NYPR History Notes

NYPR Archives & Preservation
June 4, 2021 - Volume 20 Issue 23

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

Edition # 973

BROADCAST ON WNYC TODAY IN:

1929: Dr. Clarence Floyd Haviland, a noted psychiatrist, talks about mental hygiene in New York. Haviland headed up the Manhattan State Hospital, now the Manhattan Psychiatric Center on Wards Island.

1953: Archibald MacLeish hosts the 1953 awards ceremony of the American Academy and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Louis Kronenberger inducts new members and awardees who include: Marianne Moore, Frank Lloyd Wright, Eric Bentley, and Peggy Glanville-Hicks.This is part of the Academy of Arts and Letters series.

1963: William Golding discusses his development as a writer with Patricia Marx. They cover the impetus behind his great literary text, Lord of the Flies and reveal how the Nobel Prize winning author's novels are thematically informed by his scholarship of ancient Greek texts as well as his experience in the Second World War, and his choice to remain on the outside of literary society. This is part of the Patricia Marx Interviews series.

2003: Poet Philip Levine reads a work by British poet Philip Larkin.

James Thurber on WNYC and WQXR

“My indictment of radio, to return to that, is aimed specifically at most of the news reporters, or reporters of bad news, to be exact. These men seem to revel in news items of horror, terror, catastrophe, and calamity. I have forced myself to listen, during the past few months, to an assortment of these voices of doom which are heard all day long, on the hour or half-hour, over almost all radio stations. It is something in the nature of a God’s blessing to cut them off and turn to the intelligent programs on WNYC, and the music of WQXR. It is wonderful to get away from the yelling and howling …”

Source: Lanterns & Lances by James Thurber, Copyright 1962, Time Inc., pages 135-136.

Back in the Day, Shorthand Contests!

WNYC staff and judges sort through shorthand contest submissions, February 16, 1932. (Photo courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives)

Believe it or not, we actually broadcast the dictation, (by "dictators") at varying speeds of delivery, for these competitions. While program directors today might flinch at the thought and compare it to watching paint dry, these contests aired from our earliest days into the 1930s. For more, please see: A Shorthand Contest on the Radio?

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

Broadcast on WQXR Today in:

1978: Composer William Schuman engages in a casual conversation with Bob Sherman and comments on some of his recorded works for the Great Artists series.

1983: Lloyd Moss interviews media consultant and guru Tony Schwartz about his life and works. Schwartz discusses the musical selections of his choosing, and plays some of his street recordings for this edition of This is My Music.

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: A 1939 Snapshot of WNYC.

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 972 previous issues of The New York Public Radio History Notes? We've put up links for editions since June 2013. See: History Notes.

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