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WNYC's Resident Man of Words, 1926-1929
Long before language mavens Patricia T. O'Conner or Richard Lederer ever came to WNYC, there was Frank Horace Vizetelly (1864-1938). Known in his day as the "Dean of Lexicographers," Vizetelly was a...
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WNYC Director Seymour N. Siegel: Public Radio Visionary
On January 3, 1934, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia swore into office Seymour N. Siegel as WNYC's Assistant Program Director. Immediately after Siegel affirmed his commitment to the people of the City...
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Al Arkus: The Music Maestro
Albert H. Arkus in a college photo taken when he was working at WNYC 1944-1951.(Courtesy of Deborah and Robert Arkus/WNYC Archive Collections)Al Arkus started at WNYC by producing, directing, and...
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The Reader's Almanac with Walter James Miller
Walter James Miller (1918-2010) was Professor Emeritus at New York University and host of WNYC’s Reader’s Almanac (1970-1985) and WNYC-TV’s Book World (1968-1970). He conducted early interviews with...
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Ralph Berton: The Man Behind Radio's First Serious Jazz Music Program
From 1940 to 1942 Ralph Berton hosted WNYC's daily foray into jazz called Metropolitan Revue, dedicated to "the finest in recorded hot jazz." The program was radio's first serious jazz music show on...
View ArticleTwenty-Four Years Later: Celebrating the 88th Anniversary of WNYC
On Sunday, July 8, 2012, WNYC will mark 88 years on the air. Originally established as New York City's municipal radio station, WNYC has since become the flagship station for the country's public radio...
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Morris S. Novik: Public Radio Pioneer
Morris S. Novik was appointed by Mayor F. H. La Guardia to be the first Director of the Municipal Broadcasting System on February 9, 1938. During the nearly eight years he oversaw WNYC, he tirelessly...
View ArticleMarian Anderson Speaks on Empathy, Attainment, and Race
As eloquent in her speech as she is in her song, the contralto Marian Anderson addresses the issues of prejudice and segregation head-on in this 1957 Books and Authors Luncheon appearance. After an...
View ArticleMacklin Marrow and the WNYC Concert Orchestra
From July 1939 to March 1942, conductor and composer Macklin Marrow led the WNYC Concert Orchestra. The 35-piece ensemble was sponsored by The New York City Music Project, a unit of the federal Works...
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A Look Back: WNYC Transmitter Park in Photos
New York Public Radio President Laura Walker, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other officials dedicated a new park Monday in Greenpoint, Brooklyn — at the site of WNYC's original AM transmitter.The 1.6...
View ArticleWNYC Transmitter Park
On September 10, 2012, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Veronica White, New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth W. Pinsky, Brooklyn Borough...
View ArticlePioneering Language Classes Over WNYC
Between the summer of 1925 and spring 1932, Victor Harrison-Berlitz, the General Manager of 410 U.S. Berlitz language schools, taught French, Spanish, German and Italian over WNYC. The regular classes...
View ArticleArt in Public: Stuart Davis on Abstract Art and the WPA, 1939
This live dedication of four Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals in WNYC’s Studio B is most notable for the comments of abstract artist Stuart Davis, the only one of the murals’ creators in...
View ArticleThe complete Vonnegut interviews, 1973-1983
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a good friend and guest of Walter James Miller, host of WNYC's Reader's Almanac, a show done in conjunction with New York University's School of Continuing and Professional...
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William Orton Tewson - WNYC Literary Critic (1928-1934)
W. O. Tewson was an editor and literary critic heard regularly on WNYC between March, 1928 and September, 1934 discussing literature and books. He wrote for The New York Times, Hearst newspapers, and...
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Concert Pianist Irene Jacobi: WNYC American Music Festival, 1943
At the height of World War II, WNYC invited concert pianist Irene Jacobi and her husband, composer Frederick Jacobi, to perform some of his works for the station's fourth annual American Music...
