So, How Did It Feel When Your Dog Died/Your House Burned Down/Someone Stole Your Guitar?

In this fine city of ours, 88.5 WXPN is an institution. While we've never been able to figure out exactly the relationship between the station and the University of Pennsylvania (beyond an apparent mandate to broadcast all home Quaker games) and we keep getting letters telling us to renew our membership even though we did a few months ago (and it wasn't twelve either), Phillyist definitely has a soft spot for the X. We mean, Y-Rock? Land of the Lost? Come on! But as in any affectionate relationship, there are things XPN does that annoy us. Like their tendency to play a few "hit" songs to absolute death. Like hiding Indie Rock Hit Parade. And like David Dye.

Now, we have it on good authority that David is a stand-up guy, really nice to talk to, possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of music, and generally is a little funky (in a good way). But if there's one thing we can't stand it's when he's interviewing people for the nationally syndicated World Cafe. We thought for a while that it was just us. Then at a party one night, when a few glasses of wine had lessened our guard and loosened our tongue, it came out that pretty much everyone in attendance took issue with his interviewing style. For some, it's his sometimes stilted tone (is he nervous?). For Phillyist, the real kicker is the sometimes crazy questions that come out. We remember when he interviewed Tracy Grammer, whose partner in life and music Dave Carter had passed away suddenly oh, about a year before the interview, and David asked, "So, your partner died. How did that affect you?" We understand that when interviewing someone you want to get at their soul as it were, but a little tact, maybe some better wording, might be in order at times.

So we were amused, to say the least, to hear yesterday that David is giving over four of his afternoons of live drive time shifts to Jim McGuinn in order to spend more time with the World Cafe - in particular, it seems, so he can devote more time to "get the very best out of an interview." Huh. To be fair, if he has been stretched as thin as his announcement implied, then perhaps we will hear a different David on weekday afternoons. One who appears to have more focus, maybe even (dare we hope?) one who is a little less gushy at times. It could happen. Our affectionate relationship with the XPN family makes us deeply wish it were so.

Oh, and that fifth live drive time? David will be keeping his Friday shift, and will still offer up The Funk. Bless his heart.

Image Credit: Flickr user Many Cats 4 Me