Rob Borman, TS3, Pumice T, Jon Salemi, and Pete Privitera (from left to right)

When I was attending Buffalo State College, I got my FCC license and entered the world of radio broadcasting at WBNY 91.3FM. After a short stint on Sunday mornings from 6 to 9 A.M., I was given the opportunity to join the “Dance” shows on Sunday nights. My show, “Pumice T and his Famous Hot Nuts,” broke pretty much every rule the station had. No unauthorized guests in the studio? Ooops. I had at least 2 friends co-hosting with me every week. No callers allowed on-air? Sorry, I did that, too. No profanity? I’m pretty lucky no one from the FCC was tuning in to what was then a mono 100-watt broadcast, because rap artists tend to drop a few F-bombs. Not allowed to do the show unless you’re a student? Even after I left Buffalo State, I did the show for another two or three months before the program director called me and put an end to it. She asked me why I was still doing the show. “Because it’s fun,” I replied.

As much as I enjoyed playing music, it was the on-air conversations that I truly loved. Almost 20 years later, I’ve decided to get back into broadcasting, but thanks to technology, I no longer need that FCC license. “The Hip-Hop Talk Show” premiered January 5, 2011, with what will be a weekly podcast about hip-hop. Keep in mind, hip-hop is not to be confused with “rap music.” Hip-hop is composed of four elements: MCing; DJing; B-boying (breakdancing); and Graffiti Writing.

MC Serch (left), Frank Azzarelli (right)

DJ Heat and Jeff hadn’t even met Frank until a week before recording our test run. I had them over to my house to see how the group would gel, and not surprisingly, it was as if we’d all been friends forever—and the rest is history.

You can listen to the Hip-Hop Talk Show on our website, and the podcast will be on iTunes as soon as Apple approves it.

Some technical details:

The shows were originally recorded on VHS tapes using a Hi-Fi VCR. I would set it to record from 6–9 p.m., using the input rather than a channel. An FM tuner was connected to the input and tuned in to 91.3 fm. This was the easiest way to record a 3-hour radio show without having to span multiple sides of cassette tapes.

Each tape has two shows—Show 4 being an exception, as J-Love and the Brat were at the Hit Squad concert so we filled in and did a 6-hour show. Shows 1–11 were clearly labeled on six VHS tapes, two tapes are dated March 21 & 28 and April 4 & 18, and three tapes are from unknown dates.

At the time, WBNY was broadcast in mono (with a 100-watt transmitter) so naturally the recordings are also mono.

The following shows are available as 96Kbps mono MP3s:

• 1992-09-13 Show 1
• 1992-09-20 Show 2
• 1992-09-27 Show 3
• 1992-10-04 Show 4
• 1992-10-11 Show 5
• 1992-10-18 Show 6
• 1992-10-25 Show 7
• 1992-11-01 Show 8
• 1992-11-08 Show 9
• 1992-11-15 Show 10
• 1992-11-22 Show 11
• 1993-01-03? Unknown 01a – I’ve taken a guess at the date for this show. At the end of the show we wish everyone a Happy New Year, and elsewhere I say that it’s 1993, so I don’t think it would be December 27th or prior.

More to come. Stay tuned.

If another format works better, please let me know. Keep in mind, splitting the shows down to one MP3 per song would be extremely time-consuming, but I am considering splitting them into half-hour segments.

I’ll be uploading every show that I have recorded. The first eleven shows are clearly labeled and dated, but every show thereafter is going to be a guessing game. As a heads-up, the fourth show was six hours long. We had to fill in for J-Love and the Brat—they were at the EPMD concert. I have 13 VHS tapes that are presumably filled with shows. If that ends up being accurate, there’s probably 25 shows totaling 78 hours. Also, the math works out so the show probably went from September 13, 1992 through February 28, 1993. Then WBNY realized I was no longer a student at Buffalo State College, and told me I couldn’t do the show anymore. It was sure fun while it lasted.