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September 2015, Page 2

Saturday Soul with JB and the Soul Gang

[By “JB”, aka James E. Butler, Esq. ’74]

My experience at Princeton was defined by my participation at WPRB-FM. Quite simply, my radio show meant everything to me. My social life and “spare” time revolved around my show. It was an exciting experience to be part of the growing movement offering “soul” music on FM radio during the early seventies. I remember being one of the very first to prominently play soul albums by persons and groups who would become major acts in the 70’s, such as Roberta Flack, Valerie Simpson, Ashford and Simpson, Barry White, and Earth Wind and Fire. My three year show at WPRB kept growing until it occupied the air waves from 1:00 – 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays. I believe it was the longest show at that time. I would have gladly hosted a show every day of the week if allowed.

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Friday WPRB DJ Pinup: Tesla Monson!

Years on air: 2002-2007

Favorite bands: Auktyon, Bettye Swann, Mogollar, Dengue Fever, Las Malas Amistades, Alemayehu Eshete. This just barely scrapes the surface, but these are probably my most frequently played.

Memorable on-air moment: I don’t know if I have one in particular, but I sure do miss all those shows hanging with my girls (fellow DJ’s Andrea Lee, Kate Poole, Angelica Reilly and Rachel Younger), playing crazy world music for hours, and having stoned townies call in to tell me I was blowing their mind.

Advice for current WPRB DJs: Don’t be afraid to dig through the stacks (especially the world music stacks!) Like all good things, music tastes evolve. You never know what amazing things you will find hidden in the back. So stop only playing things you are familiar with!

Bonus audio #1: Tesla voices the promo for her show


Bonus audio #2: Tesla voices the “WPRB/Soviet” station ID.


Note: Tesla’s show was called Gde mui bili e gde mui budem which, in her self-described ‘broken Russian’ translates to where we were and where we will be.

 

WPRB Presents: Tsunami/Spent at Princeton Arts Council

Speaking of that WPRB-sponsored Tsunami/Spent gig at the Princeton Arts Council, here’s the hastily cut promo which aired on the station during the run up to Thursday, November 19th, 1992. Also rescued from deep-freeze: the flyer for the show that was circulated around Princeton, New Brunswick, Hoboken, and beyond. (Above.)

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1949 WPRU Sign On—Awaiting “the Magic Hour”

[By Nelson Runger ’53]

I drew the job of morning man in September of my freshman year, 1949. I had about an hour’s instruction the day before my debut—all about how to turn the station on in the morning, etc. There was no separate engineer. I was the whole staff on duty.

I cajoled my three suite-mates to get up and listen to my debut (which was a three-hour stint that began at 6:00 a.m., as I recall.) I showed up about a half-hour early, turned on all the switches and gauges I had learned the previous day, selected the records I would play during the first hour, read over the FCC announcement that had to be read aloud at the beginning of the broadcasting day, cued up the Star Spangled Banner, and awaited the magic hour. (Ed note: The routine steps of morning sign-on, then as now, are required to be chronicled on every radio station’s daily programming log. See above for example from roughly the same era referenced in this story.)

At 6:00, I played the national anthem, read the FCC announcement, and launched into my three hours of recorded music, zippy banter, occasional news items, (mostly read from that morning’s Daily Princetonian), and frequent solo work on the Jew’s harp (also called a mouth harp and a jaw harp.) At the end of my three hours, I turned the station off, there being then a period of some hours before the station went on the air again.

I rushed back to my room and found my three suite-mates staring glumly at me. They hadn’t heard a thing, the one switch I had forgotten was the one that turned the transmitter on.

Kicking Mainstream Taste to the Curb

[By Justine Heilner 96, above, with Matthew Robb 94. Working the door at the WPRB-sponsored Tsunami/Spent show at the Princeton Arts Council]

I knew first thing freshman year that I wanted to be a DJ at WPRB because my brother Alex Heilner, three years my senior, was one too. I lived just around the corner from the studio in Hamilton Hall. Jen Moyse trained me—what an intimidatingly cool person to learn from! I was ‘lucky’ to never have to do a graveyard [late night] shift because Matthew Robb and Sean Murphy tricked me into being Traffic Director in exchange for a better time slot. What the hell did I do as Traffic Director?! I recall a lot of dot matrix printouts and a computer in a small room down the hall…

The first time I had a show my hands were shaking so much I had a hard time cueing the record. I had never done any kind of public speaking and I am not particularly into performance. I didn’t do banter and I didn’t have a sidekick or partner so I decided to just keep my speaking to a minimum and play the music. Listening to tapes of my first shows I thought I sounded like a really young girl. I created a radio voice—when I listen to young women DJs on college radio now, I know exactly what they’re doing. (more…)