CPB Station Activity Survey
WXPN - FY2016
Section 6. Local Content & Services Report
1. Describe your overall goals and approach to address identified community issues, needs, andinterests through your station’s vital local services, such as multiplatform long and short-form
content, digital and in-person engagement, education services, community information,
partnership support, and other activities, and audiences you reached or new audiences you
engaged.
WXPN is committed to reflecting the musical diversity of the local community. These goals are fostered by ourcontinued commitment to making great radio and creating compelling digital content, and connecting with local,
community and national organizations. WXPN employs work study students and engages interns and volunteers towork with the staff to advance the station’s primary goal: to connect artists and audiences and build, serve andengage this music community. This responsibility drives us to advance our efforts toward new technology-driven
distribution through which we are able to maximize the impact of events, tell our story and the story of themusicians and audiences we serve, and build our national brand and audience. XPN is a part of culturally diverse
Philadelphia and surrounding environment. In FY16, the stations on-air and digital efforts reflected a greater
integration into that diversity.
In FY16, WXPN enhanced our technology and delivered more on video, produced outstanding, unique live events,
and grew our membership base to our goal of 30,000 members. All of these strides helped the station grow in a
rapidly changing media and cultural environment. XPN’s multi-platform approach helps us to define and lead incommunity engagement for music broadcast stations. These improvements were enhanced in part by funding
received for our marketing campaign, Vinyl At Heart. Our terrestrial broadcast reach includes over 375,000
listeners. XPN listeners enjoy the broadcast of curated playlists from a varied programming schedule supporting adiverse audience in the Philadelphia vicinity and reaching out to Lancaster and York counties, Harrisburg and the
Lehigh Valley, Worton Baltimore, Maryland and most recently the counties in the broadcast area of Hackettstown,
NJ – 91.9 FM’s listeners were welcomed to the WXPN community on October 16, 2015 and at that time, WXPN
welcomed all of 91.9’s members to the WXPN Membership family. Members were invited to get better
acquainted with XPN by visiting the station’s program guide, asked to enter into the conversation through thestation’s Twitter and Facebook, recruited to sign up for the XPN weekly newsletter, by listening online to four
streams: WXPN, XPN2 and Folk Alley as well as the World Cafe archives. FY16 brought the completion of theacquisition of 91.9FM, now named WXPJ. Another highlight for members is entre to the video channel, VuHaus
featuring archived footage of live shows from WXPN and partners from national public radio stations.
Key programming on XPN included:
Nearly 2 dozen daily or weekly staff curated on-air programs;
WXPN Morning Show host transition from long-time station personality Michaela Majoun to Kristen
Kurtis; folk music authority Ian Zolitor replaced the legendary host of the long-running Folk Show, Gene Shay;
The Peabody Award winning Kids Corner hosted by Kathy O’Connell continues with a call-in format foryoung listeners, 4 nights a week; KindieComm, the XPN produced music conference brought “kindie” artists backto Philadelphia for the 2nd consecutive year to promote independent music for kids and families;
The Key, the local music website expanded to become the banner under which WXPN presents local
musicians at concerts throughout the city. In addition to video and audio studio sessions, The Key features XPN
comprehensive concert calendar. In FY16, viewership averaged 125,000 page views per month;
WXPN again produced and broadcast the annual XPoNential Music Festival at the Camden Waterfront
which hosts a growing diversity of performers on 2 stages at Wiggins Park and at nighttime performances, throughpartnership with Live Nation, at Camden’s Susquehanna Bank Center;
In FY16, the Latin Roots Live Series of free shows were attended by WXPN members and listeners while
drawing a significant and new audience from the region’s Latino community. The station’s partnership with
AfroTaino Productions and marketing efforts toward community building brought new attention to this successful
venture.

