Princeton on the Air

Photo by Vivienne Chen

While Princeton’s only radio station may be student-run, it is probably better known to the off-campus community than to Princeton University’s own students.   “Unfortunately, students don't really listen to the radio these days,”, explains current station manager Lindsey-Paige McCloy ’12. “Many students' reaction to the news that I'm the manager of the radio station is ‘Oh, we have a radio station?’ ”. However, McCloy notes that WPRB has “a wide variety of listeners, mostly in the community,” a community that stretches from New York to Philadelphia.

WPRB (103.3 FM) began over 60 years ago in a dorm room. Today its facilities span multiple halls in the basement of Princeton University’s red brick Bloomberg residential hall. This unique operation includes a recording studio, a board meeting room, a broadcast center, and a warren full of turntables, demo tapes, and old-fashioned LPs.

WPRB plays both news broadcasts and music programs—ranging from classical to alternative and indie rock. The station is also adapting to the digital age with a website that features the programming schedule,  concert promotions with ticket giveaways, and downloadable news podcasts, such as interviews conducted by student reporters for last week's special on the future of energy. 

While WPRB is run almost completely by Princeton students, it is independent from the University - other than the use of its facilities - and reaches out to members of the Princeton community to sponsor and donate, volunteer to DJ, and—most importantly—tune in.

WPRB lays claim to being one of the largest and strongest college radio stations, drawing an audience from 15,000 square miles of coverage. McCloy says they plan to continue broadcasting the terrestrial FM signal, even though similar stations are shutting down due to financial pressure. So how does WPRB make ends meet?

McCloy explains that WPRB is "community supported", and raises funds mainly through a large membership drive that happens in October. “This is a pretty new development—in fact, this year will be only our fifth annual drive,” she says. “Basically, it's kind of like a PBS-style telethon.” Operators take pledges from listeners who receive prizes based on their level of donation. According to McCloy, each year’s drive raises between $30,000 and $40,000, which covers the day-to-day costs of running the station.  WPRB also takes advertising.

Beyond the financial, WPRB garners support from the Princeton community by providing opportunities for DJs to air programs every week. Many of these DJs are students, yet a good number are seasoned volunteers from the local area. One of the community DJs is Jon Solomon, who has been working with WPRB since 1988. Solomon runs a weekly show from 7pm to 10pm every Wednesday, in which he prepares a playlist of eclectic tunes and mixes for his listeners. He recently featured rock musician Che Arthur live in his studio.

 “My favorite part of doing the show,” says Solomon, “would be a tie [between] getting the chance to share music I love… and having the opportunity to continuously be learning about bands, labels, records and movements of the past, present and future.”

Solomon says he spends two hours before his three-hour show preparing his notes, talking points, and music. In the week leading up to his show, he searches out new artists, records live bands in the studio, and previews new records that have been sent to WPRB. “I've always felt you can tell the difference as a listener between a show with a lot of work behind it and a program thrown together at the last minute,” he says. “I prefer to camp out in the former category.”

Undergraduate students get a chance to experience the many aspects of radio work. WPRB’s Board of Directors is comprised entirely of students, and many students volunteer to produce music, sports, and news programs. “[The part] I love about WPRB is the ability to communicate verbally to an audience that is not Princeton,” says student Rafael Grillo, ’14, who regularly reads the broadcasts for the news portion of WPRB. The news segment airs every Monday from 6pm to 6:30pm.

“News does not have what I consider to be a large enough section of the radio,” Grillo says. “Our news mottos are: ‘WPRB looks beyond’ and ‘WPRB News:  Your News, From a Different View.’  What we want to do is offer depth, and not just breadth.” Grillo says the challenges of being a student broadcaster include the difficult balance between class work, tests, and running a radio program. Yet overall, he says he vastly enjoys working with his peers in the relaxed station environment.

“Radio allows me to branch out from the Orange Bubble and pursue issues that are happening internationally, and address a larger audience,” he says. “I love journalism, and WPRB radio, for all its stresses, gives me my ideal outlet through which I can exercise this passion.”

(AllPrinceton will begin featuring selected WPRB local coverage in our multimedia section.)

About the Author

Vivienne Chen

Vivienne Chen is a student at Princeton University majoring in English. She recently moved to Princeton from Pleasanton, California.