Wxpn

The goings-on at WXPN (89.1/FM) have the makings of one of the many folk songs by such artists as Priscilla Herdman, Joan Baez, Pierre Bensusan and others the station is known for playing. There's drama, sorrow, protest, and misunderstanding, all over several proposed changes to the station's normal format. WXPN's loyal listeners consider the station a form of art that should be treasured as is - or changed only to enhance what's already there. However, WXPN's new station manager, Mark Fuerst, says he believes that if the station is considered art then it "does need to evolve.

Can a prime-time alternative rock show pull listeners away from mainstream stations to non-commercial radio? WXPN (88.9/FM) hopes to up its audience ratings with just such an offering, shifting two hours of its late-night "Beat Planet" show (perhaps with a new name) into a 9-11 p.m. slot Tuesdays through Fridays starting July 31. "It will be an attempt to do a contemporary rock show in a way that doesn't sound like college radio," WXPN music director Mike Morrison said from the University of Pennsylvania campus.

Major talent changes at WXPN (FM/88.5) go into effect today, clarifying the station's weekday focus as a "progressive rocker" just as new "modern rock" rival WIBF (FM/103.9) is warming up for its first live day. Longtime local radio personality Michael Tearson, recently sliced by WMMR in a cost-cutting, shift-eliminating measure, takes over the 10 p.m.-1 a.m. slot weeknights at WXPN - virtually the same hours he was working at the commercial rock station. Elise Brown, a vivacious fill-in at WXPN since summer, is being rewarded with the noon-4 p.m. slot.

Karin Begin, popular afternoon disc jockey on WXPN-FM (88.5), was suspended indefinitely with pay yesterday after she admitted exaggerating her teenage acting career, then falsifying documents to support her claim when suspicions arose. Begin, 24, a Canadian who joined the University of Pennsylvania's noncommercial, alternative music station in September, was to begin the suspension after her 4-to-7 p.m. shift yesterday. "WXPN has to maintain a standard of integrity, which Karin violated," station manager Mark Fuerst said yesterday.

Bert Wylen, host of Gaydreams, the gay-issues program aired Sundays on WXPN-FM (88.5), has filed a discrimination complaint against the station with the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission. In the complaint, filed last Monday, the freelance producer, who is gay, contends the station is discriminating against him because of his sexual orientation by allowing a Maryland station that has broadcast the 'XPN signal since September to exclude Gaydreams from its programming. Rather than air the one-hour Gaydreams and the lesbian-themed Amazon Country that precedes it, WKHS-FM (90.5)

Karin Begin, the WXPN-FM (88.5) afternoon disc jockey who has been on suspension for two weeks, was fired Monday by the alternative-music station. Begin, 24, was taken off the air April 28 after admitting that she falsified her resume. Yesterday, she described her dismissal meeting with station manager Mark Fuerst as "very brief, very impersonal. He talked a lot about the integrity of the station and said it was the only decision he could come to. " Fuerst, citing the privacy of personnel matters, declined to discuss the situation in detail.

Peering around the dark two-story first floor of the future home of radio station WXPN-FM (88.5), it's hard to envision funky loft-style offices and a three-tiered music stage with a restaurant and bistro tables. The place is a mess. The floor is part dirt. The steel beams are peeling concrete. The 25-foot-high ceiling has a massive hole that exposes the dilapidated second story. But a planned $15 million renovation of this former home of plumbing manufacturer Hajoca Corp. could turn 3025 Walnut St. into the next hip destination in University City.

After four years, WXPN has scaled back Y-Rock on XPN , canning the alternative-music show heard Wednesday through Friday nights on 88.5 FM. Y-Rock will continue at www.yrockonxpn.org and at XPN's HD-2 side channel. Operations manager Josh T. Landow was one of six people laid off this week from the University of Pennsylvania-owned station. Station manager Roger LaMay blamed the economy. "We delayed it as long as we could, but we have an obligation to balance our budget," he said.

The University of Pennsylvania's radio station, WXPN, is doing a song and dance routine these days. But they're out of tune and out of step. They're tap dancing around a complaint filed with the city's Human Relations Commission against them by gay producer Bert Wylan. Wylan is contending that the station discriminates against him every Sunday when a technician at WXPN switches off a transmitter for two hours from 8 to 10 p.m. so that WKHS - a station run by the Kent County school board on the eastern shore of Maryland - does not receive WXPN's gay and lesbian programming.

He was Philadelphia's savior and champion of long-ignored "doo-wop" group harmony music, but approaching 20 years with WXPN-FM, the station has decided to drop DJ Charlie Horner and his "classic urban harmony show. " Horner said he was told by WXPN program manager Kim Alexander that his show doesn't fit with the current direction of the station and that listenership for his show has dropped. The last show on the University of Pennsylvania-sponsored station will be on New Year's Day, just a month short of Horner's 20th anniversary with the station.