WXPN’s scheduled programming is enlivened with incredible feats of musical productions, including our annual
playback of listener-voted “countdowns.” In November 2015, the countdown theme was The Greatest Year inMusic, and to familiarize the audience with the concepts, WXPN arranged evening gatherings at Philadelphia andsuburban venues: Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville on 10/15/15, The Fillmore in the city’s burgeoning
Fishtown section on 10/16/15, and Melodie Cafe in suburban Ardmore on 10/22/15. As voted by the XPN
community, the #1 Greatest Year in Music is 1969. Who can argue with Pinball Wizzard? Listeners participated bytuning in all day on 11/6/15 to an entire year of music from 1969 and could follow the countdown playlists 7am7pm daily from 11/2 – 11/6/15 on XPN’s Greatest Year in Music Countdown Homepage. Programming stunts
designed to develop themes in music are also built into individual daily programs giving listeners the opportunity
to be one with the station: on the Morning Show, “Same Title, Different Song” can be found on the Spotify playlist(http://thekey.xpn.org/2016/02/01/xpn-morning-show-mixtape). Interactive playlists are the focus of the popular
Saturday afternoon show, All Request Saturday with host, Eric Schuman. From the studios came The Greatest 70s
Music Ever Weekend (April 16 & 17, 2016) #xpngreatest – a listening hit on the air and popular on social media.
XPN explored the music of a decade, the 1990s, with What’s The Frequency hosted by The Key’s John Vettese
starting July 10, 2015 and airing on the 2nd Friday of the month from 7PM-11PM on 88.5 and XPN.org. Throwback
Thursdays, started in June, 2016, extended the theme of The Greatest Year with the first installation on 6/2/16
with classic indie/alt rock from the 90s, followed on 6/9 with British Invasion Day. June 2016 also brought the
public radio show, American Routes to WXPN. The show is hosted and produced in New Orleans by Nick Spitzer.
This program’s broad range of music including Cajun and Zydeco, Tejano and Latin, rock and pop, gospel and soultell the story of the threads of these American styles and how they are distinguished, and uniquely fits the vision of
WXPN’s musical mission.
WXPN was asked by NPR Music to participate in their online feature of intimate video performances, “Tiny Desk
Concerts.” NPR Music had invited several station partners to do live events in various cities, around “Tiny Desk
Contests On The Road” submissions from unsigned artists. Overall there were over 6,000 submissions. On the local
level, Philadelphia artists contributed 75 videos. WXPN teamed up with the venue, World Cafe Live Philly for the
performances held on April 19, 2016. WXPN Program Director Bruce Warren, hosts John Vettese, Helen Leicht and
NPR Music’s Bob Boilen hosted a private, invitation-only celebration of the Philly musical community, including live
performances by local Tiny Desk Contest entrants.
In and out of the studio, WXPN fuels the music community. Forward-moving inducements give members manysettings in which they can stay interested and involved and support the station’s mission of connecting artists withaudiences. For XPN members and major donors, Big Night Out on April 9, 2015 was a chance to participate in
fundraising through silent and live auctions raising over $50,000. The highlight of the night was a live performanceby the great Peter Wolf. Over 300 people attended the benefit and although all were awesomely entertained,
many also went home with a treasured piece of music history.
WXPN punctuates the University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writers House schedule of events at the community spacewith Live at the Kelly Writers House, a collaboration between the Writer’s House and WXPN. The program is aired
for one hour, six times during the academic year and features a musical guest, poetry readings, prose and otherspoken-word performances. Kelly Writers House hosts more than 300 events and projects a year, most of which
are free and open to the public. http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/involved/series/live/

2. Describe key initiatives and the variety of partners with whom you collaborated, including
other public media outlets, community nonprofits, government agencies, educational
institutions, the business community, teachers and parents, etc. This will illustrate the many
ways you’re connected across the community and engaged with other important organizationsin the area.
WXPN collaborated with other public media outlets to diversify, increase and enhance our music and culturalcommunity. These efforts combine to illustrate the station’s ability to be on the scene locally and nationally. Someof the productions noted in this report are large and many-faceted, while some others are smaller in scope but
feed larger goals of connecting audiences to artists in significant ways.
2015 XPoNential Music Festival presented by Subaru – July 24-26, 2015. WXPN’s annual music fest at theCamden, NJ waterfront hosted 30,000 total attendees to Wiggins Park and the Susquehanna Bank Center (SBC) forlive performances from a diverse mix of artists. At Wiggins Park, audiences assembled in front of two stages, theRiver Stage and the JerseyArts.com Marina Stage. Evening headliners for the weekend performed at theSusquehanna Bank Center, adjacent to Wiggins Park. The XPoNential Festival is produced in partnership with theCamden County Board of Freeholders. WXPN’s collaboration with Live Nation enabled WXPN to extend thebreadth of the Festival utilizing their resources to invite major headlining acts to perform at the waterfront’s
neighboring Susquehanna Bank Center. The partnership also allowed access to SBC for Festival goers. The
waterfront’s Adventure Aquarium provided green rooms and hospitality for the River and Marina Stage artists. On
Saturday and Sunday, July 25 & 26, The Kids Corner area in the Children’s Garden at Wiggins Park was the cool andstimulating space for kids’ activities and live performances by “kindie” artists for families. Food vendors andcrafters’ booths enhanced the family friendly atmosphere throughout the Park. Because of the lack of parking due
to other events along the waterfront, WXPN collaborated with nearby Rutgers University-Camden and Camden
County College to provide parking for festival goers. New Jersey Transit shuttle buses provided a solution to thelimited parking problem by transporting festival goers to and from Wiggins Park and SBC.
