Late last month Penn’s member-supported radio station, WXPN-88.5 FM, began broadcasting Y-Rock On XPN, an alternative rock show on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights.

New as it is to XPN, the show is hardly a brand new idea. Y-Rock On XPN was created as a way to resurrect Y100Rocks.com—a web site and online radio station based on the commercial radio station Y100, which was taken off the air amid great controversy in early 2005. Through the new partnership, Y-Rock On XPN operates as a full-time online radio station (at www.YRockOnXPN.org) complemented by an on-air show on Wednesday and Thursday nights from 8 to 11 p.m. and Friday nights from 7 to 11 p.m. Jim McGuinn, former program director at Y100, hosts the on-air shows, and other former Y100 DJs spin tunes on the webcast.

Diehard XPN fans need not fear their favorite station will drop Springsteen and Emmylou Harris from the playlist in favor of The Raconteurs and Arctic Monkeys. It just means that alternative rock devotees now have 10 on-air hours each week devoted to music that no longer can be found on the commercial Philly dial. The partnership has brought about some changes to XPN’s schedule, though: The Indie Rock Hit Parade show has been eliminated and “Highs of the Seventies” will be rescheduled. “Land of the Lost” will continue to air on the last Friday of every month.
For more details on the partnership—and to listen live, go to www.YRockOnXPN.org or www.xpn.org.

Originally published on September 7, 2006.