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The WPRB Membership Drive begins today! The full schedule for our special week of programming will be:

Sunday 10/9

7pm – 10pm                        John Weingart

10pm – 2am                       Mister Various

Monday 10/10

6am – 9am                        Classical with Toby

9am- 11am                         Classical with Sara

11am – 1pm                       Jazz with Dan Buskirk

1pm – 3pm                        Yo Gabbie Gabbie

3pm – 5pm                        Scullination with Eli

5pm – 6pm                       Timeout with WPRB Sports

6pm – 6.30pm                WPRB News

6.30pm – 7pm                The Week In Review

7pm – 9pm                       DJ Rev MC

9pm – 11pm                     Rock with Aaron

11pm – 1am                      Metal Mania

1am – 3am                        DJ Carnie

Tuesday 10/11

6am-9am                         Classical with Michael

9am – 11am                     Classical with Bob

11am – 1pm                      The Outerspace Employment Agency

1pm – 4pm                       Rockabilly Roadhouse

4pm – 8pm                      Motorfunker

8pm – 10pm                    Not Truth, But Effect with KPC

10pm – 12am                  Transitional Soundscapes

12am – 3am                     Extremities

Wednesday 10/12

6am – 11am                        Classical Discoveries

11am – 1pm                        Classical Discoveries Goes Avant Garde

1pm – 3pm                         The Clothesline with Wilbo

3pm – 5pm                        The Front Porch with Molly and Adoley

5pm – 7pm                        The Death of Tango with Pablo

7pm – 10pm                      Rock with Jon Solomon

10pm – 12am                    J.T.

12am – 2am                      The Sprawl with Mickey Kane

Thursday 10/13

6am – 11am                        Towe on Thrsday

11am – 1pm                        Blues, Bop and Beyond with Will Constantine

1pm – 3pm                         Teenage Lust with Colin

3pm – 5pm                        Majestic Jams with Gabe & LP

5pm – 7pm                        Doubleplusgood with Lizbot

7pm – 9pm                        Clean Yr Room with Art and Julia

9pm – 11pm                      Best of the UK with Scott

11pm – 1am                       Peacock Dreams with Lance Loud

Friday 10/14

6am – 9am                         Classical with Kate

9am – 11am                       Classical with Nathan

11am – 2pm                       Serenade to a Cuckoo with Jerry Gordon

2pm – 5pm                        Pop Rocks with Louisa

5pm – 8pm                       The James & Andy Show

8pm – 9pm                       State of the Station

9pm – 10pm                     Lauren & Dixon

10pm – 12am                  Slot Time with Surgeon General

12am – 3am                     Music with Space with Mike Hunter

Saturday 10/15

6am – 7am                        Classical with James

7am – 9am                        Classical with Gabe

9am – 11am                       Sangeet

11am – 12pm                    The world’s Fare with Pangaeo

12pm – 4pm                     FOOTBALL – Live Coverage Princeton vs. Brown

4pm – 6pm                       All Ages Show with Paddy

6pm – 8pm                       Recherché with Readie Righteous

8pm – 10pm                     DJ Shane FM

10pm – 12pm                   Old School Rock and Roll with Kurt

12pm – 2am                     Between the Lines with Sitesh

Sunday 10/16

6am – 10am                      Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy

10am – 1pm                      Sunday Jazz with Jeannie

1pm – 3pm                        Musical Odyssey with Bonnie and Xander

3pm – 5pm                       Jamrock Radio with Selecta Bam Bam

5pm – 7pm                       Side-B Radio with Phil Jackson

To make a donation, either call us during a show at 609-258-1033 or go to pledge.wprb.com

Bernard Wöstheinrich

Bernhard started in about 1987 to intensely experiment with his own soundsand tunes after he found out that drawing and painting simply weren’t enoughto adequately express himself. He went about to find something that mighthad a more “performing” approach. Inspired by the likes of Einstürzende Neubauten and other informal and experimental music, he finally began towork in a very personal way to compose and record some early tapes.

Bernhard leads his own solo project “The Redundant Rocker” and his maincollaborator is Markus Reuter (in CENTROZOON). He has also worked with IanBoddy, Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock, No-Man singer Tim Bowness, Conrad Schnitzler,and Synapscape’s Philipp Münch. He has released music on a variety of labelssuch as DiN, Burning Shed, Tonefloat, Unsung Records, and continues to push at the boundaries of rock, electronica, and the avant-garde.

