Coming back from Philly yesterday, I stumbled on WXPN’s broadcast of the new Tom Waits album, Orphans. Since XPN is a listener-supported radio (they don’t say “public” because it is not affiliated with NPR), there were limited interuptions. It made for an enjoyable ride back from the city of brotherly love. I got to hear half of the first disc, Brawlers, most of the second disc, Bawlers, and half of the third disc, Bastards. The first disc is rock stuff, while second is ballads. The third one is just weird, even for Waits.

Also, XPN has several frequencies, including Harrisburg and the Lehigh Valley, so its reach is all of SE Pennsylvania and a good chunk of Maryland. They also have a Worton/Baltimore frequency, which prompted the questions, why and where is Worton? It turns out Worton is due east of Charm City on the other side of the Chesepeake, but I don’t know why a Philly station is trying to be a Baltimore station too. The signal lasted until about Fort Meade, though, so I have no complaints. It was also interesting to hear traffic reports from Central Jersey to Baltimore with 25% of Pennsylvania too.

Lastly, XPN has programming called “Y-Rock” which is the remnants of Philly’s Y-100. About two years ago when I headed up to the Poconos I had a great time listening to Philly radio, which was far superior to D.C.’s airwaves. Of course, that is not saying much. Anyway, I enjoyed listening Y-100, only to find out that the format changed a week later. I should have blogged about that back then.