Mike Lupica, Author at WPRB History - Page 7 of 12
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Mike Lupica, Page 7

The Legend of WPRB’s Hypnotized Cheese

Few on-air promos enjoy the kind of reputation this pair of early 90s WPRB recordings promoting the station’s “Hypnotized Cheese” t-shirts do. Apart from being one of the most popular shirts ever produced by the station (in its day, the Hypnotized Cheese guy could be frequently spotted in the crowd on any given night at Maxwell’s or the Khyber Pass), the on-air spots used to hawk them were almost as ubiquitous as the shirts themselves. (Listeners would routinely call and request them. Jon Solomon claims to have received one such request within the last year!)

To properly honor the legacy of WPRB’s Hypnotized Cheese mascot (who also appeared on the cover of a printed program guide which you can check out in our upcoming exhibit of station history at Princeton University’s Mudd Library), here are the two original promos. These spots were voiced, written, and produced by Matthew Robb (Myron), John Clements (Robin Leach impersonator), and Hugh Hynes (production).

Hypnotized Cheese Promo #1


Hypnotized Cheese Promo #2

Bonus: Here are scans of the original scripts and production notes for each.

Promo 1 || Promo 2

A limited-run, 20th anniversary edition of the Hypnotized Cheese t-shirt was produced as a special fundraising item back in 2012. It sold out rapidly, proving the design’s enduring appeal. Will there be a third edition? Time will tell…

In the meantime, here’s the video for Spectrum’s “How You Satisfy Me”, which served as background music in Promo #1 and was, by all accounts, one of the biggest WPRB hits of the era.

Friday WPRB DJ Pinup: Julia Factorial!

Years on air: 2002-2006: Mixtape Maker/Heartbreaker. 2006-2014: Clean Yr Room (w/ Art Andrews) and Born Inflamed.

Favorite bands: Modern Lovers, Dead Moon, The Replacements, Arthur Russell, Kate Bush, Screaming Females, Beat Happening. Favorite bands I found through WPRB: Half Man Half Biscuit, Red Krayola, The Mekons, Television Personalities, The Soft Boys, Desperate Bicycles, Silkworm, Meredith Monk, that crazy closed-loop record that has 500 tracks on it.

Memorable on-air moment: The time I tried to explain to Wilbo that I self-identified with the cover of Blurt’s In Berlin LP in deep deep ways. It was, needless to say, a confusing moment for both of us.

Advice for current WPRB DJs: Keep it weird, and DON’T DRINK THE BLEACH. Outside of the WPRB studios and on the rest of the dial, life can get pretty bland and bleached out. Your show can be a portal or it can be par-for-the-course. In the style of Hawkwind’s weirdly delivered monologues: “CHOOSE WISELY, MORTAL BEING.”*

*Not an actual endorsement of Hawkwind.

Bonus audio! Here’s Julia providing a non-verbal impression of the drum fill from Big Star’s “September Gurls” in WPRB’s infamous “Fish Fingers” station ID.


“Disco Duck” Rampages Across Princeton

WPRB’s John Shyer ’78 says: I produced the “Disco Duck” promo in the old Holder Hall production studio late one night. I was trying to find a way to express my contempt for mindless disco, which was everywhere in [the late 70s]. The DJs found the cart in the studio (labeled “Dead Duck Promo,” I believe), loved it, and played it constantly. We finally had to retire it for excessive airplay. 

Listen below:

 

 

Stanley Jordan, and the Battle Against “Your Music”

By Kenneth McCarthy ’81

I first got involved with PRB in the spring of my freshman year (1978). It was an interesting time for the station. Though there were a lot of talented individuals in areas like engineering and programming, other area like sales, training, and scheduling were a bit shaky to say the least.

As best as I can remember, the station had only one sponsor, the University Store and one ad, the “These Are My Favorite Things” spot. Thank God it was a good spot because we played it twice an hour, every hour. And we didn’t log that many hours. It wasn’t unusual for the station to sign off after Morning Classical at 10 AM due to a lack of DJ’s.

The details of what happened the next year when the new management group took over could fill a book. It was a complex situation. As an organization, PRB had to be rebuilt from scratch. We had very few members and new people had to be attracted, brought in, and trained fast. There was also a major ideological split among the managers. You had one group that wanted the station to have a top 40 sound and another group that wanted the station to be an alternative to what was available on commercial radio.

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(Re-)Introducing WPRB’s 1980s House Band: The Funstigators!

By Steve Buratowski ’84

DOWNLOADS: The Complete Funstigators WPRB Tapes (.zip file) and the original Funstigators bio (.pdf)

One by-product of WPRB in the early ’80s was a band called the Funstigators. The band consisted of Steve Buratowski, Mark Crimmins, Ray Gonzalez, Kevin Hensley, Chuck Steidel, and Charles Sullivan. All were class of 1984 and, and except for Charles, joined the station as DJs soon after arriving at Princeton. Mark, Chuck, and Charles were roommates, and as far back as freshman year one of their favorite things to do on weekends was to get some cheap beer and play music. Chuck and Mark had guitars, and Charles played one of those tiny squeaky Casiotone keyboards that were popular in the ’80s, using an overturned trashcan as a stand.

