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1980s, Page 5

Early 80s Tin Lizzie Garage Commercial

The Tin Lizzie Garage was a local bar (later strip club) in Kingston, New Jersey that advertised with WPRB for a spell during the 1980s. Here’s an ad from that era, voiced by Bill Rosenblatt ’83, John Bailo ’82, and Mike Webber ’81.

Bill Rosenblatt recalls:

[WPRB] didn’t have that much to do with the Tin Lizzie Garage – it was a fairly divey bar in a strip mall in Kingston that usually had cover bands, Bruce Springsteen wannabes, that kind of thing. They ran some ads; we hardly ever promoted any of the music.  There was one exception, though: the Dixie Dregs.  (more…)

“Thanx IV Sharin'”—Like Punk Never Happened

Here’s an on-air promo for WPRB’s infamous call-in show, “Thanks IV Sharin'”.

Program host Ken Katkin ’87 recalls:

“Thanx IV Sharin’, in addition to commanding an intensely loyal following, attempted to reach out in a far more personal way than was customary for radio.  Customized WPRB: Thanx IV Sharin’ T-shirts were individually handmade by the hosts and their friends, and made available to listeners for a nominal fee.  (more…)

“Pretension Ltd”, “Vast Bunch of Grapes”, and Spin Magazine honors, by Chris Mohr

Chris at WPRB in Fall t-shirtI first started listening to WPRB in the winter of 1980-1981.  I was bored to tears with the sameness of the dinosaur rock of WMMR, WYSP, and WPLJ.  So here was this cool station down at the other end of the dial that played Elvis Costello, Devo, and all sorts of other stuff that was never played on other stations.  It was tremendous.

The summer of ‘81 I listened to WPRB as much as eight hours a day.  I did jigsaw puzzles and listened to Tom Burka, who played a new album every day at noon, Bill Rosenblatt, Alan Flippen, Jordan Becker, and Mark Dickinson (I think), who were the regular rock DJ’s.  The airsound was excellent–polished but not too professional, loose enough to be entertaining but yet everyone knew what he was doing (I don’t recall any women DJ’s that summer.)

That fall I wrote to Bill Rosenblatt to say how much I liked the station and to ask whether it was a professional station.  It wasn’t clear once the school year started, since there seemed to be a larger airstaff.  To my delight, he wrote back and explained that WPRB was in fact run by Princeton students and that its studios were in the basement of a dorm called Holder Hall, which at that point was still a sophomore slum.
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1981 Decline & Fall playlist

declineandfall

When a reunited Detention came to record a live session at WPRB in 2010, Kevin Shields gifted this 1981 playlist for the show “Decline & Fall.”

Mark Dickinson and Lloyd Handler (aka “Larry Void”) started “Decline & Fall,” WPRB’s late night punk/hardcore show earlier that year. The program’s run spanned the entire decade, with the hosting torch passed several times over into the eventual hands of Ethan “Eddie Mosh” Stein and “Slammin'” Sam Youakim.

During the mid-late 80s, Chris Mohr would periodically host special editions of the show re-titled as the “All Fall Decline & Fall”, and would feature music only by The Fall.

Punk specialty shows have continued to air sporadically on WPRB over the years. From “Hey You Kids Get Off My Lawn” to “Punk vs. Metal” to “Totally Wired.”

Perhaps someday, the Decline and Fall franchise will be re-animated.

Jon Solomon playlist, May 1989

51789playlist

This is the oldest known playlist of mine from May of 1989. My handwriting has only improved marginally over the subsequent quarter century+.