From WXPN Host To WXPN Ambassador: Kathy O’Connell Announces Retirement

After four decades of soundtracking childhoods across the region and beyond, WXPN host Kathy O’Connell has announced her retirement. Since O’Connell is irreplaceable, this also means that Kids Corner will draw to a close, with its final shows airing this June. 

O’Connell launched Kids Corner at WXPN in 1988 after leaving WNYC, where she co-hosted Kids America. That show’s final broadcast aired on Christmas Eve 1987.

“That’s a fun present to the kids,” O’Connell said. “It’s like, ‘Merry Christmas kids!'”

Kids America’s national reach extended to Philadelphia, airing on WXPN. When WXPN’s then-station manager Mark Fuerst heard about the cancellation (just months after bringing Kids America to the station), he approached O’Connell knowing her personality made her a hit with children.

“He said, ‘Okay, well look, basically you are the show,'” O’Connell recalled. “Since my grandmother worked in sweatshops her whole life, I have a fear of unemployment. I said, ‘I’ll give Philly a year.'”

Nearly 40 years later, she’s still here.

Also central to the show’s success is WXPN host and Kids Corner producer Robert Drake, who has been with the program since the beginning.

“Kathy and I really quickly developed a camaraderie when we first met in 1988, because we were the two new people at XPN, sort of the new guard versus the old guard,” he said.

O’Connell is quick to credit him. “Robert is a natural producer,” she said. “He said, ‘you sounded like you needed me,’ which we did at the time.”

Drake describes his role simply: “She’s into being Kathy O’Connell, and my job is to make sure she can be Kathy O’Connell. So for the past four decades, I have.”

While Drake is staying with WXPN, O’Connell will remain a strong ambassador at future WXPN events and a vital part of the WXPN family. “I’m going to miss the whole WXPN crew,” she said. “I’m going to miss the fun of being on the air.”

That time on the air influenced and helped generations of kids in the WXPN listenership find their voices, feel welcomed, learn about a variety of topics, and simply be kids.

 “At the beginning, we had a lot of latchkey kids who were only able to listen to other kids’ voices on the show,” O’Connell said.

One caller, Desmond, was told by his single, working mother to lock the door and stay inside after school because of gang violence in his North Philadelphia neighborhood in the late 1980s. He couldn’t see friends, couldn’t go outside, couldn’t even sit on his porch. One of his few connections to other children was Kids Corner.

“Kathy handled that by listening to him and acknowledging him, but also making sure he felt welcomed,” Drake said. “He would call nightly because of that relationship, because Kathy was truly paying attention to what he was saying.”

O’Connell also helped guide children through national tragedies, divorces, and family deaths over the years. WXPN General Manager Roger LaMay points to something harder to define about her gift with young listeners.

“If you’ve ever listened to Kathy O’Connell interview kids for an hour about what costume they’re wearing for Halloween and why, it sounds simple, but she makes it magical,” he said. “She has this unique thing of being able to talk to eight-year-olds on their own level and gets the sort of wide lens that’s part of being a kid.”

Drake likens their collective impact to that of Fred Rogers. “He talked a number of times about how humbling it was to have generations of people come up to him and say how they grew up with his show,” Drake said. “It’s kind of like that, but a very small version. You play a role in these people’s lives from a developing age through adulthood. You meant a lot to them when they were 12 years old, but then they’re 45 years old and you still mean a lot to them.”

LaMay sees it in person at WXPN events. “We have kids who grew up listening to Kids Corner, who now have kids of their own who listen to Kids Corner,” he said. “They come to XPoNential Music Festival together.”

Over the next few months WXPN will be celebrating both Kids Corner and Kathy O’Connell with some special programs and outreach events. Kids Corner will also be creating The Top 50 Kids Corner Songs of All Time list – and want your song suggestions. Additionally, we are launching the Kids Corner Treasure Chest and encourage fans to submit their memories, moments, pictures and even audio/video clips for inclusion. We’ll have our big reveal of the Treasure Chest in June.

Submit your Kids Corner memories and song suggestions below!