Bernhard elicits meaning from abstraction in electronic music and painting.He has studied graphic design and has created an eclectic body of work inboth graphics and music. Using a compositional approach akin to his work asa visual artist, Bernhard usually begins by improvising abstract sonic structures which are subsequently developed into an increasingly detailed aural picture.

For more information visit:

http://www.redundantrocker.com

http://www.centrozoon.de

This July 4th weekend, indie-rock champions and local WPRB favorites the Feelies are playing three shows at Maxwell’s in Hoboken.  Born out of Haledon, New Jersey in 1977 by Glenn Mercer and Bill Million, The Feelies have been mainstays of indie-rock ever since they began playing shows in their hometown and New York in the late 70s.  When I was in high school, I looked desperately for bands that had the same meticulous and precise energy as Talking Heads, and The Feelies were one that I very happily found.

Their classic 1980 album Crazy Rhythms is a mixture of a twangy, interweaving, and bright guitar work with drums that ascend, descend, and drop off completely, making the album sound haunting and clear (like it might’ve been created in a laboratory somewhere in North Jersey).  The band was weirdly dissimilar from both the sound of punk and new wave popular in New York at the time, but retained some qualities of both genres in their sound, and created a unique style that really lasted in my memory.  They stayed popular in the underground music scene early on, and they recorded three other equally great albums through 1991, each having a huge impact on indie music at large.

It was only three years ago that the band officially reunited after a 17-year hiatus, playing a few shows at Maxwell’s before playing a much-anticipated opening for Sonic Youth at the River to River festival in Battery Park, and then playing the entirety of Crazy Rhythms at the All Tomorrow’s Party music fest a year later.  Since then, they began writing new songs and recorded Here Before, again showing what they can do with their minimalist approach and all that pretty guitar work.  This weekend they play Maxwell’s for the 4th year in a row on the Fourth of July, as the band has consistently played shows on national holidays since it began (yet another interesting and folk-lorish detail you might want to know).  What a better way to celebrate our nation’s history than with these American pioneers of indie-rock…  The first two shows are sold out, but tickets are still available for Sunday’s show.  Check them out!  I’ll be going to Sunday’s show and will be writing about it next week.

When much-loved “Nocturnal Transmissions” host Doctor Cosmo passed away in early April, it was decided soon thereafter that a fitting, lasting tribute would be to name the station’s Production Studio after him.

Since first coming to WPRB in 1991, Cosmo recorded bands of every possible shape, size and sound here and all future sessions will be engineered in a space bearing his name.

Today a laser-etched piece of metal was mounted outside of the studio door.

It reads:

I hope that future DJs will see this sign, wonder about the mustachioed madman looking back at them and ask a veteran member of the air staff who Doctor Cosmo was – opening their minds to the limitless possibilities of radio in the process.

Thank you to Joe Heller for providing the drawing of his friend and to Lewis at NextFab Studio for his assistance in getting this one-of-a-kind plaque created.

A former classical director, Sara Shukla, sent me a link to a great piece in the NYT earlier this evening (click!) that kind of prompted some renewed thinking on the topic.  It’s true that people don’t listen to the radio as much these days, but you could also say that it’s true that people don’t listen to music in the same way any more either.  The much-heralded “death of the music industry” has failed to really impact the success of most radio stations, especially many free-form stations like WRVU and WPRB, because these stations provide things you just can’t find on the internet or on satellite radio or what have you.  On stations like WRVU and WPRB, you have engaging and thoughtful DJs who know a heck of a lot about music putting together sets of music for your listening enjoyment and often commenting on them in enlightening ways.  Whether you agree with a certain DJ or not, it’s hard as a music listener to not see the value in this.  Independent radio also has an endearing unpolished nature to it, making otherwise obscure music accessible and relatable and interesting to those who might not have found it interesting in the first place.  The benefits for station staff are also immeasurable.  Speaking as a student, I believe I’ve learned more through working at WPRB than in any combination of classes I’ve taken in school, and I think that anyone who has ever worked in college radio would agree to at least some degree.

Lest you worry, WPRB is not in any danger of being sold.  In fact, WPRB is and will continue to be a thriving, musically and newsically and sportsically diverse organization for years to come.  Thanks to our community-supported model, we exist due to the generosity of our listeners and so are not beholden to any organization that might seek to squash us without our input.  Like all independent stations, however, WPRB is doing its best to remain relevant in the digital age, and we’re making plans to expand online offerings in the future (which could include more online accessibility to broadcast material and special online-only content).  We love to hear support and suggestions from our listeners, so if you’ve got any cool ideas, comment on this post and we’ll take them under consideration.  Whether it’s organizing and executing a supercharged membership drive to maintaining balance in the schedule between familiar shows and new voices to fixing the website when it’s broken, there’s always issues to hammer out at WPRB, but thanks to our listeners, I think we’re producing better radio than ever.

