WPRB DJs Arrested in Washington, 1970
[Jeff Weiser (left) and Bruce Snyder help cover the 1972 election live on the air.]
By Douglas B. Quine
I joined WPRB in my freshman year of 1969-1970 and trained on WPRB-AM before serving as a newsman at the May Day protest demonstration in Washington (1970) and the election night headquarters of Nixon and McGovern (1972). In Princeton, I took on the folk & blues shows on WPRB-FM, served as Traffic Director and assistant business manager, and finally served on the Ivy Network Board of Directors.
I have many memories of WPRB, including lighting fluorescent lamps by the radiated antenna power on Holder Tower, talking with stoned listeners who called into the studios, organizing the Beach Boys, Fish, Jean Shepherd, Weather Report, & Poco concerts, and the first WPRB Tee Shirts (blue shirts with a yellow smudge at the bottom which was supposed to represent a voice print). The stories that I’ve retold the most times, however, must be the “WPRB arrests in Washington” and “The Do Me Bird”.
I’ve come to accept the fact that WPRB, and all of Princeton, has been doing very well since I left. Part of me was hoping it would all fall apart the moment I graduated. I realize my years with WPRB came about halfway through its life to date. It was already a long way from the beginning as an AM radio signal impressed on the power lines and occasionally picked up by the Pennsylvania Railroad and transmitted a distance long enough to summon the wrath of the FCC. I’m sure the current WPRB has evolved well beyond where we were then.