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WPRB Staff Photos — Spring 1985

Photos courtesy of Jim Knickerbocker ’86. These pix were originally mounted on a piece of cardboard that hung in the lobby of WPRB’s old studios in Holder Hall. Please note that all defacements (scribbled out faces, pointy beards, googly eyes, arrows-thru-head, etc) are features of the original source material. This post has been published on the assumption that any disagreements which may have inspired these acts of vandalism have been resolved over the last 30+ years.

Note that you can pause the slideshow by hovering your cursor over the current image.

 

 

The Fall / Mark E. Smith / WPRB Mega-Post

As you’ve probably heard by now, Mark E. Smith, the leader of iconic post-punk stalwarts The Fall, passed away last week at the age of 60. His health had been in decline for some time, as evidenced by the band’s last two American tours being abruptly canceled, as well as recent stage entrances being made by wheelchair.

Within the pantheon of WPRB, the Fall are an act of unique prominence. I can’t think of another cult band that’s existed continuously for so many years and which has been adored by so many WPRB DJs spread across four different decades. As such, when the news of Smith’s death broke, I started seeing a lot of Fall-related waxing from current and former PRB folks in my social media feeds. (A trend including content from early 80s alums, as well as folks who graduated from college as recently as two years ago.) This post attempts to gather as many of those images, words, and related gushings as possible into a singular MES/Fall/WPRB content depot.

Before we go any further, let it be stated quite clearly: Mark E. Smith was a hugely problematic character. He was arrested and charged with assaulting bandmate Julia Nagle in 1998, and there are numerous accounts of awful behavior on his part over the years. But as he was the only constant member of the band through countless lineups, any notion or idea of the Fall continuing without him is simply absurd. (As Smith once famously declared “If it’s me and yer granny on bongos, it’s the Fall.“)

As such, think of this post not as a deification of Smith—a man whose inexcusable actions should be neither forgotten nor sugar-coated—but rather, a summary of how his band’s music shaped the lives, experiences, and musical travels of so many WPRB DJs across multiple generations.

To begin, I present the above slideshow which comprises fresh scans of every piece of available Fall vinyl from WPRB’s record library. (Except the ‘Slates’ 10″, which I forgot to grab before hoofing all those records across town to scan them… apologies.) Many of the hastily taped (and re-taped) spines should give you a sense of how heavily WPRB’s airstaff has hit these LPs over the years. Note that you can pause the slideshow by mousing over any of the images.

Below are other various Fall-related pieces of media and writing from or involving a slew of WPRB DJs from the 1980s-now.

RIP Mark E. Smith. And farewell to a criterion WPRB band.

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1969 WPRB Aircheck

I recently received a CD-R containing WPRB airchecks from station alum Peter Charapko. He writes:

“Enclosed are two copies of programs of mine, May 16 1969, and October 4 1969. They include musical selections, news and public affairs announcements, and discourse typical of our progressive rock “animate sound” daytime format. Significant for me, and for many of the students, these two shows bracket the summer before and after [Princeton] University beginning coeducation… That summer, many of us at the station [also] attended Woodstock.”

He goes on to describe various aspects of WPRB during this era, including daily life in the station’s then-home in the basement of Holder Hall:

“Studios and business offices were below the eleventh entry of Holder Hall. At that time we conducted ‘voice tests’ to qualify for a broadcast program; most shows were engineered by the announcer, who also switched to an adjacent studio, for example, to news reporters. Candidates trained several weeks with other announcers before [earning] FCC Third Class Licenses. As Chief Announcer during 1970, I was privileged to be able to phone announcers on the air—usually to compliment, and at times, to offer constructive critique.”

Nearly 50 years later, Peter seems well-suited to this task, as he has the cool and laid back vibe of that era’s most fondly-remembered broadcasters. Embedded below are a few (scoped) samples from Peter’s contribution to the growing WPRB History Archives. Look for more in a future post!

