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NYPR Archives & Preservation
May 8, 2015 - Volume 14  Issue 19
Edition # 657

BROADCAST ON WNYC TODAY IN…

1945: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Harry S. Truman and General Eisenhower all deliver V-E Day messages.
 
Mayor Abe Beame with Mrs. F.H. La Guardia cutting WNYC's 50th anniversary cake at City Hall, July 8, 1974. (Courtesy of The New York Times)

WNYC Is a Zoot Suit Magnet
 
"WNYC, the municipal broadcasting station here, has been running annual jazz jamborees as part of its American Music Festival, and local zoot suiters turn out en masse for the occasions.  Participating horn blowers knock themselves for free, glad of the opportunity to indulge in some righteous roughhouse.  At odd times there are as many as eight regular jam sessions a week on tap in this town and it is a common practice for many famous but hungry names to sit in for kicks, getting their bread-and-butter money where they can find it.  If playing jazz can be put on a paying basis by [Milt] Shaw, he's going to win himself an awful lot of friends among the hot boys.  Jazz Concerts, Inc., has been organized by the Morris Agency to take care of the bookings."

Source: Billboard, May 1, 1943, p. 20.

WNYC’s World Theatre Series Is A-OK for the Proletariat!
 
"Do you think an hour and a half is too long for a good radio drama?  You might try listening to WNYC's World Theatre at 8:30 p.m. Fridays and let them know what you think.  They're presenting a series of five outstanding dramatic productions, transcribed from a series done by the British Broadcasting Company and are anxious to determine listener response. Last Friday night, they played the Felix Finton production of Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.*...For several years, BBC has been presenting a series known as the Third Program, which features original radio productions of the world's best drama, performed by top English artists...One could hardly be too unstinting in praise of this sort of radio programming.  It is hoped that WNYC will get more of these programs from the BBC.  It is even more to be hoped that American radio stations will overcome their inferiority complex and decide that if the English can do this sort of thing, we can do it too."

Source: "J.A." writing in The Daily Worker, (the Communist Party's newspaper)  September 26, 1947 in a review titled: "WNYC Presents Best in World Theatre."  

Editor's Note: WNYC's BBC World Theatre series also included L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand,  The Trojan Women by Euripides, Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen and Man of Destiny by George Bernard Shaw.
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More Thanks
 
With all the thank you's last week we were remiss in leaving out a couple of key movers, molders and shakers on our second NEH grant. Better late than never, We would like to enthusiastically and sincerely thank Erica Sattin and Eoin Delap of WNYC's Development team for their 'blood, toil, tears and sweat' (to quote Churchill) in making our application a winner. See: NEH to read about the first grant. The latest will add (at least) another 588 hours to the publicly accessible collections.
WNYC first day of broadcast, July 8th, 1924 (Municipal Archives Collection)

WWII Era Essays from the WQXR Program Guides

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WQXR and Jazz
 
"Jazz is about to take its place for the first time among the musical presentations of WQXR, the radio station of The New York Times. On Monday the station that for nearly twenty years has been devoted to the broadcasting of virtually all other musical forms will begin a series of weekly 9:05 to 9:35 o'clock evening programs called, The World of Jazz. It will be under the sponsorship of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York, Inc.

The series will be conducted by John S. Wilson and George Simon, jazz critics. Mr. Simon is editor of Metronome magazine. Abram Chasins, music director of WQXR, will introduce the first program, and discuss jazz as an original American contribution to music. The series will range among the various forms of jazz, as it has been presented over the years by individual musicians and groups."
 
Source: "WQXR Jazz Show Begins on Monday," The New York Times, August 11, 1954, pg. 33.

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WNYC celebrated its 90th anniversary last year. We're now officially a nonagenarian radio station. In this space we'll be linking to various historical WNYC champions and milestones. This week: Cavalcade of WNYC
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A little bit of WNYC's history gets animated.
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The WNYC Facebook page has a station timeline (1922-present) with more than 600 milestones, photos, and links to audio. (Right hand column).
 
Do your friends want to subscribe to this newsletter? Have them sign up at: NEWSLETTERS.

Check out the @mayorlaguardia Twitter feed straight from the WNYC broadcasts! His Honor now has 561 followers.
 


The WNYC Archives is on Twitter with 2,542 followers @wnycarchives. We tweet daily reminders of, and links to, WNYC broadcasts from that day in the past.
 
We’ve got a Tumblr page too! More than 10,000 followers. Check it out at:
WNYC Archives in the…
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