VuHaus. In May, 2015, a new public radio video website collaboration began between WXPN, WFUV, KCRW, KEXP,KUTX and KCPT, The Bridge in Kansas City. VuHaus is a non-commercial, digital music video service that combines
the video efforts of participating public radio stations around the country. In FY16 VuHaus expanded both innumber of stations and in the depth of programming on its channels. Features now include the VuHaus Song of theDay, an achievement realized because of the addition of new stations to the platform. Most recently added
stations are OPBMusic in Portland OR, KTX in Dallas, and West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Mountain Stage. Allof the stations boost each other’s content and share national audiences. The stations pay an annual fee that
includes a “City” page on VuHaus’ site. The stations curate content for their individual pages. Across the app,website and embeddable players, the VuHaus audience skews generally younger. Audiences watch videos fromartists who promote themselves on social media and create playlists on the VuHaus site.
PIFA Street Fair. WXPN connected with the Philadelphia community by providing a presence at the 3 rd annual PIFA
Street Fair on Saturday, April 23, 2016. The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (April 8-23, 2016) is acitywide affair that showcase this city’s performing and visual arts scene. The PIFA Street Fair closes down six
blocks of Broad Street to vehicular traffic and opens it up to performances and other activities. WXPN’s tent at
Sansom & Chestnut Streets was manned by the station’s XPN Welcomes volunteers, who also promoted thestation throughout the course of the Festival. The Key covered the scene, providing information on all of the music
related events. Some of the events were not standard concerts, but had a strong component of live music.
WXPN Kids Corner Host, Kathy O’Connell engages with families for planned events at community nonprofits andeducational institutions as event host throughout the greater Philadelphia region. Her participation at these events
often add greater depth and subject material to Kids Corner and correlate to the interests of the program’s
listeners – kids – and their families. Kids Corner is broadcast Monday-Thursday at 7PM. Here is a brief list of someof the organization’s events in which Kids Corner’s Kathy participated: Sunday in the Square with Kathy - Hosted
event at Franklin Square Park (Philadelphia) to close out the summer season of Historic Philadelphia. Kids’ music
band Ernie & Neal performed. 8/30/15. Approximate attendance: 150 families; Lansdowne Arts & Music Festival,
Lansdowne, PA. Hosted Kids Corner Stage for “kindie” performers, The Plants in the music tent. The event
attracted approximately 175 families on 9/13/15. The event is promoted on Kids Corner as an opportunity to chatwith Kathy about radio, music and art. Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) Pop Up Garden (9th & Wharton
Streets, Philadelphia). Kathy was the host for concerts by The Plants 12n-4pm on 9/19/15 and she met with Kids
Corner listeners and interviewed actual plant experts on the premises. Approximate attendance: 50 families at thein the garden area; The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. WXPN Kids Corner’s Kathy O’Connell andthe Schuylkill Center Executive Director (and all-natural science guy on Kids Corner each month) co-hosted the“pirate” radio show on 10/23/16 from 10a.m. to 2p.m. in Philadelphia for the Center’s Earth Day celebration at
Naturepalooza!; The Philadelphia Folk Festival (PFF) Kathy hosted the Kids Corner Stage and introduced
performers, Ants on a Log, Caveman Dave and John Flynn at Old Pool Farm, Schwenksville, PA on 8/16/15 at the
Lobby Tent stage. This is an annual collaboration between Kids Corner on WXPN and the Philadelphia Folksong
Society. The Kids Corner stage attracted approximately 200 adults and children. Age range of children: infant – 14
years. The Philadelphia Folksong Society’s Mission Statement includes that PFS is dedicated to preserving the past,
promoting the present, and securing the future of folk music and related forms of expression through education,
presentation, and participation. WXPN partners with the PFF organizers to showcase local talent. WXPN MiddayHost Helen Leicht hosted the Festival’s Camp Stage on Saturday afternoon 8/15/15; David Dye hosted the annual"Camper's Only" show on Thursday night 8/13/15 featuring the music of Low Cut Connie and Lindi Ortega.
