It was a celebration at WXPN on Friday. The public radio station and member-supported station of the University of Pennsylvania marked its 1,000th Free at Noon concert from World Live Café, and to usher in the milestone, they found a true Philly headliner: The Hooters.
“Hello World Café Live!” shouted The Hooters’ Eric Bazilian to a jam-packed crowd.
“We’ve been trying to get them for a long, long time,” Dan Reed, WXPN’s afternoon host, said, “and we finally scored them for the 1,000th.”
It may have been the band’s first time on the Free at Noon series, but Friday also marked a homecoming of sorts.
“We were actually the first music that played on the stage in this venue,” Bazilian said.
Bazilian and Rob Hyman actually met at UPenn, and the pair, along with The Hooters, went on to deliver hits like “Day by Day” and “And We Danced.”
For Friday’s show, the band decided to switch things up a little bit and make sure this was something unique.
“Little more acoustics, some little arrangement things that we tried literally yesterday and today in soundcheck,” Hyman said. “We’ve had thousands of shows ourselves, but every one’s different and this one we wanted to make special.”
For more than 20 years now, WXPN has been putting on the free Friday shows.
Roger LaMay, the station’s general manager, says it started when they moved into the building.
“What can we do to share the joy we have about having this great new facility, to share with the community?” LaMay said. “And we said, ‘Hey, let’s start with these free at noon shows.'”
Since then, the concert series has only grown. It has featured local artists, but also some of the biggest names in the industry. Willie Nelson has played Free at Noon, as has Adele. Earlier this year, the series brought in The Lumineers.
But more than the big acts, the people who come out on a regular basis say the concerts are something uniquely Philly.
“It’s that sort of Philadelphia passion,” Miriam Nasuti of Collingswood, New Jersey, said.
“I would hope it’s sort of part of the recreational vibe of Philly now,” Reed said.
The celebration comes at a tough time for public radio stations around the U.S., however, as the federal government has slashed funding to public TV and radio. LaMay thanked the members who continue to support the station.
“These folks like send us their own money to keep us going because they believe in the power of community and the power of music for that community,” LaMay said.
And they hope to keep the acts and community coming for years to come.
“Here’s to 2,000,” Reed said. “Let’s see if we can keep it going.”
