The Night Before on XPN with Robert Drake

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The 27th annual edition of 24 Nonstop Hours on the 24th Day of December! All day, all night December 24th!

It was 27 years ago when WXPN came to me, with those puppy-dog eyes, hoping that I'd fill in on December 24. Seems no one was available, and in those days before digital, you needed a body to oversee any programming. So, I agreed - as long as they gave me complete freedom to spin an aural web of sounds of the season - direct from my collection of holiday tunes.

What they didn't know was that I had already developed a fascination for Christmas songs. Not the burnt cookies anyone can hear up and down the dial in December. My collection was chock-full of unique nuggets - some not given the light of day for decades.

So, they agreed to give me three hours and I delivered. The three hours went to four - which went to six and then to twelve, to celebrate twelve years of tradition! The following year management asked what I planned to do to top my 12-hour marathon. I said, how 'bout 24 hours?! After checking my pulse and temperature - just to be sure I wasn't babbling under some illness - they agreed. Ever since, I've been on the air for 24-nonstop hours every Christmas Eve.

And now I am doing it all again!

Within my 24 hour radio takeover on December 24, I will air some special programming that have become traditions within the tradition! Every Christmas Eve morning at 10am, I replay some highlights from the amazing Home For The Holidays concert, hosted by Helen Leicht. Recorded earlier this month in front of a live audience at World Cafe Live, Helen gathered an amazing round of regional artists to perform classic sounds of the season and I will air some of those performances throughout the hour.



At noon it's my annual broadcast of STRIKING TWELVE - a wonderful and creative retelling of "The Little Match Girl", a short story by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen and performed here by GroveLily! If you want to own this performance, visit this link: groovelily.bandcamp.com



Later in the evening at 7pm, I broadcast It's A Wonderful Life - the 1947 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed ... a perfect way to showcase the magic of radio on this most magical of nights!





The Night Before on XPN made possible with support from XPN Members and from ...