WXPN Dials Back To Glorious Vinyl Era
• Non-comm Triple A WXPN/Philadelphia proudly bears the slogan, “Vinyl At Heart,” and tomorrow, the station and staff will literally live that slogan, as Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025, has been duly proclaimed as “Vinyl Day.” From 6am to midnight, XPN will shut down its computers and the CD players and embrace its analog roots, playing nothing but music from vinyl records, complete with those glorious clicks, pops, and the occasional skip!
“When we tested this out in April for Record Store Day, the response was amazing,” Acting PD Jim McGuinn tells RAMP. “Huge listening and interactions, and 15,000 views of our ‘Vinyl Cam’ — which his essentially a camera pointed at two turntables! The audience response was massive!”
This time, McGuinn says, they are upping the ante — “We have invited in a bunch of record store owners (from area indie shops Main Street Music, Vinyl Chickie and Forever Changes), artists Kurt Vile, Ted Leo, Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz, and Charlie Hall from The War On Drugs to participate. We also offered up a guest slot to an XPN listener — with Grace Fanning beating out over 150 other applicants who submitted a 10-song playlist and explained why they would be a great Listener/Selector.”
McGuinn added, “I’m excited to host 2-4pm and then 9pm-midnight, and I’m gonna close out the last hour with nothing but 45s from 1966-69!” You heard the man — tune in all day via XPN.ORG and click through to watch the records go ’round and ’round on the Vinyl Cam!
