Compared to the dismal state of the homogenized formats on terrestrial radio, WPRB is a vivid…read morereminder of how "college radio" used to be in the days when there were plenty of hallucinogens to ensure playlists that were always obscurity first and "program hosts" were nothing more than curators of the absurd. Although not directly affiliated with Princeton University, it's not hard to imagine that this stream of consciousness hive is what an Ivy League salad spinner might sound like. If you're into 25 minute drum solos and acid jazz riffs interspersed with whale song that go on forever well... don't touch that dial. It's not all that absurd but the format is so loose and the hosts so whisper quiet, they make your average NPR personality sound like Sam Kinison. This is change of pace radio made for a rainy Sunday afternoon in the age of legal weed. An easy five bongs.

I'm embarrassed to say (because it really ages me) that the last "rock" band I was ever a "fan" of…read morein real time was Black Flag. Maybe Flipper (although it took me awhile to really appreciate their often-inaccessible dark essence--- my favorite song of theirs is "Get Away," a paean to suicide that is inappropriately exhilarating and...dare I say it?...really "rockin'n'rollin'"-- sample lyrics: "Have you seen Mitchell? Got a card from him in jail. He asked if I could post the bail. Busted and strung out. He said he's feeling really sick, really sick. He said he's gotta get away. Go, Mitchell, get away...Go go get away..." Not exactly "feel good" music, but you'll be tapping your feet and movin' around as you listen to it...trust me...). I appreciated "grunge," sort of the last dying gasp of quality rock music, but never really became a "fan" as such. Neil Young can sing all he wants that "Rock'N'Roll will never die," but...well, it kinda has. When I hear that Taylor Swift, Cardi B., Lizzo, Beyonce, and Kendrick Lamar are selling out concert halls for amounts that add up to millions approaching billions of dollars...Who can even argue about it? Except, perhaps, in the internal Quija board of fond, exciting memories (old age beckons me on, but when I put "Raw Power" on my CD player, or Gun Club, or the Cramps, in my mind and psyche I'm 17 again, at least for the 40 minutes or so of the CD) and on legendary college radio stations like WFMU in Jersey City, and WPRB in Princeton. Thankfully, both still exist and are as vital as ever. As I've aged, my musical tastes have expanded, and I've learned to appreciate weird and esoteric "sounds" like those you're likely to hear on any given afternoon or evening (or morning, if you function during the day like normal people) on WPRB. For example, on their FB page, is the following blurb: "Thursday at NOON ET: DJ Esoterica chats with Heavenly Bodies out of Philly! HBODS are an experimental space rock outfit from Philadelphia. 75% improvised 100% of the time. For fans of refrigerator hum. Not to miss!" Is "experimental space rock" or "refrigerator hum" rock music as I nostalgically remember it? No. But it's a whole lot more interesting than turning on a "classic rock" station like Q104.3 out of NYC and hearing endless repetitions of "classic" rock "anthems" like Billy Joel's "Piano Man," or Journey, or Foreigner, or Boston, or...whatever. (Back in the day, they played "Stairway To Heaven" endlessly, almost like a religious ritual repeated at Mass several times a day every day, but now you're lucky to even hear that. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have been replaced by Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams. Just another sad reminder...as if we needed another one...of just how much we've declined culturally and aesthetically over the past several decades...) I actually find myself excited listening to what's on PRB, and I'm often hunched over the wheel of my car as I drive (not quite as dangerous as drunk driving, but probably not exactly the safest method of transportation either), listening intently for the DJ to announce the name of whatever "musical group" or "artist" I've just heard so I can memorize it and try to go out and see if it's available on CD on Amazon (sometimes it is; sometimes it isn't). If I can't catch the name, WPRB's website has a readily accessible playlist that one can refer to. Is listening to these heretofore unknown "songs" (or "refrigerator hum" jams) as exciting as the first time I heard "I Got A Right" by the Stooges on a nearly impossible to obtain 45 vinyl record as a wet-behind-the-ears teen, or "Trash" by the NY Dolls, or "Kick Out the Jams" by the MC5? No. But it's the most excited I've been about listening to the radio in...well, forever. (I did listen to college radio in my younger years, but my tastes were narrower and more circumscribed back then, and I probably wouldn't have appreciated Acid Dub, or Cambodian Synthwave, or Electro-Stoner Jazz, or...) Do I love everything I hear on PRB? No. But I appreciate the divergent and exotic musical directions the DJ's tend to navigate towards. It's always interesting, if not necessarily engaging. Let's put it this way: would you rather hear Oren Ambarchi performing "Salt," or the Heavy Heavy performing "Go Down River," or...conversely...would you rather hear Queen's rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody" for the 1,000,000,005 time? If the latter, head over to Q104.3 in NYC with its gravel-throated DJ's and its entirely predictable playlists. If the former, then WPRB is for you.