WXPN is a participant in the annual University of Pennsylvania campus-wide Take Our Daughters and Sons toWork Day (TOD&STWD), a nationally recognized career-related activity, TOD&STWD is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
educational program that involves parents bringing their children to work for one day to explore careers andexpand flexibility around gender roles on the job. On Thursday, April 26, 2016, WXPN welcomed the University’s
staff and their children for an introduction to radio broadcasting conducted by WXPN News and Sports Director,
Bob Bumbera for an interactive session. Bob fields questions about broadcasting, and gives each “volunteer station
host” the opportunity to record and replay a brief interview. Bob shares an account of his experience as an on-air
personality with WXPN, as part of the Morning Show. Just as importantly though, he gives the kids and theirfamilies and guardians the story of his career path.

3. What impact did your key initiatives and partnerships have in your community? Describe any
known measurable impact, such as increased awareness, learning or understanding about
particular issues. Describe indicators of success, such as connecting people to needed resources
or strengthening conversational ties across diverse neighborhoods. Did a partner see anincrease in requests for related resources? Please include direct feedback from a partner(s) orfrom a person(s) served.
One way WXPN measured the success of our key initiatives was through growth in station membership. In FY16, asa result of enhancing our technology, increasing our video output, producing new and enriching live events,
deepening our marketing initiative Vinyl At Heart, the station achieved its stated goal of acquiring over 30,000
members. Significant, too at the end of the fiscal year (June 2016) WXPN completed the acquisition of 91.9FM.
With newly named WXPJ, we have already seen some increased listenership in FY17. Given the demographics andsocioeconomic profile of the residents in the area, we feel we have great potential to further increase ourmembership and to support the station.
Zydeco Crossroads funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. WXPN collaborated with a variety of partners to
produce a 14 month musical and cultural initiative, Zydeco Crossroads. This project was conceived as an initiative
to connect audiences with artists who represent the past, present and future of this musical form. In addition topresenting concerts, the supporting radio, video and documentary film production, and content-rich website
provided a comprehensive historical and cultural context for Zydeco, sharing the voices and views of artists andexperts on Zydeco. WXPN shared the music with a broad audience beginning in FY15 with a series of concert
events. InFY16 the project’s finale weekend took place on October 23-24, 2015 at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia
and included a premier of the project’s documentary film followed by a panel discussion featuring journalist
Herman Fusilier, scholar Tsitsi Jali, and WURD radio host Stephanie Renée. Chubby Carrier and the Bayou SwampBand were called in for an “encore” performance at Union Transfer in Philadelphia after their August date with thePhiladelphia Folk Festival had to be postponed. Marketing was key in promoting the project and in finding a morediverse audience. Multi-cultural marketing initiatives were put in place with support from The Marketing
Collaborative and funding from The Wyncote Foundation. Key elements that increased awareness included: Street
team distribution of event postcards in African American neighborhoods with messaging and design to ensure
resonance with the target audience; Promotion at the annual Odunde Festival and print ads in the Philadelphia
Tribune. (3% of surveyed respondents said they’d heard about a June event through this promotion) and pop-up
performances at Dilworth Park and SEPTA stations. Although the pop-ups did not produce significant attendance,
they did enable WXPN to share Zydeco with a new audience. 50% of the respondents surveyed who learned about
our Zydeco programs through new marketing initiatives had never heard of Zydeco previously to this exposure.
A multi-faced partnership with 900AM-WURD, Pennsylvania’s only black-owned talk radio show provided event
promotion and artist interviews on-air. Roughly 10% of respondents surveyed said that they heard about (Februaryand April) events on WURD, and 16% and 24% respective to those shows identified themselves as AfricanAmerican. Overall, 12% of our survey respondents across all concerts were African-American; 80% identified as
white. WURD also helped WXPN reach Hispanic and Latino audiences. Without this outlet to better reach AfricanAmerican and other diverse listeners would have been a significant missed opportunity.

