NYPR History Notes

NYPR Archives & Preservation
April 30, 2021 - Volume 20 Issue 18

"WNYC, in the city where more than seven million people live in peace and enjoy the benefits of democracy."

Edition # 968

BROADCAST ON WNYC TODAY IN:

1939: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the New York World's Fair. "All who come to this World's Fair in New York and to the Exposition in San Francisco will, I need not tell them, receive the heartiest of welcomes. They will find that the eyes of the United States are fixed on the future. Yes, our wagon is still hitched to a star," says FDR.

1947: Julius Postal gets into the nitty-gritty of earthworms on this edition of the American Museum of Natural History's Science for the Seven Million.

1957: Gypsy Rose Lee, the burlesque stripper, talks to The New York Herald Tribune Book and Author Luncheon about her just-published memoirs.

1968: Dr. Raymond Charles Barker lectures on creativity in western religion as part of the series Peace, Love, Creativity, Hope of Mankind, a subseries of the Cooper Union Forum.

1976: Christopher C. Canole talks with host Doris Freedman about being New York City's first artist-in-residence in the parks as part of the Public Art Fund's Artists in the City series.

2003: Ajaz Ahmad was one of the thousands of Muslim immigrants illegally living in the United States who was targeted for deportation after 9/11. Marianne McCune tells his story in Going Home in Handcuffs, a WNYC documentary.

Back in the Day, April 30, 1939

The 'Father of our country' is sworn into office at the New York World's Fair as WNYC launches extensive coverage.

150 years after the original event cartoonist Denys Wortman (l) re-enacts the swearing-in of George Washington (Acme News Photo/WNYC Archive Collections)

Back in the Day, April 30, 1932

The Federal Radio Commission rules that WNYC must move to 810 kc

The City of New York appeals the decision, arguing that "the need of the people for municipal services was greater than their need of more commercial broadcasting." The court refuses to rule on the issue of commercial versus non-commercial and says the frequency shift (from 570 kilocycles to 810) must occur on June 5, 1933. Arguing in behalf of WNYC is city attorney Arthur J. W. Hilly, who makes a heroic early defense of public radio.

WNYC first day of broadcast, July 8, 1924 (Municipal Archives Collection)

Broadcast on WQXR Today in:

1966: The grand finals of the WQXR's first annual Young Artist Competition. Four of New York's top young pianists from the city's high schools perform.

1990: The Alaria Chamber Ensemble, with clarinetist David Krakauer, bassoonist Leonard Hindell, pianist Nancy Garniez and cellist Sandra Appleman join Bob Sherman in The Listening Room. In the second hour we hear from flutist Carol Wincenc, pianist William Wolfram, and the Emerson Trio.

96+ Years Young!

In 3 years WNYC will mark its centennial. In this space we'll be linking to various historical WNYC champions, broadcasts and milestones celebrating nearly a century on the air in the public interest. This week: WNYC Weathers Charges of Anti-Semitism Over Pro-Palestine Broadcast in 1937.

Poetry Month is Now!

Gone but not forgotten. The list of WNYC and WQXR past productions finding new life on the web continues to grow!

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Interested in revisiting some of the 967 previous issues of The New York Public Radio History Notes? We've put up links for editions since June 2013. See: History Notes.