WXPN

Coordinates: 40°02′20″N 75°14′13″W / 40.038806°N 75.236889°W / 40.038806; -75.236889
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
WXPN
MHz (HD Radio)
Branding88.5 XPN
Programming
FormatAdult album alternative
SubchannelsHD2: XPN2/XPoNential Radio (adult album alternative)
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
1945 (carrier current on 730 AM)
1957 on 88.9 FM
Former frequencies
88.9 MHz (1957–1990)[1][2]
Call sign meaning
"Experimental Pennsylvania Network"
Technical information[3]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID68229
ClassB
ERP2,650 watts (analog)
105 watts (digital)[4]
HAAT365 meters (1,198 ft)
Transmitter coordinates
40°02′19.7″N 75°14′12.8″W / 40.038806°N 75.236889°W / 40.038806; -75.236889 (WXPN)
Translator(s)See § Translators
Repeater(s)See § Stations
Links
Public license information
WebcastListen live
Websitewww.xpn.org

WXPN (88.5

Roxborough
section of Philadelphia.

History

While the University of Pennsylvania has been involved with radio since 1909 when a wireless station was located in Houston Hall,

freeform radio formats, Phase II, in the 1960s. Local DJ Michael Tearson got his start at WXPN in the late 1960s with a radio show The Attic. Tearson went on to replace Dave Herman at WMMR in 1970. In 1975, a controversial broadcast on the talk show The Vegetable Report led to an obscenity complaint with the FCC
, which found the charges serious enough to decline renewal of the broadcast license. This incident (December 1975) marked the first time FCC pulled a license on grounds of obscenity. But a citizen's group organized to petition the FCC to consider XPN's unique service, and with a pledge from Penn to create positions for professional staff to run the station, the FCC allowed the license to renew.

With this new staff of five managers, WXPN became a steady fountain of high-quality folk, jazz, new and avant-garde music and public affairs programming produced by a combination of station alumni and community volunteers, with little to no student involvement. Veterans of WXPN that have gone on to notable achievements in other areas include Broadway producer/director

John Diliberto and Kimberly Haas (former producers of Diaspar
and other XPN shows).

Shows that have been staples on XPN since the '70s include The Blues Show with Jonny Meister (Saturday nights), Sleepy Hollow (Saturday and Sunday morning quiet music shows), Star's End (ambient and space music Saturday night/Sunday morning) and Amazon Country (lesbian-oriented music and programming on Sunday evening). XPN also broadcasts the Folk Show on Sunday evening, which started at WHAT-FM in 1962 and continued on WDAS-FM, WMMR, WIOQ and WHYY-FM but moved to WXPN in the '90s when WHYY changed to a talk format.

In 1986 the station qualified for membership in the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and began the legal process to move from 88.9 to 88.5 on the FM broadcast band in order to increase signal coverage. Beginning the late 1980s, the programming and personnel were shifted from its diverse volunteer voice to full-time salaried programmers. Penn student radio activity is currently carried out on WQHS.

Station Manager Roger LaMay speaking at the station's annual music festival.

In 1988, WXPN started Kids Corner, a daily interactive radio show for kids hosted by Kathy O'Connell. Kids Corner has won numerous awards, including the

Peabody Award
and the Armstrong Award.

In 2004, WXPN moved to new facilities at 3025 Walnut Street, where the radio station shares space with a music venue called World Cafe Live. (World Cafe Live is an independent for-profit entity that pays a yearly fee to license the World Cafe name from WXPN.)

In October 2015, WXPN and

Centenary College. The sale price is $1,250,000 in cash and another $500,000 in underwriting value over 10 years. A Public Service Operating Agreement enabled WXPN to begin using the WNTI transmission facilities to air WXPN programming, effective October 15, 2015.[9]
WNTI changed its call sign to WXPJ on May 16, 2016.

Programs

WXPN carries primarily locally originated programs, supplemented by a few nationally syndicated shows.

Q'zine, produced and hosted by Robert Drake since 1996, is a voice for the LGBTQ community in Philadelphia. The program originated as Sunshine Gaydreams, later shortened to Gaydreams, in 1974.[12]

WXPN also broadcasts the Penn Quakers men's basketball games.[13]

From August 15 to August 18, 2019, WXPN broadcast a "Woodstock — As It Happened — 50 Years On" weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock festival. It used all of the festival's archived audio in "as close to real time as possible", using newly reconstructed audio archives of each of Woodstock's 32 performances.[14]

Stations

One full-power station (WXPH) is licensed to simulcast the programming of WXPN full-time. One full-power station (WXPJ) currently has a Public Service Operating Agreement to simulcast the programming of WXPN.