The Zydeco Crossroads website supported the project, capturing news about the artists and shared archival finds
to help educate the audience about Zydeco’s history. From its launch in FY15 to the project’s completion on
November 30, 2015 (FY16), the website received over 38,000 unique visitors. WXPN was pleased to be part ofpartnerships that connected audiences of many cultures to a vibrant musical tradition. The success of the Zydeco
Crossroads project, in terms of accruing interest from local audiences at events and online, extending our reach
into the broader national audience, and in relating the history and relevancy of the genre gave us the impetus topursue a deeper dive into a genre that WXPN is exploring on-air with the series, Latin Roots.
Latin Roots Live Series. An important part of XPN’s mission to connect artists with audiences involves reaching
new audiences. Latin Roots made possible by the Wyncote Foundation has been featured on air as a distinctive
music series on XPN’s World Cafe program since 2012, and is an online feature at http://www.latinroots.org/. In
FY15, WXPN launched the first live show in the station’s Latin Roots Live series with a performance by Ana Tijoux,
the French-Chilean Hip-Hop Artist. Attendance to the show was free and was also webcast on 4/16/15. Since then,the Latin Roots Live Series has been going strong, always garnering huge audiences, and attended by a majority
Latino listeners, an audience new to XPN. WXPN uses a full panel of staff and volunteers to greet the attendees
and to encourage them to become part of the XPN family while collecting their names and email addresses forfurther connection. In FY16, WXPN produced additional Latin Roots Live performances at local venues in
Philadelphia. WXPN’s Partner in originating, presenting and producing the series is AfroTaino Productions.
Performances can be found at http://xpn.org/latin-roots-live. WXPN’s Latin Roots Live Series is hosted by World
Cafe’s David Dye and made possible by a grant from William Penn Foundation.
In FY16 the partners staged all of the following productions:
7/12/15. Nuevofest, a multi-artist showcase celebrating the new sounds of Latin America. The Trocodero -410
people registered to attend the event;
7/24-26/15. Austin’s 2015 Musician of the Year singer and songwriter Gina Chavez performed at the XPoNential
Music Festival on the Marina Stage at Wiggin Park, Camden, NJ. Average daily attendance: estimated 3,000-3,500;
WXPN and Mural Arts Open Source block party. The opening block party for Mural Arts Open Source pop-up
bodega took place in Philadelphia’s North Philadelphia neighborhood at 2200 N. 8 th Street on October 18, 2015.
WXPN’s Latin Roots Series partner, Afro Taino Productions booked the Brooklyn-based eight piece Latin rock band,
M.A.K.U. Soundsystem to perform. The party took place next to the pop-up community bodega space created byPhilly artists Keir Johnston and Ernel Martinez; the installation explores the intersection of the Latino and African
American communities in the city. Raices Culturales partnered, too, to bring the block party to North Philadelphia.
1/19/16. Latin Grammy Award winning Monsieur Periné and Buyepongo at World Cafe Live; attendance: 410;
3/25/16. The story of Latin Boogaloo music with a local premier showing of the documentary film, We Like It LikeThat and a live performance by Joe Bataan the “King of Latin Soul.” A Q&A followed with the film’s director,
Mathew Ramirez Warren and NPR Music’s Alt Latino co-host, Felix Contreras at The Prince Theater, Philadelphia.
Attendance: 237;
4/27/16. Chilean singer-songwriter Gepe, and the Afro-Brazilian funk group Dendê & Band at World Cafe Live,
Philadelphia. Attendance: 292.
The Key, WXPN’s local music website and blog connects artists to the music community. As a proponent of local
music, it has a leading role in allowing artists to mentor other artists, and offers the visitor multiple insights to an
artists’ life in the local Philadelphia region’s music scene in several featured series. In FY16, The Key deepened thiscommitment by introducing Philadelphia area artists to the blog’s readers with “High Key.” This series of artist’s
profiles was introduced November 20, 2015 and is a bi-weekly feature. It was conceived with the intention of
telling the story of Philly’s diverse musical legacy by spotlighting individual artists in portrait photography. High Key
shares interviews focused on an artist’s experience-living, creating, and performing in Philadelphia-spotlighting
artists as individuals and within the context of his or her respective group or artistic collective. The series allows
area artists to talk about how they found their way in Philadelphia so that they can pass the knowledge they’ve
gained to artists who are starting out. For any visitor to the site interested in a career in the arts, and in music in
particular, this new series is inspiration. High Key photographer and reporter, Josh Pelta-Heller’s visual portrayalsof these musicians are personal and unlike any others used to tell these stories. These seem to both reveal andtranscend the daily work of artistry. The featured artists are then invited to use the content as promotion tools.
