[BC] WPRB

[Scott Fybush]

>They're an interesting case. Princeton doesn't have a broadcasting 
>department and the station itself is owned by a board of trustees, 
>not by the University. It started in 1940 as a carrier current 
>station and got its FM license in 1955, increasing power to 17 KW in 
>1960 . At the time I was there, all on-air talent was students, 
>although some of the talent are now not undergrads.

This model was not uncommon at the Ivies. Similar ownership 
structures - a corporation separate from the university - are in 
place at the "Harvard" (WHRB 95.3), "Brown" (WBRU 95.5), "Dartmouth" 
(WDCR 1340/WFRD 99.3), "Yale" (WYBC 1340/94.3) and "Cornell" (WVBR 
93.5) stations, all of which operate under commercial licenses. 
That's about where the similarities end, though - WHRB, like WPRB, is 
a "high-class" operation with some of the most serious classical (and 
other genres) programming to be heard in the market and with a 
minimal commercial load. WBRU, WDCR/WFRD and WVBR are essentially 
commercial rockers that happen to be operated by students. WYBC-FM is 
completely LMA'd to Cox, which runs an R&B format on it, and WYBC 
1340 is a fairly typical college radio station that just happens to 
be operating on AM with a commercial license, though I don't believe 
I've ever heard any spot load on it.

It bears noting, also, that the overlap between WPRB and WKTU, while 
very real, is less obtrusive to listeners than one would expect, for 
two reasons. First, WKTU's aggressive processing causes it to 
dominate the channel pretty quickly once you're inside the I-287 
beltway that serves as a sort of psychological barrier between the 
"New York" part of New Jersey and the Philadelphia-centric South 
Jersey that starts roughly at Princeton. I've never had any trouble 
hearing WKTU as close to Princeton as the Edison/Metuchen area. 
Second, WKTU's format fits its signal limitations - its dance-heavy 
music is aimed largely at the five boroughs and the close-in suburbs, 
so if reception suffers in New Brunswick or Flemington, it's no great 
loss to WKTU.

WPRB, from what I can tell, is pretty happy to be a "Princeton" 
station, with no great designs on trying to win listeners closer to 
New York City, which would be impossible anyway given WKTU's signal. 
WPRB does do fairly well heading towards Philadelphia, where there's 
nothing on the adjacent channels to get in the way.

s