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.

Memorable On-Air Moment: I logged so many hundreds of hours on the air over the years that it’s mostly a blur. I have very warm recollections of certain categories of on-air time, such as when I had the drive-time slot for a semester or two, probably sophomore or junior year. That was great fun because we’d have a chance to have a really professional-sounding airsound because we were interacting, for example, with people from the news department. (I distinctly remember one afternoon when, for some reason, Ray Gonzalez was doing news.) I also fondly remember when Alan Flippen and I — whom he termed the “B’nai B’rith DJ Team” — basically held down the entire rock schedule for the week around Christmas in an abandoned Holder Hall. Even though the studios and the campus were empty, it was a great time to be on the air, because so many listeners who had become ‘PRB fans in high school were home for the holidays from campuses outside our coverage area. The phone was busy!

As assistant sales manager and later sales manager, I also have very happy memories of playing long sets of … ad carts! Especially when they were my clients and, as was usually the case, my spots. (By that point in time, there was not a lot going on in the production department so if you wanted good ad spots and happy clients, you made them yourself.)

Advice for Current WPRB DJs: Learn the skills you need to be a good jock by taking on as many slots as you can early on so you can focus on being creative, pushing the limits, and having fun.