“Load In To Load Out” inhabits local music venues through the experience of the bands that play them. The Key
feature, “Unlocked” series examines a new local album for a full week. The albums are selected from The Key’s
regular showcase of new and significant releases from Philadelphia-area artists.

4. Please describe any efforts (e.g. programming, production, engagement activities) you havemade to investigate and/or meet the needs of minority and other diverse audiences (including,but not limited to, new immigrants, people for whom English is a second language and illiterate
adults) during Fiscal Year 2016, and any plans you have made to meet the needs of theseaudiences during Fiscal Year 2017. If you regularly broadcast in a language other than English,
please note the language broadcast.
Latin Roots Live was designed to bring the top artists in the Latin Alternative Music world to Philadelphia toconnect with new audiences – that includes WXPN’s traditional listeners and people from Philadelphia’s diverse
neighborhoods. As described in Section 6.3 of this report, WXPN brought the series with a range of artists
performing sub-genres from Cumbia to Salsa, and from Boggalo to Son to the area stages throughout FY16. With
its cultural blend of artists representing a wide geography of Hispanic populations, the series is able to continue tointerest audiences into FY17. WXPN’s curation and presentation is in collaboration with a range of community
partners including Philadelphia’s Afro Taino Productions. And, the live concerts are both a complement and asource of content for biweekly Latin Roots segments on XPN’s national program, World Cafe distributed by NPR toover 200 stations. A goal of the series and its companion website at LatinRoots.org is to build a local audience forthe artists. To accomplish that, Marangeli Mejía Rabel from Afro Taino noted of the series, “We’re going to meet
people where they are…” In FY17 meeting the audience included producing performances on October 4 with Carla
Morrison and Daniel de Jesus at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on which The Mexican Cultural Center partneredwith us to promote the production. On November 17 Edna Vazquez and Alejandro & Maria Laura performed, andLos Hacheros on 2/9/16. With growing awareness, Latin Roots Live with the support of our partners and the helpof the William Penn Foundation will continue in FY17 on World Cafe.
In March 2015 the Philadelphia Jazz Project, WXPN, WRTI and NPR Music’s Jazz Night In America teamed up for acelebration of Philadelphia jazz with a tribute to three legendary organists from Philly: Jimmy Scott, Shirley Scott,and Charles Earland. Home Cooking: Celebrating the Philadelphia Jazz Organ Tradition featured over two dozen
Philly musicians recorded live at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia for Jazz Night, hosted by Philly jazz musician
Christian McBride. It was a successful evening, with a sold out crowd. In planning the event with the station’s
collaborators, WXPN expanded its mission to connect arts audiences and further the goal of growing in the music
community. The next foray into the Jazz arena took place on Saturday, January 16, 2016 to bring Jazz Night In
America back to World Cafe Live in a free tribute concert for Philadelphia Jazz artist, Jymie Merritt. WXPN
partnered with WRTI, the Philadelphia Jazz Project, and NPR Music for a performance by The Forerunners playing
original progressive music composed by the legendary bassist. Jymie Merritt formed The Forerunners in 1962,
now led by Merritt’s son, Mike Merritt, a member of late night television’s Conan O’Brien’s band. Attendance: 400.
These strides toward collaboration will build and strengthen XPN’s relationship with its partners and new audiencein the Philadelphia music and cultural community.
