Issue date: 7/24/08 Section: News

WXPN, located at 3025 Walnut St., collaborated with Minneapolis: The Current to produce The Music Exchange, a new program that will feature bands in Philadelphia and the Twin Cities. [Click to enlarge]

A Twin Cities radio station has found its very own twin in the University of Pennsylvania's WXPN.

Minnesota Public Radio's The Current and Penn's WXPN have teamed up to share local music through The Music Exchange, a new program that will feature the music of up-and-coming bands in Philadelphia and the Twin Cities - Minneapolis and St. Paul.

"We support our local communities," said Melanie Walker, music director of The Current. "We want to support public radio … on a national level."

WXPN and The Current connected last spring at the annual Triple A Radio convention, where Walker said program directors "always talk shop with each other."

At the convention, The Current program director Steve Nelson mentioned the idea of a music exchange to several other radio stations, and WXPN program director Bruce Warren demonstrated interest.

"This is about our audience and our artists," said David Safar, assistant director of The Current. "The idea has been around for a while."

The two stations will exchange local music through the end of the month in an effort to combine their popular music scenes, according to a Minnesota Public Radio press release.

Each station will play a total of 16 bands - eight from Philadelphia and eight from the Twin Cities - said Helen Leicht, assistant program director of WXPN and host of The Midday and Philly Local Hour.

"We're - across the board - trying to support the artists," she said. "The more we connect with stations that have local music, the better it is for these artists." She noted that WXPN's efforts to connect include posting links to the artists' Web sites to further facilitate exploration of the bands.

WXPN would like to establish similar programs with other radio stations in the future, said marketing director Kim Winnick, adding that radio stations around the country have a very close-knit relationship.

WXPN - channel 88.5 FM in Philadelphia - will feature these bands on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:30 p.m. and during Philly Local Hour on Tuesday evenings. The music will also be available for download at WXPN's Web site, wxpn.org.

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