Friday WPRB DJ Pinup: Billy Disease!
Years on air: 1979-1984.
Favorite Bands: The Ramones. And also, The Ramones.
Memorable On-Air Moment: 12-hour shift on Thanksgiving, played “In A Gadda Da Vida” twice in a row.
Advice for current WPRB DJs: Play lots of Ramones. Ease off the Partridge Family (but still play them.)
(Re-)Introducing WPRB’s 1980s House Band: The Funstigators!
By Steve Buratowski ’84
DOWNLOADS: The Complete Funstigators WPRB Tapes (.zip file) and the original Funstigators bio (.pdf)
One by-product of WPRB in the early ’80s was a band called the Funstigators. The band consisted of Steve Buratowski, Mark Crimmins, Ray Gonzalez, Kevin Hensley, Chuck Steidel, and Charles Sullivan. All were class of 1984 and, and except for Charles, joined the station as DJs soon after arriving at Princeton. Mark, Chuck, and Charles were roommates, and as far back as freshman year one of their favorite things to do on weekends was to get some cheap beer and play music. Chuck and Mark had guitars, and Charles played one of those tiny squeaky Casiotone keyboards that were popular in the ’80s, using an overturned trashcan as a stand.
Friday WPRB DJ Pinup: Ray Gonzalez!
[AKA “The Death Ray”]
Years on air: 1982-84
Favorite Bands: REM, The Fleshtones, The Funstigators
Memorable on-air moment: Terrible live on-air interview with Wall Of Voodoo. Stan Ridgway wasn’t there for some reason and I was completely unprepared and ill-equipped to speak with the rest of the band. I made a couple of lame jokes and ended up pissing them off.
Advice for current WPRB DJs: This was originally passed along to me from Billy Disease (Kevin Hensley): Never just play one Ramones track when you can play two back-to-back.