David Dye has been host of World Cafe since its launch on October 14, 1991. He’s been a trailblazer in the world ofmusic discovery, bringing music that is locally composed in other cities, and on other continents, to be introduced
and locally broadcast on WXPN. The reach of the program’s work is furthered as it is distributed by NPR to morethan 200 US radio stations and heard by nearly 600,000 listeners each week. World Cafe has become known byartists, audiences, and the radio and music industries as an influential source for music discovery. The two-hourdaily program features a signature mix of artist interviews with in-studio performances by both established andemerging artists, and a curated music mix. The program explores Latin music on Latin Roots, a bi-weekly series thatshares a variety of music from artists playing the music of Spanish speaking countries. As the nation’s mostlistened-to public radio music program, it has vastly impacted the careers and audience awareness of thousands ofartists. World Cafe is produced by WXPN in Philadelphia. David Dye and the World Cafe team visit musical hotspots
all around the globe for the show’s “Sense of Place” series. In each city, the team captures the sights and sounds,
records studio sessions with native musicians, and interviews musical influencers to present them on the air andonline in a week long feature for each city. Past sessions are archived on World Cafe on NPR Music The Sense ofPlace series ties into the program’s feature World Cafe Next. Each week, independent and emerging artists arefeatured and many of these artists were recorded in the venues in the countries and cities visited by the World
Cafe team for Sense of Place. In FY17, World Cafe will continue to grow through a campaign for World Cafe Next toposition World Cafe as the leading public media radio source and digital destination for music discovery of
emerging musicians by showcasing and end engaging with diverse music communities. World Cafe has digitalpresence on NPR.org, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and Tumblr. World Cafe Next both refers both refers
to the program’s core mission of exposing new artists and music to a national audience and XPN’s plan to make thefuture of World Cafe as impactful as its past. Going forward World Cafe will build on its commitment to regionalroots music, add new voices and locations, expand its digital platform presence and impact, and draw on thestrengths of WXPN and public radio music’s commitment to musical discovery. In FY16, The World Cafe Next
Campaign was designed to fund two key initiatives to be key drivers of growing the impact and audience for the
program in the years ahead. These initiatives culminating in FY17 launched with a 25th anniversary series of
events and programming that highlighted new initiatives and honors host David Dye and a quarter century ofmusical discovery. Key components include: A World Cafe Nashville Bureau to serve as a Southern hub bringing
national exposure to emerging artists from the vibrant Nashville music scene beyond Country as well as other
Southern hotbeds of musical styles; new voices and locations reflecting the diversity of emerging American sounds
including expansion of current Latin Roots initiative; Sense of Place expansion of ongoing travel series thatexamines how geography influences the artists and their work to look at new music as embraced by public media
across the country and their audiences including Heavy Rotation and weekly Public Radio Charts; Digital – WXPN
will collaborate with NPR Music to conceptualize and produce new podcast(s) for World Cafe; new editorial
formats for performance video to create one-of-a-kind video experiences for NPR/VuHaus.
As host David Dye steps back from full time role as host and producer (March 2017), Dye will continue as a regularcontributor the program that has its roots in his work. To advance the work of World Cafe, WXPN made plans to
add to the program’s staff including the hiring of a contributing host, and a producer to be hired in FY17.
Kids Corner, strengthening conversational ties - In an effort to help families discuss a difficult subject, Kids Corner
broadcast an in-studio discussion about domestic violence. The program dedicated an evening’s entire show to thesubject on March 29, 2016. Host Kathy O’Connell and guest, Tracey Thomasey of the Support Center for Child
Advocates discussed how kids and adults can deal with this sensitive subject. Discussion included steps to take if
one is being personally abused, and actions to take if a friend confides with one about an abusive situation at
home. This was the second time that the program directly took on a sensitive subject of this nature.

5. Please assess the impact that your CPB funding had on your ability to serve your community.
What were you able to do with your grant that you wouldn't be able to do if you didn't receive it?
CPB funding helps to support our general operations and gives us the opportunity to devote assets to seeking
other resources to help pay for new and creative initiatives and services. In FY16 WXPN received $569,670 from
CPB. Of the total, $78,000 is part of the CSG for WXPJ the newly acquired station from Hackettstown, NJ. The CSG
grant represents 6.5% of the total station revenue.
This funding is significant to all areas of the stations operations, and helps to enable the station to accomplish
community engagement and digital expansion goals.
Not limited to on-air broadcasts, XPN connects with the community by distributing content through a variety ofplatforms including live streams, archived/downloadable audio and video, and social media sites including The Key,
VuHaus, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify. XPN’s on-air and online audience includes public radio members and listeners,
young adults, and kids who are entertained and informed weeknights on Kids Corner. WXPN’s programs andservices are continuing at increasing levels and reaching a more diverse audience locally, nationally andinternationally. Services like the World Cafe Sense of Place add to the diversity and expansion of this audience.
