University of Pennsylvania AAA 88.5 WXPN Philadelphia Assistant General Manager/Program Director Bruce Warren will begin a phased retirement as he steps down as Program Director at the end of the year.
Warren will continue to serve as Executive Producer of the syndicated The World Cafe, host his Saturday midday “Post Sleepy Hollow Experience” show, and manage the station’s digital and social media platforms. Warren has been with WXPN since 1988 starting as volunteer DJ and would later become one of the founding producers of The World Cafe when it launched in 1991, and later Music Director and Program Director of WXPN. He also has served on the boards of PRX, Americana Music Association and Mighty Writers and has been a professor at multiple Philadelphia are universities.
WXPN General Manager Roger LaMay commented, “Bruce has been the heart and guiding voice of an incredible programming team for over three decades. His creativity, vision, and unwavering dedication to music and the artists we champion have elevated this station to a national treasure.”
Warren said, “For my entire life here at XPN, it’s always been about the journey of building discovery through our programming—whether on XPN, nationally on World Cafe, through our festivals, Free At Noons, streaming, videos, or social platforms. Watching indie artists build their audiences and seeing the joy our community gets from the music has been the most rewarding part. The amount of innovation and creativity here at XPN is as strong today as it was when we started. I’ve been fortunate to work with an incredible team, and I know they will continue to carry forward our mission of serving artists and audiences.””
Current WXPN Assistant Program Director Jim McGuinn has been promoted to Acting PD starting in January. McGuinn is on his second stint at the station serving as APN since August 2022. He has had a long tenure in the market where he first arrived in 1995 as Program Director of Alternative 103.9 WDRE. Following that station’s demise in 1997, he would jump to competitor “Y100” WPLY in the same role until its demise in 2004. McGuinn then launched webcaster Y100Rocks.com that would be merged into WXPN as “Y-Rock on XPN“ and would host afternoons on WXPN from 2007 until joining Minnesota Public Radio’s “89.3 The Current” KCMP Minneapolis as PD in 2009 where he would remain until April 2022. Prior to Philadelphia, McGuinn programmed WEQX Manchester VT and KPNT St. Louis.
