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WYEP spent 2024 celebrating 50 years of bringing emerging artists, local talent, and iconic acts to listeners. Included among the retrospectives, countdowns, and other anniversary festivities were, according to WYEP program director Liz Felix, discussions about “big things” the independent, nonprofit radio station could be doing.
“One of the ideas we came up with was to start a live music fund,” she tells Pittsburgh City Paper. The resulting WYEP Live Music Fund will soon satisfy its mission to “produce, promote, and support live music performances in the region while nurturing local artists.”
WYEP recently announced its first-ever Neighborhood Concert Series, an initiative to bring free live music to venues throughout the Pittsburgh region. Launching on Thurs., April 24, the series includes eight concerts described in a press release as featuring “Pittsburgh-based bands, as well as up-and-coming national artists.”
Felix says the Neighborhood Concert Series, described as striving to “enlighten, entertain, and connect music fans where they live,” extends beyond events like the existing WYEP Summer Music Festival, a free annual show that attracts crowds to Oakland.
The series kicks off in the South Hills with two local acts, Merce Lemon and Animal Scream, at the Crafthouse Stage and Grill, followed by Snacktime, Kashus Culpepper, and Clover County at Cadence Clubhouse in Allison Park. The series unfolds from there with concerts at The Oaks Theater in Oakmont, Clearview Commons in Mt. Lebanon, and Tall Trees Amphitheater in Monroeville.
WYEP has also partnered with Allegheny County Parks to present shows at South Park, Settlers Cabin Park, and Hartwood Acres.
Merce Lemon, an emerging indie musician who cut her teeth in the local punk scene, made a splash last year with her album Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild, described in a City Paper review as inhabiting “the nexus between the spellbinding folk-rock of Big Thief and the rip-roaring country-rock of Crazy Horse.” Animal Scream, a project by longtime Pittsburgh rockers Josh Sickels and Chad Monticue, debuted in 2020 with its distinct brand of weird pop.
Felix points out that Merce Lemon and Animal Scream have a history with WYEP, with the former appearing during a studio session at the station last year, and the latter playing a previous Summer Music Festival. Both acts have also been named WYEP Pittsburgh Artist of the Year.
Avid WYEP listeners will recognize the national acts playing live at future shows. Besides Snacktime, a funky, brassy outfit from Philadelphia, and Clover County, a project of Athens, Ga.-based musician A.G. Schiano, Felix highlights Kashus Culpepper, a country-blues singer-songwriter from Alabama.
“This is introducing some newer artists to a Pittsburgh audience for the first time,” says Felix, adding that all the Neighborhood Concert Series artists announced so far have gotten airtime on the station. “So it’s all over the map, trying to cover all the bases of what we do on WYEP.”
Details on some future Neighborhood Concert Series are, for now, under wraps, with Felix teasing a “folk-leaning” event at Settlers Cabin Park in September.
“A lot of it is just not confirmed yet, so we’re trying to shore that up so we can get the info out,” she says.
As the Neighborhood Concert Series prepares to roll out, the station has set out to generate an additional $200,000 for the WYEP Live Music Fund by Weds., April 30. As stated by WYEP, the “restricted fund will elevate live music as a regional asset essential to the cultural and economic vitality of the Pittsburgh region.” Those interested in contributing will find a link to a donation form on the WYEP Live Music Fund web page.
Felix believes she and her colleagues are working to ensure that WYEP can, as its slogan goes, be “the station where the music comes first,” especially as they move forward from the 50-year milestone.
“Everything evolves, and 50 years is a very long time for a radio station to survive, especially a station like this one,” she says. “That’s really special, I think. We don’t take it for granted that people depend on us to find out about new music, and to be able to see these artists live when, in some cases, they might not be able to come to the city otherwise — that’s huge.”
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2025.
