Talking radio with Michaela Majoun

After years at the mike for WXPN, Michaela Majoun, the voice of morning for thousands of music-hungry people locally and worldwide, is stepping over to her other love: writing. She came to what was then a pretty good college station in 1989, the first professional on-air host the station had ever hired. Since then, and largely thanks to her efforts, XPN has become a cultural hub, connecting fans to artists they might not have known about, organizing concerts, conventions, and events such as the XPoNential Music Festival, with an especially splendid lineup Wednesday through Friday.

Next Sunday, the station will throw Majoun a gala "Michaelapalooza," with music, of course, plus speakers from the worlds of radio, nonprofits, and the arts. On June 30, she, with newsman Bob Bumbera, will do her last show upstairs at World Cafe Live, "so that people can come and say goodbye." Majoun speaks of radio past, present, and future, and of her love for . . .

Cats. You're a great lover of cats and they of you. Has a cat ever caused you to miss or curtail a show? Did you ever try to smuggle a cat into the studio?

I did volunteer to bring one of my cats in when we had a mouse problem at our old studios, before we came here [to the World Cafe Live building]. We had a squirrel problem, too. But this idea was nixed.A cat has never made me miss a show, but I've had to leave the station on a workday early because of a cat emergency.

Why did you gravitate to radio?

I really feel the reason is that I never felt people listened to me in my family. I just wanted people to listen to me. I grew up in the Boston area. There was Arnie "Woo-Woo" Ginsburg on WMEX and "Juicy" Brucie Bradley on WBZ. They were my role models, I guess. And when I went to college at Antioch, I got on the college radio station. I didn't consider it a career at first. I fell into a job in Madison, Wis. There was a community radio station, WORT, I could get on. I also got a job working at the state stations in Wisconsin doing news. At WORT, what began as a volunteer job later turned into a paying job, and I became the morning host. Later, when some of the people in charge at WORT were hired at WXPN, they hired me to come.So I came here, I stayed, and it grew on me. WXPN was so different back then, but it was really interesting. I realized I had a life here.

Over the years, you must have had your share of wacky and unexpected goings-on on your show. What's one nutty thing that comes to mind?

Tug McGraw was one of the first people I met when I moved here. I wanted to be in the Fairmount neighborhood. Somebody suggested I go to Rembrandt's. So I went, Tug was there, and I met him. I don't know from baseball, but when I said to people, "Who is this Tug McGraw?," they all went crazy: "You've been in town three days and met him already?" I had him on the show, and all these men called in and asked him questions. On the show, he said, "Do you want to know how I got the name Tug? It's because when I was breast-feeding, I used to bite on my mother's nipples, and she called me her Little Tugger." On air, of course. I was really mortified.

Angelique Kidjo, in 1991, was on the Women's Music Hour, and she had her first big hit, "Batonga," and I had her on the show. And I asked: "So! 'Batonga' is such a great song! What does batonga mean?" and she said, "It means [expletive]!!"

Imagine a small dinner party. Which artists would you invite?

I hate those questions, because there are too many people. Tori Amos - because she's so brilliant, and I just love the way she is inspired by paintings and classical music. Richard Thompson, because he is so witty and would be a great conversationalist. Sam Smith [see sidebar]. Oh, and Rhett Miller and Jonatha Brooke. Those two have been real friends to me and to XPN. I'm so lucky I've gotten to meet so many amazing people and found out what made them tick.

XPN has that AAA station thing, of being more than a music box. And that has evolved since you've been here.

The Philly I moved to in March 1989 has changed a lot. But, instantly, I saw what an amazing cultural center it was. The arts, and the institutions that support them, are amazing. And you talk about a knowledgeable radio audience: I couldn't believe, when I first came here, every person I met told me the entire history of Philly radio. So proud of it. Really a wonderful city of radio listeners.

The show I was hired to do was an arts show with music, and then it became a music show with arts. And our sound and what we were doing refined itself as we went along. I've always been interested in culture and the arts. I can't imagine working somewhere that didn't champion new artists and the arts scene in a broader way.

The WXPN Free at Noon concerts, the festival - there's such a great vibe at those. People are there because they love the station and the music. I'm going to miss presenting it. And I'll miss talking to the artists and doing the cultural work. It's a wonderful job. I won't miss getting up at 4 a.m. That's really hard.

And now, writing.

I've done radio, I think, long enough. It's the longest I've done anything. I never got the chance to write, and it's time now. I'd love to write for television - it's in a golden age of great storytelling, and so many more outlets than there used to be.

Isn't it weird that radio is now a legacy medium? And will you still listen to radio?

I'm part of that legacy, and, yes, I will. Nothing replaces the human touch, people curating the music and delivering it to other people. We speak to a local audience and play local musicians. I think there will be a turning back to that, just as kids are now in love with vinyl and cassettes. Radio's not going away.

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Michaela Majoun has played thousands of records for thousands of people. But if she could play a song for herself, what would it be? Off the top of her head:

"Right now, it's anything by Sam Smith. I'm obsessed with him. I just adore him. His songs are incredible, really incredible."

"Sinner" by Neil Finn: "I once played that, not on the air, 40 times in a row."

"The Warmest Room" by Billy Bragg.

"River of Love" by T Bone Burnett.

"I Misunderstood" by Richard Thompson: "That's for a period of time when I was very blue."

"Angel in the House" by Jonatha Brooke: "She's a wonder." (Her one-woman show My Mother Has 4 Noses is at People's Light & Theatre in Malvern through June 28.)

"A Case of You" by Joni Mitchell: "Probably my favorite song of hers."

What if it were 20 years or so ago? She consults a recent "Morning Rewind" playlist for 1996, which is close enough:

"Road to Ensenada" by Lyle Lovett.

"Last of the Good Straight Girls" by Susan Werner.

"I'll Be There for You" by the Rembrandts.

"Sweet Old World" by Emmylou Harris