Call sign Frequency City of license Facility ID Class ERP
(W)
Height
(m (ft))
Transmitter coordinates
WXPH[a] 88.7 FM[b] Middletown, Pennsylvania 87834 B 7,000 vert, 75 horiz (analog)
279 (digital)[15]
216 m (709 ft) 40°02′7.4″N 76°37′17.9″W / 40.035389°N 76.621639°W / 40.035389; -76.621639 (WXPH)
WKHS[c] 90.5 FM Worton, Maryland 6057 B1 17,500[16] 66 m (217 ft) 39°16′55″N 76°5′26″W / 39.28194°N 76.09056°W / 39.28194; -76.09056 (WKHS)
WXPJ[d] 91.9 FM[b] Hackettstown, New Jersey 9759 B1 5,400 (analog)
216 (digital)[17]
167 m (548 ft) 40°51′8.3″N 74°52′23.6″W / 40.852306°N 74.873222°W / 40.852306; -74.873222 (WXPJ)
  1. ^ WXPH covers York, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Hanover and the surrounding area.
  2. ^ a b Transmits in HD Radio
  3. .
  4. Hackettstown, northern New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania
    .

Translators

WXPN programming is broadcast on the following translators:

Call sign Frequency
(MHz)
City of license Facility ID Class ERP
(W)
Height
(m (ft))
Transmitter coordinates Rebroadcasts
W259AU 99.7 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 153367 D 10 209.2 meters (686 ft) 40°18′20.3″N 77°00′25.9″W / 40.305639°N 77.007194°W / 40.305639; -77.007194 (W259AU) WXPH
W285DH 104.9 North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania 69361 D 13 105 m (344 ft) 40°40′22.3″N 75°34′40.6″W / 40.672861°N 75.577944°W / 40.672861; -75.577944 (W285DH) WXPN

From 1993 to 2007, the WXPH call sign was used on 88.1 in Harrisburg, now WZXM.[18] WXPN traded that facility to Four Rivers Community Broadcasting in return for 88.7 Middletown and W259AU.[19]

Portions of WXPN's schedule are simulcast on

Baltimore, Maryland
areas).

WXPN-HD2

XPN2/XPoNential Radio is an

Adult Album Alternative radio station broadcast on the HD2 channels of WXPN in Philadelphia and WXPH in Middletown, Pennsylvania. The station is also syndicated to several other public radio stations, which air it on their HD2 or HD3 channels.[20]

History

On May 2, 2007, WXPN launched an

Radio One changed the station's format in 2005, ending the alternative rock format. Y-Rock on XPN was the latest incarnation of the Y100 brand[22]
that originally aired on WPLY, which was the market's alternative rock station from 1995 until 2005.

In mid-June 2010, "Y-Rock on XPN" programming was cancelled due to budget cuts.[23] The "Y-Rock on XPN" branding officially changed to XPN2 at midnight, June 15, 2011.[24] The HD2 channel and companion online stream would later be re-branded as "XpoNential Radio".

WQHS

In 1970, WXPN-AM's operations moved from Houston Hall, directly in the center of campus, to 3905 Spruce Street. The FM radio station became professionally run by 1980, with former students and community volunteers staffing the station, while the AM radio station was still student-run. WXPN-AM then became WQHS, which stands for Quad Hill Superblock (referring to student dormitories on campus). As of September 2005, the radio station is located on the 5th floor of the Hollenback Center, on the far east side of campus.

In 2003, the WQHS radio tower, formerly on top of Harnwell College House, fell in a severe storm. As a result, WQHS now broadcasts exclusively over the Internet, in an eclectic freeform radio format.

References

  1. ^ "WXPN Facility Data". FCCData.org.
  2. ^ "FCC History Cards for WXPN".
  3. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WXPN". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  4. ^ "FCC 335-FM Digital Notification [WXPN]". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. December 3, 2014. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  5. ^ "FM Query Results [WXPN]". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  6. ^ "The Wireless Club Station – UP". Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  7. ^ "A Brief History of the Club". Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  8. ^ "The Wireless Club" (PDF). Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  9. ^ "WXPN Picks Up Centenary College's WNTI". RadioWorld.com. Archived from the original on 2015-10-13. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  10. ^ a b "XPN Program Guide". xpn.org. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  11. National Public Radio website
    . Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  12. ^ "Q'zine". xpn.org. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  13. ^ "Penn Basketball". xpn.org. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  14. ^ Warren, Bruce (August 14, 2019). "And now, your schedule for #XPNStock: The 50th anniversary broadcast of Woodstock". xpn.org. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
  15. ^ "FCC 335-FM Digital Notification [WXPH]". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. October 18, 2018. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  16. ^ "WKHS". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. October 18, 2018. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  17. ^ "FCC 335-FM Digital Notification [WXPJ]". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. October 19, 2016. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  18. ^ "Call Sign History [WZXM]". fcc.gov. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  19. ^ "Northeast Radio Watch, June 25, 2007". Fybush.com. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  20. ^ https://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=16 Archived 2017-01-11 at the Wayback Machine HD Radio Guide for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  21. ^ "WXPN Launches Y-Rock as HD2 Channel". RadioWorld.com. Archived from the original on 2016-05-31. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  22. ^ "Dept. of Sad Face". Philadelphia City Paper. June 16, 2010.[dead link]
  23. ^ "NorthEast Radio Watch, June 14, 2010". Fybush.com. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  24. ^ "Just Announced: Y-Rock On XPN to change its name to XPN2 at midnight". TheKey.xpn.org. Retrieved 2016-04-29.

External links

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40°02′20″N 75°14′13″W / 40.038806°N 75.236889°W / 40.038806; -75.236889

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