TJ Lubinsky


Terry James Lubinsky is an American television, radio and digital media host known for his association with oldies and Motown music. He is also creator, executive producer and director of Public Broadcasting Service pledge-drive programs. He presents oldies-format music programs airing on PBS to tell the stories behind the "songs of yesteryear".

Background

Lubinsky was born in Bradley Beach, New Jersey and grew up in nearby Ocean Grove. His grandfather, Herman Lubinsky, Sr., founded Savoy Records in Newark, and introduced acts that would be influential in modern popular music. Lubinsky, Sr. founded and operated New Jersey's first radio station WNJ. His uncle, "Buzzy", was also a well-known club disc jockey in New Jersey.

Production career

At 16, Lubinsky obtained his General Equivalency Diploma and accepted his first television job at Monmouth Cable TV-34 in New Jersey, where he learned television production. He worked on different news, studio, and sport remotes that served 31 towns, boroughs and municipalities along the Jersey Shore.
When he turned 22, Lubinsky was offered a job to work for PBS in South Florida. Later he was promoted and relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1999, Lubinsky blended his passion for Doo-Wop, Motown, classic Philly Soul, and '60s Rock and Roll oldies into one of PBS's most successful fundraisers, "Doo-Wop '50". He would go on to produce over 75 national television specials from PBS which archive America's soundtrack from the '50s, '60s and '70s through his "My Music" series.

Doctor Who

He helped bring several episodes of Doctor Who to the United States which had not been shown in the country before. In 2003-2005, he also archived and restored several introductions made for the American broadcast of Doctor Who episodes from the Tom Baker era, with voice-overs by Howard Da Silva. These were included on the BBC DVD releases.

Later career

Lubinsky spent four years as host and DJ on the WJRZ-FM Sunday Night Request Show, where he hosted five live hours by request through 2009, when the station flipped formats to Adult Contemporary. In July 2013, Lubinsky returned to a weekly Sunday night program on WJRZ. Lubinsky ended his WJRZ radio program in 2014 to help care for his father, Herman Lubinsky, Jr. prior to his passing. In 2015, Lubinsky produced a rerelease of Motown 25, a 1983 program for public television. In April 2016, Lubinsky returned to radio for New Jersey station Oldies 1079, WOLD-LP and online and around the world at woldradio.com. Lubinsky can now be found most Wednesday and Friday nights from 9 PM to 12 AM EST at https://www.mixcloud.com/live/tjlradio/

TJ Lubinsky PBS television productions