View ArticleBest of Pete Seeger, from Beethoven to the the Folk Music Almanac
Pete Seeger, who died on January 27 at age 94, had a long association with WNYC. A frequent visitor to Oscar Brand's long-running Folksong Festival, Seeger had his own WNYC show for a while in 1946....
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Enjoy WNYC's Tube Noise-Free Sound? You're Not Alone
The year was 1936, the peak of the Great Depression, not exactly a time when opera was a primary concern of most New Yorkers. But for Miller Reese Hutchison, listening to the Operatic Musicale on WNYC...
View ArticleLeader of American Anthropology Launches WNYC Series
American scientists and educators are fully aware of the dangers involved in the mounting spirit of oppression, which dominates life in many foreign countries. We do not flatter ourselves that this...
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The Man Who Fought For and Founded WNYC
Grover A. Whalen described himself as "Mr. New York" for his autobiography. Indeed, at various times he was the city's official and unofficial greeter of royalty, celebrity, and the political elite. He...
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How Geopolitics Shaped WNYC’s Iconic Station Identification
Every radio station has a government-mandated station identification - a host is required to announce a station's call letters every hour, on the hour. Here's a look back at some of WNYC's station IDs...
View ArticleThomas B. Morgan, Former Head of WNYC, Dies
Thomas B. Morgan, the President of the WNYC Communications Group from April 1990 to April 1994, died today. Morgan was an honorary trustee of New York Public Radio. He had not been well for some...
View ArticleGreenwich Village in WNYC's History
As part of WNYC's 90th anniversary, historian John Strausbaugh offers context for some archival sound focused on Greenwich Village. He's the author of The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians,...
View ArticleKurt Vonnegut Talks to the Dead
As part of WNYC's 90th anniversary celebration, Marty Goldensohn, former WNYC news director, shares excerpts from the station's 1998 series "Reports on the Afterlife." It's based on Vonnegut's book God...
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WNYC and WQXR: Pioneer Broadcasters of Latin American Music
It began at WNYC as the program South American Way (November 4, 1940 edition above) and ended up at WQXR as Nights in Latin America. Through it all, the source collection of recordings remained the...
View ArticleThe Flexner Incident: Not One of Our Finer Moments
James Thomas Flexner (1908-2003) was a distinguished man of letters writing about American history and art. As a historian and biographer, he is best known for a four-volume biography of George...
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Shirley Zak Hayes: WNYC's First Woman Staff Announcer
By the time Shirley Zak Hayes joined the WNYC staff in June 1966 as the station's first full-time woman announcer, she had already distinguished herself as a community activist. In the late 1950s, she...
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Mary Perot Nichols: Guiding WNYC's Rebirth and Renewal - Part 2
Invitation for Mary Perot Nichols second swearing-in March 1, 1984.(WNYC Archive Collections)Three years pass and Mary Perot Nichols returns to the elm of WNYC. John Beck's efforts to emphasize new...
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Mary Perot Nichols: Guiding WNYC's Rebirth and Renewal - Part 1
Mary Perot Nichols, a former muckraking columnist and city editor of The Village Voice, served two separate terms as head of WNYC. Strong-willed with a no-nonsense approach to leadership, she advanced...
View ArticleJosephine, the Talking Jeep
Some readers may remember the crime-fighting David Hasselhoff driving an artificially intelligent 1982 Pontiac Trans Am in the '80s TV show Knight Rider. A few may even recall the '60s sitcom with...
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The Poet Laureate of Radio: Norman Corwin on WNYC and WQXR
There is little doubt that Norman Corwin is the most celebrated writer, director, and producer of radio drama ever. At a time when radio was the dominant medium, his works helped to ramp-up the...
View ArticleReady or Not, Listeners Hear John Cage Composition Over WNYC in 1945
In 1945, America was still at war, and WNYC’s annual American Music Festival wasn’t just a celebration of American composers of all stripes; it also took on unavoidable and perhaps inadvertent...
View ArticleThose Dusty Archives
It's true, we do occasionally find valuable things in less than wholesome places like damp basements, forgotten crawl spaces, and blistering hot attic corners. But I would venture a guess that 96% of...
