After nearly two years of dominating the campus radio scene with their often uncomfortable, always outrageous brand of humor, WRUR’s infamous radio personalities the Chamber Boys are graduating. With the show coming to an end, I spoke to one host, Patrick Adelman, about his most memorable moments from the show, the Chamber Boys’ massive viral video, and their unwelcome reputation as “campus pranksters.”
Justin Fraumeni: How did the Chamber Boys first come together?
Patrick Adelman: Well, we all met each other as freshmen on the crew team, and we started living together junior year; we had a suite that we dicked around in. We thought that it would be nice to grace the airwaves with our dicking around, so about halfway through last year we got into radio. One of the guys already had a radio show, so we all went down and just formed the Chamber Boys from there.
JF: Is it true that the name came from the residence hall, Chambers?
PA: Yeah, that was where we lived; originally we were the “Chambers Boys”.
JF: The Chamber Boys really reached their peak of notoriety this past year with that prank professor viral video, what was that like for you guys?
PA: It was pretty exciting for us, to get that sort of recognition on and off campus.
JF: You guys really had a reputation as the campus pranksters.
PA: Yeah, we’re actually not nuts about that title. That all just stemmed from that one prank we did. We wanted to be way more than just a prank show.
JF: Is it sad to see the show come to an end?
PA: It’s kind of sad, but it’s not the saddest thing.
JF: Have you thought about having someone carry on the Chamber Boys’ flame?
PA: The idea has been tossed around. We would love it if someone at the radio station goes on to do similar stuff, but it’s kind of too complicated to transition and pass on the name.
JF: What are the Chamber Boys’ future plans? Are you guys all looking for jobs?
PA: Yeah, actually two of us, Munna and I, are looking into media and entertainment jobs, so we might have some sort of project coming up. But everyone else is just getting regular boring jobs – super boring.
JF: What do you think was your favorite moment on the Chamber Boys?
PA: Oh, there’s so many. I think actually my favorite moment came after the original prank video. Munna and I faked a fight. We basically built this argument up over the course of the show, and eventually we started physically fighting on air. Completely scripted, but the other guys thought it was real. One of the guys ran into the room and tried to break us up, Ben just sat there terrified. We put a camera on his face; his expression didn’t change for the entire duration of the fight.
JF: Do you have a favorite segment you guys did?
PA: The Apha Male dating segment really turned out great. It took a lot of work, and we spent like two months preparing. It was huge; we had the table set up in the middle of Wilson Commons. We really had fun with that one. Also there was the Facebook stalking segment — the guys basically pulled one on me. You can see on Facebook who you’ve searched in your settings and they went in and looked at my searches and then brought in three girls that I’d never met before but searched on Facebook. It was really funny.
JF: What was your least favorite moment on the show?
PA: Well the Facebook stalking segment had to be the most uncomfortable thing ever, especially because it was like three random girls, but it turned out to be a really funny segment.
JF: What are you going to miss most about the Chamber Boys?
PA: Definitely interviewing people. Just the random people that we’d find to come in, we had a hypnotist once, and Tony from security. It’s great getting to ask people questions that you’d never be able to ask off air. There’s no way I’d ask some of the questions I asked on-air off the air. Being able to say anything you want and ask anything you want, having the microphone there just makes it more appropriate for some reason.
JF: What is one thing you learned on the Chamber Boys that you’ll use for the rest of your life?
PA: Communication skills, on and off the air: being able to communicate with people and tell people what you want. Every time we brought someone in for an interview, we’d have to explain who we were, what we had in mind for their segment, and be very clear – especially when we did things that were a little off-color. Being able to clearly and effectively communicate with people is definitely the biggest skill takeaway from having a radio show.
JF: Do you feel like you’ve really left your mark on UR with the Chamber Boys?
PA: I definitely feel like we’ve made our mark. People see our stuff, and people know what the station is and what it’s all about. Hopefully more people have gotten involved because of it.
Fraumeni is a member of the class of 2017.