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WPRB’s Coverage of the Vietnam Moratorium

It was fall of 1969. Despite the recent reduction of troop levels, over 475,000 young men were still fighting in Vietnam—most of them conscripted. Young people from all walks of life were getting drafted into the army, including many Princeton students and graduates. As was the case on many college campuses at the time, Princeton experienced a growth in campus unrest in protest of the Vietnam War.

On October 15, 1969, Princeton, along with hundreds of other campuses across the nation, participated in a national moratorium against the war. The Peace Moratorium is believed to have been the largest demonstration in US history with an estimated two million people involved. At Princeton, this included a day of teach-ins, speeches, and demonstrations. WPRB’s News Department covered the event live.

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Friday WPRB DJ Pinup: Scott Lowe!

Years on air: 1985-1991. I was barely in high school when I got the radio bug in 1984 and managed to score a weekly show at another nearby college station, but getting on WPRB became a goal, which happened a year later. I became a volunteer DJ during seasonal breaks, plus emergency fill-ins during the school year. I’m not sure there were any other WPRB DJs as young as I was at the time.  Since then, my professional career in radio has taken me all over from stations in Philly to Los Angeles. I continue to champion new music and push the envelope with the spirit of college radio as my inspiration.

Favorite bands: XTC, The Fall, Let’s Active, Elvis Costello, New Order, Talking Heads and Devo are among my all-time picks.

Memorable on-air moment: At WPRB, I got to interview Martin Atkins (Public Image Ltd./Brian Brain), Dramarama, Salem 66, Chris Hartford and my fellow schoolmates, Dean and Gene Ween before they were signed to a label.  A lesser fond memory would be the cockroaches in the basement of Holder Hall that were the size of your thumb!

Advice for current WPRB DJs: The role of a WPRB DJ is part showbiz.  Remember, when the mic is on, you’re in the spotlight. Be prepared with what you’re going to say and have fun.

Bonus Audio: Here’s a pair of mic breaks from Scott’s show, circa 1987.

 

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The Razor Sharp Mind of WPRB’s Jeff Meyers

Photo: Jeff Meyers (aka Rod St. John) with Jean Shepherd
Text: Gregg Lange

The late 1960s was a highly active and diverse era for WPRB. News staffers aggressively covered coeducation, plus anti-war and civil rights demonstrations; the sports department traveled with Ivy champion football and nationally-ranked basketball teams; classical music was beginning to assert itself seriously; and the earlier preponderance of middle-of-the-road music was blown away by underground rock and a fabulous jazz department that appeared almost overnight, experimental specialty programs and even a highly popular Top-40 show, all by students. Meanwhile, the station sponsored concerts of all sorts, and its annual presentation of raconteur Jean Shepherd at Alexander Hall became the stuff of radio legend.

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“All those records—Who knew what they might hold?”

By Matthew H. Robb ’94 (center, looking skeptical at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ)
DJ from 1991-1997; 1999-2000
Jazz Director ’92; Program Director ’93
Also pictured above: Greg Lyon (left), Evan Bates (right)

I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now and it’s funny to me how non-specific most of my WPRB memories are. There are definitely some concrete ones – I’m pretty sure I was in the old studio A / aux sorting records when the on-air DJ, who I am confident was Scott Crater, put on Superchunk’s Cool 7” and that just pretty much changed my life. It somehow coalesced everything I knew about music (well, alternative and punk music) up until that point and blew it wide open. But maybe that’s getting ahead of things.

I knew a little about radio when I was high school, volunteering at the local public radio station, and I was was of those alternative music teenagers—lots of New Order, the Cure, etc. Add to that an older brother whose tastes ran to the Jam, Elvis Costello, the Clash, and the Replacements, and growing up in the south with a certain familiarity with the Athens scene. I was definitely a pop kid more than a punk kid – the glasses made going to hardcore shows a little nerve-wracking when I was in high school, and the punk scene in north Alabama felt a little too aggro for me. So Josh Wise and I would listen to a lot of Pixies and REM and trade notes and records. That mixtape culture, way too may VHS recordings of 120 Minutes and IRS’ the Cutting Edge – that’s what I had when I walked into my first DJ training sessions (with Mike Graff, I believe). And seeing those stacks I started to realize how little I knew.

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Friday WPRB DJ Pinup: Ron Coleman!

Years on air: 1981-1985. I started doing [late night] graveyard [shows] — lots of them; it was like a drug! — my first semester of freshman year and came back to do Christmas shows when everyone else left campus and any help with filling air slots was appreciated. (Before I got married, I still lived with my parents in East Windsor and of course was home for breaks during law school.)

Favorite Bands: In my salad days on ‘PRB I was always certain to play Elvis Costello, The Clash, Joe Jackson and DEVO. I recognize how pedestrian that comes across now; it did then also. Thank God for the rotation system by which the PD’s taught me a thing or two! I also liked to play the Sex Pistols, Laurie Anderson and even Run-DMC. Unlike any other jock at the time, I’d also play Springsteen.

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