Jipson, currently an Associate Professor at UD, has his doctorate in sociology. His areas of focus are sociology, criminology, criminal justice and popular culture. After a short-track to securing tenure, he returned to the mic on Nov. 23, 2004, at WUDR Flyer Radio 99.5/98.1 FM.
His show at the time, School of Rock with Dr. J, was an extension of his pop music classes, a two-hour program that academically dove into the whys and the hows of the catalogs of popular artists.
But after four or five years of the didacticism of School of Rock — Jipson admits he and timeframes have a love/hate relationship — the show rebranded as Your Tuesday Afternoon Alternative, shifting focus to indie and alternative bands, much of which was and is siphoned from the Dayton music scene.
The format change was due to the insistence of his wife Tracey Jipson (affectionately named Mrs. Dr. J), who noticed how much Art lit up talking about bands they saw locally. To this day, if the words “Dayton” and “music” are mentioned in the same sentence, Dr. J will offer a laundry list of bands he adores, and talk about Motel Beds or Paige Beller until he’s blue in the face.
This month, Dr. J is celebrating 20 years of YTAA, one that has served as a wholly positive voice in the local music scene.
Credit: Gabrielle & Justin Merriman
Credit: Gabrielle & Justin Merriman
Growing up, Jipson was a shy kid with a stutter. He was raised in a household where his parents always had the radio on. His dad played a little guitar, and both of his parents sang; Jipson got his love, enthusiasm and passion for music from them.
Jipson was also a frustrated guitar player at the time. Meanwhile, his dad, after being injured on the job, picked up some vocational degrees, leading him into the field of radio broadcasting.
“I loved the idea of listening to my dad,” Jipson said. “He would come on and talk about something for a fairly long period of time. He’d wax poetic about Hank Williams or a particular album, things like that. You wonder where I get it.”
Between his parents’ love of music, and his own interest in trying to become a musician, Jipson wondered how else he could interact with the art form. So, in his first semester at UMN Morris, after a tumultuous high school experience considering his speech afflictions, he signed up to do radio.
“I got to college, and I had this opportunity to remake myself,” Jipson said. “My dad gave me some wonderful advice. He’s like, No one knows where you came from, right? I think he was talking about his own experience, but also maybe realized some of the challenges that I faced. But I was told by people, who were so much better than I was at radio, that I should keep doing this. And so in a way, I never stopped.”
His breakout show on KUMM was called Early Morning Wake Up with Art. The station wanted to avoid being a pop music station, so the DJs had to avoid anything on the top 40 — which later became the top 50, then the top 100.
Because the programming was restrictive, it forced Jipson to become more experimental, to dive deeper into bands’ catalogs, to explore the B-sides and the cutting edge of stacks of vinyl records he had access to at the station. He discovered the New York Dolls, Kiss, Television, Patti Smith, the Cars and the Replacements. The list, he confesses, can go on for a while.
Jipson did radio as an undergrad for five years. While earning both his master’s and doctorate at Bowling Green State University, his voracious appetite for listening to and reading about music never wavered. And though he’s had gaps in his broadcasting career, he never completely abandoned radio in 41 years.
Jipson came into his own with Your Tuesday Afternoon Alternative, which, for the past two decades, has championed and heavily focused on what makes the Dayton music scene thrive.
Credit: Gabrielle & Justin Merriman
Credit: Gabrielle & Justin Merriman
He’s put bands and musicians on the radio for the first time, whether it’s with their music or in interviews. He’s drawn attention to bands that maybe wouldn’t have otherwise had airplay. Along with having a terrestrial signal, YTAA also streams online, with listeners tuning in from as far as Sweden and Japan.
“If I can contribute to a healthy local music scene, then bring on the devil with his spurs,” Jipson said. “I am happy to have contributed, in some small way, to the vitality of the music scene. What more could somebody want?”
Last year, the student-run WUDR station moved from its location on ArtStreet to the Roger Glass Performing Arts Center — an emotional experience for Jipson.
“It’s just a room, but what pained me was there wasn’t really acknowledgement of the space,” he said. “I knew that when we left, it was basically just going to be gutted and turned into an office. So many things for me were wrapped up with doing this radio show and doing it in that space.”
And though a few things were lost in the move, the space at Roger Glass has an upgraded setup, and Jipson is making new memories in the new space.
Reflecting on his 20 years at WUDR, of YTAA, going back to that moment in 1983 when he decided to remake himself on college radio, Dr. J is humbled. Music, along with Mrs. Dr. J — an essential inspiration for the show and his journey over the years — are two of the great loves of Jipson’s life.
“Never once have I been paid for any of this,” Jipson said. “One of our taglines, and to me, one of the most meaningful philosophical statements of our show, is ‘support your local music scene.’ The point is to not assume I can just walk in and get a free ticket or a free album; it’s to put my money where my mouth is, to truly create support.”
In his UD office — among autographed drum heads and show bills, stacks of CDs and sociology and music books — Jipson, aka Dr. J, says that when he’s gone he wants his headstone to read: “he was a nice guy who loved music.”
From all of the musicians, including this writer, who heard their music on the radio for the first time because of Dr. J, we’re grateful that he is still a nice guy who still loves music — and that his license to do radio never expires.
Brandon Berry writes about the local music scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio. Have a story idea for him? Email branberry100@gmail.com.
MORE DETALS
Listen to Your Tuesday Afternoon Alternative from 3 - 6 p.m. every Tuesday on WUDR Flyer Radio 99.5/98.1 FM, or stream at listen.streamon.fm/wudr.
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