On Monday April 8th, 2024, much of North America was able to witness a rare solar eclipse. Here in Philadelphia, we were so excited to experience this celestial event that we dedicated the afternoon soundtrack to the event.
Pierre Robert began with his daily Vinyl Cut just after 2pm. He played “Moondance” by Van Morrison on the turntable in Studio R (yes, live vinyl on the radio!). We followed that up with a few hours’ worth of moon, sun and space songs spilling over into Brent Porche’s show.
Once Brent took the mic, Pierre and his producer Pancake made their way up to the roof of One Bala Plaza in Bala Cynwyd, where our broadcast studios are located just off of City Avenue. They were so ready – we all were – to watch as the moon covered the sun, with 90% totality expected from our vantage point. Unfortunately, at that exact moment, Mother Nature decided that we weren’t ready to witness the eclipse, and sent cloud cover our way.
Here’s what Pierre had to say about the experience, as posted on his Instagram:
“Pancake & I started preparing for the eclipse indoors in the studio. Then Brent Porche joined us and we took a photo underneath our famous picture of Mick Jagger (of the Rolling Stones) wearing the WMMR cap from 1981… Our program director Chuck Damico actually put a pair of safety glasses on Mick (the Stones have a big summer tour coming up & we’ve got to protect him!)… Then we went up to the roof of our studio home at One Bala, hoping for a magical experience but, for the most part, we just got clouds ⛅️ but that’s OK, it was fun! 🤩 And we played some great sun 🌞 and moon 🌖 songs all afternoon!”
Despite the obscured view, we still had a lot of fun with the music. Check Brent’s page for the list of songs we played that day, and scroll through Pierre’s photos below.
Pierre Robert’s Eclipse Experience
