1. January /February /March 2017 | rowhome magazine | 59
David Dye
PRHmusicart
25 years of
The World
Cafe with
David Dye
Dye casually strolls into the lobby. After
we shake hands and introduce ourselves, he
leads me down a secret corridor to his spa-
cious studio. Slumped in a big comfy chair,
Dye looks a little tired, but overall at ease. I
quickly realize this is his natural demeanor
and it fits his entrancingly lethargic baritone
perfectly—only minutes ago, two
complete strangers, we dive right into
a deep and substantive conversation.
We begin with his decision to
scale down. “It’s a fabulous job, but
it’s at least 10 hours a day, and over
the years, I don’t have the same
level of enthusiasm I used to.” A
quick figure to give this statement context:
Dye has produced a 2-hour session every
Monday-Thursday for the last two-and-a-
half decades, a total exceeding 4,500 inter-
views. That’s over 9,000 hours of content.
Enough to make even the most dedicated
Netflix binger’s head spin off. Dye caps off
his marathon each week by hosting Funky
Friday from 5-7 in the evening.
For a multitude of reasons, World Cafe oc-
cupies a special place in radio. First and fore-
most, the format: think a fusion of daytime
talk show and intimate coffee shop concert.
World Cafe is all about storytelling: Dye pro-
vides minimal guidepost questions that lead
artists into deep introspective anecdotes
about their backstories and influences, inter-
spersed with live renditions of select songs.
But Dye also had a hand in developing
what you might call his ‘signature blend’:
pulling material from emerging indie art-
ists; singer-songwriters; Americana; RB
and soul; and a healthy dose of oldies culled
from a wide swath of genres, eras and styles,
and tossing it all in the blender. Anything
goes as long as it fits the mood.
And what about the name World Cafe?
“We were very fortunate to start off with a
$1,000,000 grant to fund this world music
program—I was hired to run the grant—
research, not host.” But the results left Dye
scratching his head—world music wasn’t
gaining traction: it ranked dead last. In-
stead, oldies took the top slot—but the data
also yielded an enlightening nugget: audi-
ences preferred hearing an eclectic mixture
of sounds. Dye soon took over hosting du-
ties and has been indispensable in initiating
new music discovery ever since.
Today, World Cafe is the most successful
public radio program of all time—exceed-
ing 600,000 listeners on a weekly basis,
broadcast over 250 stations nationwide.
Dye isn’t ready to pack it in completely
yet—he plans to contribute regularly—but
he’s also going to focus on sprucing up
the show for a new generation. Widening
the array of perspectives even more. He’s
ushering in the World Cafe Next Fund to
provide back-end support to bring in more
artists, feature more conversation time
and produce exclusive web content. One
thing that won’t be touched, though, is that
aforementioned ‘signature blend.’ “We’re
beholden to what’s out there, to what’s ex-
citing—sounds change, but that said, lis-
teners are used to what we are—we can’t
change that, too.”
In the meantime, there will be plenty of fes-
tivities to celebrate Dye’s accomplishments,
including a pair of 25th
anniversary concerts at
World Cafe Live on March 3rd
and 4th
, and an
invitation-only donor event at La Peg Brasserie
at Fringe Arts on March 1st
. prh
T
he year 2016 marked a major milestone for David Dye. The beloved Philadelphia ra-
dio personality and WXPN mainstay celebrated his 25th
year as the voice of his NPR-
syndicated program World Cafe. Dye followed suit by making a big announcement.
Starting March 31st
, 2017, he will be stepping down as full-time host and producer.
When I met with Dye, the Center City scene outside was boisterous as ever—but
inside World Cafe Live, it’s a packed house. On stage, middle school-aged kids wield
electric guitar, bass, drums and keyboard. It’s a cool-injected alternative universe that
could only exist at the state-of-the-art WXPN headquarters. A public radio theme
park for the cultivated offspring of Philadelphia’s hip iconoclast.
PUBLIC
RADIO
by Bryan Culver
photo by Joe del Tufo
Diving right in