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Tuned in

Pledge drive helps university radio station

By Pat Summers, Special Writer
   It can range from an interview of a classical pianist to a visiting musician playing rockabilly or to “noise,” as one senior staffer described it.
   There’s also news, culture, sports and weather. That’s the aural menu of WPRB, or Princeton Radio Broadcast, “community supported independent radio.”
   If you live within its reach (which, counting live streaming, is boundless) and you haven’t yet discovered WPRB 103.3 FM, it’s time. You’re missing something unusual, unpredictable — and refreshing.
“I’m not quite sure what I lined up next, but I’m sure it’s going to be great . . .”
For me, the WPRB intro came last summer. Idly trying radio push buttons while driving, I came upon a voice like no other I’d heard on air . . . followed by music that also surprised.
   Not that the surprises were all positive — along with some polished delivery, there was also some mumbling, seeming stream of consciousness, dropping of the final ‘g’s. In short, lots of attention-holding variety.
“Is it ‘muss’ or ‘muse’? (background response) OK, ‘muse.’ My mom always told me ‘muss’ — I was right.”
It took careful listening to catch the call letters, then the Princeton location. It, or I, became curiouser and curiouser. How could a station run by Princeton University students call itself “independent”? What kinds of music was I hearing, and whose voices?
“I’m gonna make it happen. It’ll happen. I have faith in myself.”
It turns out that during its year-round 24-hour broadcasting day, WPRB is a lot like that saying about New England weather — if you don’t like it, wait a few minutes. In general, though, mornings (6-11 a.m.) are for classical music — but current classics, not just the tired old war horses. Then a couple hours of jazz — but more contemporary sounds, not “elevator jazz,” specifies Dipika Sen, station manager.
   Then, starting about 1 p.m., it’s rock, encompassing anything not classical or jazz, from electronica to soul or reggae; from hip-hop to traditional college rock or the “noise” already mentioned. Electronic Fridays are especially popular, says Lauren Coleman, program director, who works to find a “good flow of styles among shows.”
   Students are constantly changing, so that’s a built-in way to refresh content, she says, and Ms. Sen cites a policy requiring classical DJs to wait six weeks before repeating a piece — another assurance of “consistently challenging content.” The time devoted to any single rock artist during a show is limited, too.
   Rock DJs “emphasize new, underground and independent artists, many with ties to the local music scenes in central New Jersey and Philadelphia,” according to WPRB’s media kit. Before any release can be added to the extensive stacks, it’s reviewed track by track for playability, genre and most radio-friendly tracks.
   And yes, although the station’s managed by undergrads and its offices are on campus, it’s “entirely financially independent” of the institution, says Ms. Sen. It’s also independent of larger radio conglomerates such as NPR or Clear Channel.
   Commercially funded since its 1940 start, the station derives income from advertising (“businesses that share WPRB’s offbeat, grassroots ethos”) and, since 2007, an annual membership drive — this year’s starts runs through this Sunday, Oct. 14.
   Though student-run, with nearly 20 undergrads on the board, there’s a range of ages among the station’s 63 DJs. They include 24 students or affiliates of the university as well as community people, some musicians themselves. A number are on-air veterans.
   ”Community,” for WPRB, may refer to its immediate Princeton area or the 15,000 square miles its signal covers — central New Jersey, Philadelphia and eastern Pennsylvania, parts of the Jersey shore. Its live Internet stream carries programming around the world.
   ”We definitely have more broadcast power than most other college radio stations,” Ms. Coleman says.
   That’s because WPRB is FM, offers Michael Lupica, the station’s educational adviser, who shares his extensive radio experience with the undergrad board.
   ”We acquired the license when the AM band was well established and FM wasn’t valued — a miscalculation by those who thought FM wouldn’t catch on.”
   Now, when a broadcast license becomes available, many organizations are ready to pounce, he adds.
   A healthy hike down campus from Nassau Street, station offices are located in the basement of Bloomberg Hall. Daily operations info and station merchandise are stored in the business office, while across the hallway are the board room, for myriad meetings, and music office — stocked with CDs and vinyl records sent by listeners and record labels.
   The main studio houses the equipment used to transmit on air, including three CD players, two turntables and the main board. Next door are the record stacks, with the station’s vinyl and CD collections, organized by genre, alphabetically by artist.
   Duplicating equipment in the main studio, the “mirror studio” is used as a training and prep area for new DJs and those previewing records before their shows. A professional recording site, the production studio is used to record interviews and bands, which can perform in a large adjacent space.
   Tune in Mondays at 6 p.m. after sports news for WPBR’s news and culture hour. Ms. Sen, a senior economics major, describes the way some elements are handled as “NPR-like, with pre-recorded content.”
   Her job as station manager includes minute-to-minute operational oversight as well as implementing her vision for the station “in the media landscape.” She mentions engaging better with technology and improving WPRB’s Internet presence via upgrading the web stream, offering podcasts and updating the website.
   Besides “curating the program schedule,” Ms. Coleman also trains new DJs each semester for four weeks including FCC regulations, shadowing a show and taking written and on-air tests. She’s a junior in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs.
   A former program director, senior classics major James Corran now serves as WPRB’s development director. In that role, he spent much of his summer preparing for the membership drive now under way. His efforts included lining up art, deciding on and obtaining give-aways, a.k.a. “WPRB swag,” and devising specialized programming and other ways to engage the station’s listener base.
   The proof of his fund-raising pudding will be in the counting once the drive has ended. Want to help? Tune in, then give WPRB a push button — and a pledge.
WPRB, 103.3 FM, a not-for-profit, commercial radio station, Princeton. Office phone: 609-258-3655. For more information, including station history since 1940, visit WPRB.com. To pledge, phone 609-258-1033 or go to pledge.wprb.com.