WXPN serves the community by providing quality programming and technical advancement. We are making an
impact in the flourishing digital space while furthering our terrestrial footprint and strengthening our relationshipwith our music-loving community. In FY16, WXPN added 91.9FM to the terrestrial broadcast community. A new
antenna generating a wider broadcast reach would follow the station’s acquisition, within the year in FY17,
through counties in Northeastern New Jersey. The acquisition required planning, coordination and implementation

by the station’s engineers and of the programming staff. A marketing campaign in the area was launched tosupport the work of the investment. A part-time marketing coordinator was hired from the locale to help XPN
explore and grow in the region, while providing information about WXPN to the area businesses and residents sothey’d begin to take part in all that XPN has to offer. To introduce the station to the region, WXPN threw a Funky
Friday Dance Party in October 2016 at the Horseshow Tavern in Morristown, NJ. In a very tangible way, theacquisition of WXPJ, 91.9FM in Hackettstown, NJ intensified XPN’s mission to build the music community. The
investment provides an opportunity to increase the station’s membership.
Despite continued growth in XPN’s Sustaining Membership program, a decrease in CPB funding could have an
impact on the number and duration of on-air fund drives we conduct annually. The Sustainers program is very
healthy, but since growing dollars does not necessarily translate into growing member numbers, WXPN focused on
adding new members, and set a goal of 30,000 by FY16 end. This goal was successfully achieved.
Even a successful membership program does not guarantee financial stability, and without support from CPB,WXPN would be forced to take a hard look at the specific programs and services that it offers, and to consider
cutbacks in some of the high quality programming and marketing efforts to engage with the community that
supports our mission as discussed throughout this report. The elimination of CPB funding would have a substantial
negative impact and threaten our ability to continue to produce quality programs that serve our diverse
listenership. Without CPB funding, technical growth and upgrades - which improve our communication with ouraudiences on every level: through radio broadcasts, on digital platforms and at community events, could not be
implemented with the same levels of excellence and competency, and would inhibit our expansion and ability toprovide these services to new areas. That would be a great loss for the audience we serve and for the progressionof innovation at XPN’s core. CPB funding allows WXPN opportunities to initiate and produce new original
programming and to engage with the artists and audiences in our diversifying community. As the station evolves asa national leader, redefining radio as on-air, online and onstage in the new, dynamic music environment, CPB
funding is vital to the station’s goals of continued creativity and connection.
WXPN’s programming is greatly creative and continually evolving. The Key Editor, John Vettese became the host of
the informative and enjoyable monthly show, What’s The Frequency on air and online in FY16. The Key has a deep
reach into the musical community built around http://xpn.org. It provides new learning and mentoring experiences
between artists with several features built to answer their needs. For example, in FY16, The Key deepened its
commitment and resources by introducing Philadelphia area artists to the blog’s readers with “High Key.”
Discussed in greater detail in this report, High Key shares interviews focused on an artist’s experience living,creating, and performing in Philadelphia, spotlighting artists as individuals, and within the context of his or her
respective group or artistic collective. Another artist-directed effort is The Key’s Load In To Load Out which
inhabits local music venues through the experience of the bands that play them. The idea is for the reporter toarrive at a selected venue just as the band is arriving and follow them from load in, to sound check, to getting
something to eat, through the show, to meet and greet and audience reaction, and finally to load out. The feature,
Unlocked is dissective, thorough album discovery that supports the work of local artists and provides them with anadditional measure of promotion. This series examines a new local album for a full week. The albums are selectedfrom The Key’s regular showcase of new and significant releases from Philadelphia-area artists.
Now in its 25th year at WXPN, the World Cafe expanded with a Southern Hub in Nashville, TN. World Cafe Next willtie in new musical influences from Memphis, New Orleans, Mississippi Blues, Zydeco and other local genres that
XPN has explored through the blueprint drafted by World Cafe’s Sense of Place. A new Southern music project for
the Gospel genre has been proposed in FY17 to complement this work. New Voices is an additional programming
feature. WXPN added a new contributing host to World Cafe as part of the team in the collaboration with NPRMusic. Twelve to fifteen artists interviews will be woven into the show. WMOT in Nashville added the sessions totheir programming schedule. The kick-off for the Nashville Bureau was held on 10/28 and 10/29/16 in conjunction
with the 25th Anniversary celebration of World Cafe.
WXPN is seeking to upgrade the stations operations systems with new CRM. After exhaustive research was
conducted in FY16, a software provider and system implementer have been signed. This significant investment will

provide an essential range of solutions to data collecting and sharing between each department. Implementation is
expected be completed in FY17 or early in FY18.