At 10 a.m. ET, on Oct. 14 1991, from the third floor of WXPN's broadcast studios in a turn-of-the-century building in West Philadelphia, original World Cafe host David Dye, along with a small production staff, debuted the very first Cafe. The then-new national show went out live to its five original affiliates, including WFUV in New York, KUMD in Duluth, Minnesota, KUNI (now Iowa Public Radio) and, of course, WXPN.
The very first guest on World Cafe was Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, who had just released his twentieth album, Nothing But A Burning Light, produced by T-Bone Burnett and featuring a handful of extraordinary players. With just an acoustic guitar, Cockburn performed songs from the album including "Great Big Love," "A Dream Like Mine," and "Soul of A Man."
Listen to the World Cafe's entire first show:
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