I personally hope WRVU is able to find the silver lining really soon.  In a year that has seen the sale of WRVU, KUSF, and KTRU, independent broadcasters need to ensure that they stay relevant and connected to their listener bases.  As for these new online stations, I think that if WRVU’s DJs are able to continue to produce a great product while finding ways to engage listeners even from an online stream, they can remain a vital part of Nashville’s music scene and the broadcast landscape as a whole.  Perhaps moving to a more community-supported format would do them good; perhaps, at this point, it’s better to make lemonade from their lemons.  In any case, please remember how important our listeners and supporters and DJs and staff (who are all volunteers) are to us at WPRB, and we could literally not exist without your support.  You can make sure that we keep running strong by donating now or in October during our drive, or by purchasing WPRB merch through our new online store, or by calling in during your favorite radio show to chat with the DJs, or by just tuning in every once in a while.  With your support, we can remain weird and wacky and wonderful well into the future.

Follow the WRVU saga here and here.

Download the magazine here: http://jumpphilly.com/summer-2011/

Every week this summer WPRB will highlight one its DJs in “Get To Know WPRB’s DJS.”

Name: Will Kukin

Show: Metal Mania

Blog For Your Show?: wprbmetalmania.tumblr.com

Type of music played on show?: Metal (mostly death metal and all the subgenres, melodic death metal, technical death metal, viking metal).

Reasons why you decided to be a DJ?: Went to freshman activities fair, the WPRB table was there and someone shouted out “Hey, do you like music?” and I was like “Yeah.”

Day Job: Princeton University student

Where are you from originally?: Englewood, New Jersey

What can you not stop listening to right now?: Viking Metal (a sub sub genre of death or black metal with some folk and melodic elements) artists like: Varg, Amon Amarth.

Favorite summer food?: My favorite all year food is Reese’s Cups.

What are you reading right now?: The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James.

What is your favorite song lyric?: Most of the music I listen to, you can’t even hear the lyrics!

What is your favorite city in the world that you have visited?: Venice.

Submit events to calendar@wprb.com!

TRENTON – Marvin James Bradshaw, son of the late Ella Bradshaw, was born Aug. 17, 1939 in Andalusia, Ala. He departed this life on Sunday, Dec. 19, 2010, at Jeanes Hospital, Philadelphia. Marvin lived most of his life in Trenton. He was employed by Princeton University and Rider University and retired in 1996. After he retired, he became a Sunday morning host of WPRB 103.3 FM, where he played some of yesterday’s and today’s best jazz music. On Dec. 26, 2010 WPRB dedicated the entire program in his memory. He was a member of Shiloh Baptist Church, Trenton. He also was a Mason and belonged to the Bordentown Lodge. Marvin especially enjoyed reading, fishing, and football. He was a lifelong fan of the New York Giants and you could always catch him, Donald Bray, and the guys at Giants Stadium or at Klotz watching the game.

Those left behind to cherish Marvin’s memory are his beloved brothers, John Bradshaw of Boston and Robert Lane (Essie) of Trenton; his sister, Lois Rodafox of Pensicola, Fla.; three children, Andrea Wells (Keith) of Evansville, Ind., John Morton of Hamilton Township and Marva Bradshaw of Lawrenceville; nine grandchildren Qiana Counts, Gabrielle Morton, Cindy Morton, Marcus Wells, Mason Wells, Keon Heaverly, Marquis Bradshaw, Johnna Morton, and Tatiana Morton; and one great-grandchild, Devyn Baldon. Marvin, Daddy, Poppa Dukes, Pop-Pop, or Uncle Marvin will always be remembered by his winning smile, his laughter, and most of all, his electrifying personality. He was wholeheartedly devoted to his family. He loved us all and desired only the best for us.

Since the mid-1990s, Marvin had been one of the cornerstones of our jazz programming, most recently co-hosting “Sunday Jazz” with Jeannie Becker. “His voice had an incredible presence on the air — full of joy and excitement for the music he loved,” remarks fellow on-air host, Julia Factorial. Our sincerest condolences to his family and friends — we will certainly miss his presence here at WPRB and on our airwaves.