1967: WPRB Shows MOR to the Door
By Rupert Macnee ’69
When I arrived at Princeton in the fall of 1966, I brought a suitcase full of British pop records of the era. I very quickly realized that all these records were knock-offs of what was happening in the United States. Motown was flourishing. I discovered Blues and Jazz and even though Chuck Berry was a disappointment at one of our dances, I was deeply in awe of the rich heritage of American music.
WPRB was at that time firmly devoted to MOR – easy listening like Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, classics in their way, but not exactly 1966 teenage stuff. I got a spot on the WPRB roster because Boyd Britten, (later “Doc on the Rock” at KROQ in Los Angeles), thought my voice sounded like the world service of the BBC.
After a year of this dreadful music – well I thought it was then – I went back to England for the summer of 1967. Apart from Sergeant Pepper, it was the summer of Jimi Hendrix, the Who, and Cream. When I got back to Princeton in the fall of 1967 the playlist opened up a bit, and for a few months we did daily shows featuring loud rock and roll from a mobile set-up in one window of the University Store. It was fun to wander around on the sidewalk with a microphone interviewing passers-by and playing the latest batch of records from England. I’m firmly convinced that WPRB actually premiered a good many records that didn’t really kick off in the U.S. until early 1968.
WPRB was also a great facility for recording and mixing. I did the music for several films in that tiny studio – Barry Miles playing Harpsichord, Al Price, Oliver Whitehead, Jim Floyd, Lindsay Holland, Vincent Gregory, all were much-appreciated contributors to some less than memorable epics!