Brooklyn Janitor Pulls Plug on WNYC

During World War II New York City civil defense officials orchestrated 'blackout' drills in case of an enemy attack at night. On May 6, 1943, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported the following: "The rule is keep your radio going during a blackout, but those who were listening to the city radio station, WNYC, when last night's blackout test started couldn't do so with that station at 9:17 p.m. WNYC suddenly went off the air...it was explained today that the station was using its auxiliary transmitter operating from Brooklyn Technical High School for the first time. When the blackout started, a custodian or assistant custodian pulled all the switches, including those operating the radio station..."
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Tree Branch Breaks WNYC Antenna

"One big event was when the [1939] World's Fair came and Dick Pack and a few of us were out at the Fair and we wanted to describe the arrival of the King of England. And it was one of those things where somebody says, 'jeez, there we'll be where the announcer stand [is] and they'll come by in a car and we'll describe them waving to the crowd and they're gone in 20 seconds.'  And Pack had gotten from the Army or the Navy one of the first portable transmitters that you strapped on your back and had an aerial and you could ride alongside of a car, and then broadcast from there to the studio....So, here comes the King's car, and here's Dick with this thing on his back, running alongside the car, describing the great Pierce Arrow...and the King and the aerial -the whip aerial - hit the branches of a tree and broke off, and there was dead air. That was another of our great  inventions."

Source: Oral history session with former WNYC newsman Jack Goodman, April 10, 2001.