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WPRB in Miniature

Words: Kelsey Halliday Johnson

1- This photo collage (above) was on the door to the music office for my tenure as music director. The photo was taken of me when Dan Ruccia (outgoing music director) and I were starting to really unpack and decorate (rehanging some old posters from [WPRB’s old studios in] Holder [Hall] and hanging some new ones, along with junk CDs and other summer staff/intern coloring book doodles among other things that made it the cavern of greatness that it is today). Bloomberg Hall (then known simply as “The Ellipse”) was made into a home over the course of one semester and one summer …..Where the moose collage element came from continues to mystify me!

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More 80s/90s Thursday Night Hip-Hop Audio

Pictured: WPRB’s trophy wax Naughty by Nature 12″s

With thanks to WPRB History’s newest digital archivist Joan Hsiao, we present two recently digitized drop-ins from the station’s storied era of Thursday night hip-hop shows (The Raw Deal, Vibes & Vapors, Club Krush, etc.)

First up, this drop from Jeru the Damaja from the Vibes & Vapors era.

 

And then from the Raw Deal, we present Treach from Naughty by Nature.

 

And finally, just because it’s an easy excuse to post a great song, here’s the late, great Tony D, who was a contributor to all of the above mentioned shows, as well as a WPRB DJ in his own right. “Check the Elevation” is a critical slice of local hip-hop history.

Radio Striptease on “The Magic of Radio”

Text: Marc Fisher ’80 | Photo: Rob Schuman ’74

The Magic of Radio was a late-night, sometimes all-night, program that aired once a week from about 1977 to 1980. It was a mix of music, juvenile nonsense, brilliant satire and pathetically bad taste.

We tried to stay as close to the legal and moral edge as possible. We had a weatherman with a speech impediment that rendered him entirely incomprehensible. We had a substitute weatherman who was sentenced to stand at an (imaginary) outdoor phone booth in Kingston whenever there was significant snow or, his personal favorite, freezing rain. We had a sports reporter who never once made it on the air; he always seemed to be delayed at a bar across the street. The news was read by Gus Gil, whose booming voice made the acts of a New Jersey state magistrate seem like the coming of the Lord.

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WPRB in The Daily Princetonian: The Early Years

[embeddoc url=”http://www.wprbhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Part1_TheEarlyDays.pptx” viewer=”microsoft”]

Rob Schuman ’74 sifted through The Daily Princetonian‘s extensive archive, looking at all 8,000 unique mentions of WPRB. He’s compiled the most interesting into a series of slideshows. This post documents WPRB’s early years. Beware those kilocycle gremlins.

WPRB Fund Drive

WPRB2

It’s time for WPRB’s annual fund drive, running now through October 18. If you’ve enjoyed reading/seeing/hearing about all the amazing things that have happened at WPRB over the past 75 years, please help us keep the station going for the next 75. Make your pledge now!

In case you need any more convincing, here is a note from our current station manager:

Dear Members and Listeners,

This is the big one. 75 years of unique, challenging radio. 75 years of weird. 75 years of the best radio station in New Jersey. 75 years of WPRB.

Every year we ask you, our devoted listeners, to help us keep the lights on by donating during our Fall Membership Drive. And well, you’ve done much more than that. Thanks to your help, WPRB lives on as an independent radio station, giving our DJs the artistic freedom to create the programs they want to present to the masses. That’s right, we’re independent. Although we are housed at Princeton University, we are independently owned and operated and do not receive financial assistance from them.

That’s why our Fall Membership Drive is so important: it’s how we keep the station going. Last year, you helped us exceed our goal of $50,000. You proved that you think that WPRB is something special, and with this enormous support we’ve been able to deliver even higher quality radio to you.

But this year the stakes are even higher. To commemorate our 75th Anniversary, we’ve set an especially ambitious goal of raising $75,000 during this year’s Membership Drive. For 75 years, WPRB has served as New Jersey and Pennsylvania’s safe haven from the monotonous, corporate radio found on the rest of the dial. We want to celebrate this legacy by forcefully pushing into the next 75 years of WPRB’s history. With your help, we can continue to grow as an independent radio station of the 21st century by expanding our online capabilities to be able to engage even more with our devoted listeners. Exciting things are ahead at WPRB.

From October 11th at 7pm to October 18th at 10pm, we need your love more than ever. Join us in celebrating WPRB’s past and future 75 years.

Love,

Mitch McCloy

Station Manager

WPRB Princeton 103.3 FM