Bidding farewell to a familiar voice

Two-and-a-half decades ago, Michaela Majoun accepted a DJ job at the fledgling WXPN 88.5 radio station. Majoun, who had been living in Los Angeles and trying to get her screenwriting career off the ground, thought the XPN job was the perfect gig: She could be on air in the mornings, write in the afternoons, and then use that on-air experience to get a DJ job back in L.A.

And while her plans to move back to L.A. never happened, Majoun has always kept her desire to write. That’s why she’ll be bringing her radio career at XPN to a close this month to dedicate herself to screenwriting.

“I love my job, but it seemed like, ‘Wow, I’ve had this great run,” says Majoun, whose last day as host of the “Morning Show” on XPN will be June 30.

Majoun will be a freelance writer—she has submitted a screenplay that she wrote (in just a month) to a competition, and is working with a New Orleans-based historian to turn one of her books into a television series.

In June, Majoun is spending a bit of her show each day reflecting on her 25 years at XPN. In many ways, her career is intertwined with the successful rise of the radio station—Majoun was the first professional hired at XPN during the period when it was moving from an all-volunteer model to a self-supporting entity.

“I am very proud to be part of the group that helped establish the radio station,” Majoun says.

Throughout the years, she’s interviewed hundreds of musicians and highlighted women in music, too, especially after she took over “The Women’s Music Hour” show and eventually folded that into her daily morning gig. Both Tori Amos and Sheryl Crow appeared on the show before they were famous; Majoun has also interviewed Sam Smith (she says she’s “utterly captivated” by him), Jonatha Brooke, who she now considers a friend, and perhaps, most memorably for her, Sting.

That interview, which Majoun did around the time of the release of Sting’s 1999 album “Brand New Day,” took place backstage at the Tower Theater. Majoun says she presented Sting with a book of poetry from Rainer Maria Rilke, since the album reminded her of some of the poet’s writings. In response, Sting told her, “I’ll accept this only if you autograph it for me.”

On her final show, starting at 7 a.m., Majoun will be broadcasting from Upstairs at World Cafe Live with Bob Bumbera, the longtime news anchor of the “Morning Show.” Special guests will be on hand to wish Majoun well, and she will be playing some of her favorite tunes from her radio career.

The response from her listeners has been overwhelmingly positive, Majoun says.

“There are days I’m going to miss this so much,” she says. “I love the listeners.”

Michaela Majoun