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WNYC and the NYPD Agree, Don’t Run Away from Home!
Captain John H. Ayres, first Chief of the NYPD Missing Persons Bureau.(WNYC Archive Collections)It should come as no surprise that as a city-owned and operated station, WNYC maintained a good...
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WNYC and the NYPD: In Search of Criminals
WNYC, the city-owned and operated station, maintained a good relationship with the New York City Police Department, serving early on as part of its communications apparatus for locating both criminals...
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Post Post, A Sampling and Tribute to Some Classic Live Morning Music Moments
Steve Post was the antidote to an industry riddled with chronic cheerfulness. With the world going to hell in a hand basket, how could we possibly listen to a morning radio personality who sounds like...
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Radio's First Record Review Program - Around the Disc with Peter Hugh Reed
From April 1929 through January 1931 music commentator and critic Peter Hugh Reed hosted Around the Disc, a forty-minute weekly record review program on WNYC.Reed was the founder and editor of the...
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A WNYC Scene Sampler Circa 1939 by Laszlo Matulay
The ArtThe figures and scenes, all drawn from life by artist Laszlo Matulay, capture the essence of New York's public radio station in 1939. Fiorello H. La Guardia ran for mayor in 1933 promising to...
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The 'Founding Father' of Arab-American Literature
Ameen Rihani (1876 – 1940), was a Lebanese Arab-American writer, intellectual and political activist. He was also a major figure in the mahjar (Arab diaspora) literary movement developed by Arab...
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Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Lilian Supove Blake
In the mid-1940s, a woman leading the news and special events department of a broadcaster in the nation's biggest radio market was pretty unusual. But that's exactly the position held by Lily Supove...
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The WNYC American Music Festival
The WNYC American Music Festival played a significant role in promoting American music of every genre and provided a forum for new American composers to get their works heard. Conceived in 1939, the...
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Clifford Burdette: African-American Radio Pioneer
ANNOUNCER: Your city station presents Those Who Have Made Good...a series of programs organized by Clifford Burdette presenting famous Negro personalities to tell about their lives and entertain us...
View ArticleRothko and Gottlieb discuss, "The Portrait and the Modern Artist," on WNYC's...
From a photocopy of the original broadcast transcript of WNYC's Art in New York airing on October 13, 1943. The program aired from 5:45 to 6:00 PM 'Eastern War Time.' WNYC - New York's Own Station,...
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WNYC: 20 Years of Independence!
Today marks 20 years since the official celebration of WNYC's independence from the City of New York. The first payment of $3.3 million was made against an agreed-upon $20 million for the WNYC...
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New York Mayor John F. Hylan on WNYC's Opening Night
Some ContextMayor John F. Hylan made the remarks reprinted below when radio was still very much in its formative stages. KDKA Pittsburgh, with which WNYC was frequently compared because our transmitter...
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V-J Day at WNYC: A Behind the Scenes Look
WNYC Program Director Nathan M. Rudich in the 1940s courtesy of Glynn Rudich.Seventy-two years ago today WNYC program director Nathan M. Rudich arrived at the studio at 6:15 a.m. just before the AM...
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WNYC's Vintage Microphones
"This microphone is not an ordinary instrument,For it looks out on vistas wide indeed:My voice commingles now with northern lights and asteroids and Alexander's skeleton,With dead volcanoes and with...
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75 Years of WNYC-FM
On February 24, 1943, WNYC began broadcasting an experimental 1,000-watt frequency modulation (FM) signal at 43.9 megacycles [1] using the call letters W39NY. At that time, only a handful of stations...
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Going Public: The Story of WNYC’s Journey to Independence
In November 1993, Rudolph Giuliani was elected mayor of New York City in a narrow victory over the incumbent David Dinkins. As a victorious Republican in a city of Democrats and fierce independents,...
View Article100 Years of 100 Things: Radio
Continuing our centennial series 100 Years of 100 Things, Matthew Barton, curator of recorded sound at the Library of Congress, walks us through the history of radio.100 Years of 100 Things is part of...
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