WPRB was the night after my first appearance on (sports talk show) “Time Out”. I was listening via the webstream just to see what was on the air, and I was amazed and astounded by what I heard: Backwards records. Slowed down records. Records being played over each other—some with superb mixing; others not so much.  It was a beautiful cacophony, and it was unlike anything I had ever heard.

I walked down to the station and knocked on the door. I wanted to find out who was responsible for awakening my ears.

The DJ who answered the door was a tall, hulking young man who sounded slightly older than he was. I introduced myself and, in fan boy fashion, told him how much I enjoyed what I was hearing. That jock, Adam Flynn ’08, invited me in and let me watch him at work. I was mesmerized. (more…)

Commercial: The Clash at Rider College

I spent last summer in a dust mask so as to catalog WPRB’s collection of 1000+ 1/4″ reels. Some of them were moldy or suffering from sticky shed syndrome, while others were frustratingly mislabeled. With the help of the great Scott Konzelmann (aka “Chop Shop”), we also revived the station’s aging Otari reel to reel deck (whose primary function had sadly been reduced to ‘doorjam’ here at the station), and began digitizing reels.

For the initial test of the rejuvenated Otari, I needed a “junk reel”, for lack of a better term—something that no tears would be shed for in the event the Otari chewed it up, so I found something anonymous-looking which I figured was expendable.

WRONG! After racking up a reel from an unmarked box, I was rewarded with this great (albeit pretty dorky) commercial for The Clash‘s appearance at Rider College circa 1982. (I’m guessing the year based on the “Should I Stay or Should I Go” music bed. That song is from Combat Rock, which came out that year.)

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Mudhoney interview, 1991

In 1991, Mudhoney stopped by WPRB prior to their show with Gas Huffer and Superchunk at City Gardens. On the inside of 13 minutes, DJ Corey (whose great radio show I’ve written about elsewhere) interviewed the band, and got them to dish on  Sub Pop, death metal, and Thurston Moore being stalked by crazed fans in Tokyo.

Here’s the interview:

 

(Corey was also the co-host of a great show called “Three Bad Sisters” with a grad student named Julianne. Each of the hosts comprised 1.5 of the sisters.)

Somewhere between “scattered” and “shattered”, by Lily Prillinger

[Left to right: Frank Shepard ’96, Sarah Teasley ’95, Lily Prillinger ’97]

Back in the 90’s, I arrived at Princeton with a fistful of dubious ambitions. I actively brooded.

While svelte coeds were friskily tossing lacrosse sticks and sporting diamond stud earrings, I lumbered around campus draped in a long coat and self-loathing. While the Prep-zillas were having ragingly banal keg parties and blasting bland yet thoroughly emetic sonic sludge like ‘Dave Matthews’ and ‘The Spin Doctors’ — I listened valiantly (and alone)  to a gargantuan beast of a Walkman which furiously chewed up my ‘exotically-acquired’ yet terminally fragile mixed tapes. It was a lonely existence.

One day while skulking around campus,  I met this cool-blooded, long-haired guy who was wearing an “Eraserhead” t-shirt. His name was Frank and he was the Clyde to my self-styled Bonnie. I suppose it was inevitable that I would eventually follow the proverbial flannel-cloaked Pied Piper, down into to the subterranean universe of WPRB.

I still remember the warm fustiness of the basement air — a strange blend of dustiness and dampness which emanated from the ubiquitous and crumbling orange acoustical foam.  I remember the heavy walls of dense vinyl, each album meticulously reviewed by ardent loyalists who penned their critiques. At WPRB I was a fairly inept deejay: neither particularly erudite nor technically proficient. My style was fast and loose and my artistic sensibilities hovered between “scattered” and “shattered.” I remember playing long, apoplectic interspersions of Edgar Allen Poe and David Allen Coe, which likely yielded no sonic value other than pure irritation of my long-suffering friend, Frank.

And then of course, there were the many serious discoveries — songs and albums which become the sonic armature for my own thought process, shaping the way I though about life and art. When I was a hack deejay at WPRB, I was probably more entrenched in the rhapsodic cacophony of young adulthood than than the finer nuances of music…but even so, how very sweet…LONG LIVE WPRB!

-Lily Prillinger ’97