John Diliberto

I’ve been working in radio and music for all of my adult life.

I was a music junky as a kid; a child of the British invasion, and coming of age in psychedelic and progressive rock music. I came to the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate to play defensive tackle for the Penn Quaker football team. But music was my passion, and I remember storing my then thousand-copy vinyl collection in the offensive line coach’s office during summer practice. It was inevitable I’d discover WXPN.

I took radio courses with the people who created Sleepy Hollow and lost shows like Diaspar and Blue Genesis. I got myself on air and became identified with the Diaspar progressive rock show and created Star’s End. By junior year I was music director. Football and WXPN made me a double-jock major.

My music bug extended to print media writing reviews and articles beginning with The Drummer in Philadelphia, Audio Magazine, and then a ton of publications including Downbeat, Musician, Jazziz, Keyboard, Pulse, and Billboard.

I spent a year in Berkeley California as program director for KALX and came back to Philly to begin producing music documentaries. They included docs on Charlie Parker, Edgar Varese, George Crumb, and Sun Ra.

I spent most of the ’80s producing 120 episodes of Totally Wired, a new music documentary series that included everyone from Depeche Mode to John Cage to Keith Jarrett. That led to Echoes on the air at WXPN since its inception in 1989.

I also produced 14 documentaries for NPR’s Jazz Profiles. My two-part doc on John Coltrane was part of that show’s Peabody Award-winning entry.

I have been blessed to be immersed in the music I love all my life, talking to amazing musicians and having them perform six feet in front of me and our listeners.

When I’m not doing that, I hang with my wife and two dogs.