John Vettese

When I was a teenager in the Philadelphia suburb of Ambler in the mid-1990s, I swapped cassette mixtapes with my friends. We all loved music, we all had our own unique tastes, and doing this helped me think differently about my favorite albums and songs. It opened my mind to artists I’d never heard before, and the way very different artists could sit side-by-side in the same conversation.

When I heard WXPN for the first time — on early Saturday morning drives to work the breakfast shift at a local Italian restaurant, listening to Sleepy Hollow spin Tom Waits into Billie Holiday — I realized radio could be a mixtape, too.

When I came to the station as a volunteer in 2006, I had a half dozen years as a music writer and live music photographer in Philly under my belt, freelancing for outlets like City Paper and Magnet. I joined the family full-time in 2012, and I’ve gone from blogging to hosting a variety of shows on our airwaves, recording hundreds of artists (local and national) in our performance studio, and attending more concerts than I’ve been able to keep track of.

From basements and porches to stadiums and festivals, I’ll be wherever I can find live and local music happening. Working with the Delaware Valley music community on WXPN Local is easily my favorite part of my job; there’s nothing like the feeling of hearing a new favorite for the first time, especially when they’re making music right in your backyard.

When I’m not at the office, in the studio, or at a show, you can find me hiking or traveling, shooting photos on one of my old film cameras, attempting to cook a vegan meal of some sort, or hanging in West Philly with my wife and cats.