"My one great idea is, in this time of diminishing resources, to provide an opportunity to see live music for high school kids throughout the region. "Here in this wonderful space, World Café Live, we do two things: Every Friday, we have a Free at Noon concert where everybody can come for free, and we also record special sessions for the World Café , where I interview the artist. And my idea would be to have a sponsor, who would be acknowledged on WXPN, pay for the buses for kids from Philadelphia, kids from outside the area, to come in, 30 at a time, to be able to come to either of those sessions and to see live music and actually get a chance to talk with the musicians.

BROADWAY'S ORIGINAL "Annie" belts a 48 not tomorrow, but Saturday. Oxford Circle native Andrea McArdle once wore a curly wig, palled around with a dog named Sandy and, at age 13, became the youngest Tony Award nominee ever. Back in the day, McArdle also graced the halls of Melrose Academy and laid out on the beaches of Ocean City. These days, she's based in New York. Her recent causes have included stumping for an African-American headliner for the Great White Way's 2012 revival of "Annie," and playing her one-time nemesis Miss Hannigan in repertory theater productions.

Musicians offered plenty of perspective about Philadelphia's top radio export as WXPN's World Cafe program celebrated its 20th anniversary at the World Cafe Live over the weekend. Various artists who have particularly benefited from airplay "on the Cafe " (as genial host David Dye is wont to say) performed at the W.C.L. The venue is independent, but not unrelated to its namesake radio show, which is produced in the Walnut Street building the club shares with the music-oriented National Public Radio station.

Musicians offered plenty of perspective about Philadelphia's top radio export as WXPN's World Cafe program celebrated its 20th anniversary at the World Cafe Live over the weekend. Various artists, who have particularly benefited from airplay "on the Cafe " (as genial host David Dye is wont to say), performed at the W.C.L. The venue is independent, but not unrelated to its namesake radio show, which is produced in the Walnut Street building the club shares with the music-oriented National Public Radio station.

After listening to David Dye's mellifluous baritone host America's best singer-songwriters for two decades on WXPN's World Cafe, we know he's one of the great taste-makers in adult rock. Now he's a beer guru, too? He had serious help from his friends at the Philadelphia Brewing Co., which recently launched a limited October seasonal called Broadcaster Brown Ale in honor of the World Cafe's 20th anniversary. But Dye insists that if he did decide to brew, "it would definitely be a brown ale. " Turns out this one is like the D.J. himself - approachably malty, with a modest alcoholic punch, but also a surprising pep from hops just when that creamy, oat-rich head risks getting too mellow.

Among other things, Theodore Aronson , boss at Aronson Johnson Ortiz , the $20 billion Philadelphia investment house that counts Shell Oil Co., SEI Investments , and the City of Philadelphia as clients, is known for: His $12 million Rittenhouse Square apartment: "Our 'vast fortune' is tied up in real estate for the moment," he says. His long-ago training at the vanished Philadelphia investment house of Drexel Burnham , where fellow employees included future junk-bond schemer Michael Milken , and his intern, who grew up to be Comcast boss Brian Roberts . His answer to a reporter who wanted to know why he doesn't call on the CEOs and CFOs of companies whose stocks he buys: "They lie. " And, lately, his passion for college radio.

Ray Manzarek & Roy Rogers Band: You can't close the Doors of perception or take the blues-rockin', ominous hipster ways away from Manzarek. The keyboardist and songwriter for the psychedelic supergroup has kept stirring the pot in songwriting collaborations with neuvo-beat poets like Jim Carroll and Michael McClure. Now he's aligned his vamping piano and ominous growl with seasoned slide/blues guitarist Rogers, for a jamming new album called "Translucent Blues," out Tuesday, and a tour bringing them hither with Steve Evans on bass, and Kevin Hayes on drums.

HARD TO BELIEVE it was 40 summers ago that Richard Thompson first played the Philadelphia Folk Festival . Still one of the most vibrant and prolific of folk-rock composers and performers - and widely regarded as one of the world's greatest guitar players - he returns to the festival this weekend with a new album ("Dream Attic") to tout and the mission of closing the event, all by his lonesome. "Whoa, that's great, fantastic," Thompson murmured in a recent chat when told of his honor as Sunday night's concert capper, on a bill that includes his friend and former bandmate Iain Matthews , the Great Groove Band , Joe Pug , Susan Werner (in a new configuration with Natalia Zukerman and Trina Hamlin )

It's Y Rock, 2.0. Five years ago, after Y100 was wiped off the Philly radio dial, laid-off station programmers Josh T. Landow and Jim McGuinn launched an alternative-music station on the web called Y-Rock. A year later, WXPN (88.5) bought the idea, hired Landow and McGuinn, and branded it as Y-Rock On XPN, adding over-the-air programming, But last month brought layoffs to WXPN, and seven employees, including Landow, were riffed. (McGuinn had since departured for a job in Minnesota.

The fates have been kind to British singer/songwriter Bobby Long . So can you blame him for not wanting to tempt them? To date, this lean and lanky, balefully singing and forcefully strumming talent's major claim to fame has been co-authorship of a haunting ballad called "Let Me Sign" that his London performing pal Robert Pattinson snapped up and sang in the huge film hit "Twilight. " Yet, Long confessed, "that's not a song I've recorded or sung on stage. Robert's version is the definitive one, so why not leave it at that?