Mike Lupica, Author at WPRB History - Page 11 of 12
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Mike Lupica, Page 11

WPRB as “The Voice of the Campus”, by Paul Dunn

PAUL_DUNN

Working at WPRU or, in fact, having anything to do with broadcasting was the farthest thing from my mind the first time I entered the station in the early fall of 1954. I was simply fleeing from a group of sophomores who were trying to steal my beanie, which all freshman had to wear then. Holder Hall was the sophomore dorm, but we had to pass through this enemy territory to get to the Commons to eat. A month or so later, a few of my friends and I came up with the idea that WPRU, which, at that time, didn’t sign on till 8 pm Sundays, should have a classical music program Sunday afternoons. We had met some members of the station — Art Hulnich ’57 comes to mind — and we proposed the idea of a Sunday afternoon program called Sunday Sketchbook, and it was eventually accepted. It was not long till I was thoroughly addicted to life in the basement of Holder. (more…)

The John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) Station ID

Here’s the Public Image Limited frontman, former Sex Pistol, and dairy product spokesman laying it all on the line for WPRB. For a time, personalized station IDs from popular college radio acts were frequently circulated to stations in a (corny but probably pretty effective) effort to increase a band’s airplay. The John Lydon/PiL ID likely coincided with the release of “Album” in 1986.

 

Digitized by Aida Garrido.

Early 80s Tin Lizzie Garage Commercial

The Tin Lizzie Garage was a local bar (later strip club) in Kingston, New Jersey that advertised with WPRB for a spell during the 1980s. Here’s an ad from that era, voiced by Bill Rosenblatt ’83, John Bailo ’82, and Mike Webber ’81.

Bill Rosenblatt recalls:

[WPRB] didn’t have that much to do with the Tin Lizzie Garage – it was a fairly divey bar in a strip mall in Kingston that usually had cover bands, Bruce Springsteen wannabes, that kind of thing. They ran some ads; we hardly ever promoted any of the music.  There was one exception, though: the Dixie Dregs.  (more…)

WPRB: “Eclectic and Schizophrenic”, by Scott Gurvey

pet_soundsI’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. (more…)

WPRB Births the Greatest Expletive of the 20th Century, by Stephen Pribula

wprb1

You know how sometimes you doubt your own recollection, when something is just too good to be true? I have a memory like that of WPRB. About twenty-five odd years ago I witnessed one of the watershed events of this century in the studios in the basement of Holder Hall.  Your requests for historical material on the station has led me to reconsider that recollection. Only after careful reflection have I decided that it did indeed happen as I remember it and that I’m not just imagining things. I was, however, convinced when I realized that something in such utter bad taste could have only happened at WPRB. You see, I was present for the very first utterance of the greatest expletive of the twentieth century: “Fucking A.”  (more…)

“I majored in radio station”, by Moe Rubenzahl

What would Freud say about the meaning of this 14,000 watt protrusion? And how did such a thing come to be a roommate of the Holder gargoyles? I am told some subterfuge was involved. It is said that when the students showed the University what the proposed antenna would look like atop Holder Hall, they neglected to mention that the two drawings used a different scale. Final erection was scheduled for a holiday weekend and the real appearance was unknown to the Trustees until the last guy wire had been tightened. Perhaps you can cajole some of my predecessors into telling you the whole story.  (more…)

“Hey You Kids Get Off My Lawn” promo, circa 1994

555_Hey_You_Kids_box1-page-001In WPRB’s 1000+ piece collection of moldy old 1/4 inch reels (which I spent last summer sorting and fending off a case of Legionnaires’ Disease for), I discovered this hot take for “Hey You Kids, Get Off My Lawn” the punk rock show I hosted with Jen Moyse ’94 during the mid-90s.

The sound quality is pretty bad, but keep in mind, the source reel had been decomposing in a filthy USPS mail tub in a damp basement for twenty years before I rescued it. This show was a ridiculous consequence of a Rhino Records-sponsored contest we entered following the release of the “Faster & Louder: Hardcore Punk” comps, and in which the label challenged college radio stations around the country to host 80s punk tributes. If I recall correctly, we finally got around to doing the special at 2 or 3 AM, taped it on overdubbed promo cassettes from major labels, and subsequently missed the entry deadline due to some postal holiday the following day which we’d forgotten all about. Oh well. We never made it into the contest, but we had so much fun doing the show, it became our musical focus for the next few years. Background music and soundbytes courtesy of Die Kreuzen, Schlong, and F.O.D.

 

“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.  (more…)