“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. 

The Thanx IV Sharin’ picnic became an annual component of May’s Communiversity celebration, and rock bands led by prominent regular callers provided the entertainment at these picnics.  Trenton’s City Gardens all-ages night club (booked by an avid listener/caller) instituted a number of “Sharing Nights,” hosted by the TFS air personalities, and even began to serve “Jolt Cola” (“all the sugar and twice the caffeine of other leading soft drinks”) as a direct result of Thanx IV Sharing’s advocacy of the product.

When some high school callers began to complain that the program’s late hours (Sunday nights, beginning at midnight) caused them tardiness or absence at school, TFS instituted a policy in which stamped, properly addressed envelopes from listeners would yield a note to the indicated high school attendance office, explaining the valid reason for the infractions (“Your pupil was involved late Sunday night in an important educational exercise conducted by the Princeton University radio station.”)

As listeners wrote letters for T-shirts, school excuses, or just general letters of comment, they frequently noted the increasing difficulty of getting through by telephone during the broadcast.  To help alleviate this problem, Head and Romberg instituted a “listener mail” portion of the program, in which letters intended for broadcast would be read on-air.  Besides the expected flood of mail from regular listeners (approximately 40 letters per week, many of which included artwork, photographs, cassettes, newspaper clippings, even food!), a new population of listeners began to reveal themselves at this point in time: the prisoners!  Thanx IV Sharin’ was apparently the most popular radio program at New Jersey’s Mid-State Correctional Facility, as well as having a listenership at several other institutes of detention within the signal range.

Since the prisoners were denied access to telephones at the late hour the show was broadcast, their devotion had previously been unknown to the programmers.  With the inception of “listener mail,” about ten prisoner letters per week began to arrive at Box 342.  The prisoners, like most TFS listeners, were attracted to the program largely for its irreverent, iconoclastic, absurdist approach.  But to them, the show also took on additional significance.  It provided them with access to a non-judgmental, tolerant community in which they could function on an equal basis with their counterparts on the outside.  The prisoners were neither heroicized nor vilified on the “sharewaves.”  They simply engaged in the dialogues of the day.  Yet the fact that many listeners began to write to these prisoners directly added a poignancy and gravity to the program that strengthened its importance to the listeners and the hosts.

The demands of the program (about 20 hours per week per host) necessitated the use of a “rotation” in which about four hosts each week from a pool of seven would produce the program.  Among these hosts were Keith Blanchard ‘88 (“Blind Limon Jefferson”), another Tiger editor-in-chief, Jeff Gottlieb ‘86 ‘87 ‘88 ‘89 (“Beetle Baily”), Chris Cohen ‘85 ‘86 ‘87 (“Mudcat Hubcap”), and Ken Katkin ‘87 (“Ken Katkin”).  In my eyes, the definitive lineup consisted of Head, Romberg, de Fontnouvelle, and Katkin.  This particular roster has continued the program via semi annual “reunions” since TFS’s September, 1987 demise.”