100 Years of WNYC

Since 2015, the Municipal Archives has participated in the annual New York City Photoville festival. Photoville is a citywide two-week pop-up exhibit. The main venue is directly under the Brooklyn Bridge at the corner of Water and New Dock Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn. This year, it runs from June 1-16, 2024. For the core exhibits, each Photoville participant transforms a shipping container into a temporary gallery. Our exhibit this year celebrates 100 years of WNYC.

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Municipal Building with WNYC radio antennae, July 18, 1924. Photo by Eugene de Salignac. NYC Municipal Archives.

From 1924 until 1997, WNYC radio was owned and operated by the City of New York for “Instruction, Enlightenment, and Entertainment.” WNYC turns 100 this year, and its history is intimately related to both City government and the NYC Municipal Archives. From the first broadcast on July 8, 1924, preserved in photographs by Eugene de Salignac, to historic broadcasts (both radio and television), the Municipal Archives is the repository of much of WNYC’s historical audio and video programs. The rest of its history has been preserved by the New York Public Radio Archives, founded in 2000. Its archivist, Andy Lanset, has spent more than two decades gathering ephemera, equipment, and lost recordings. He has been awarded several collaborative grants to digitize the recordings housed in the Municipal Archives and New York Public Radio.

WNYC’s first day on the air, July 8, 1924. (Earlier in the day - first broadcast at night) Grover A. Whalen, WNYC’s founder, (in tux) is joined by Public Address Operators Bert L. Davies and Frank Orth (seated) who is operating a wave meter. Photo by Eugene de Salignac. Department of Bridges/Plant and Structures collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Grover Whalen, Commissioner of the Department of Plant & Structures launched WNYC Radio on July 8, 1924. Through their original programming and recordings made at City Hall events and press conferences, WNYC Radio reporters, engineers and producers captured a wide range of important cultural and political personalities. John Glenn and John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, Josephine Baker and Bob Dylan, astronauts and politicians, artists, musicians and poets all made appearances on WNYC. The founder of the Municipal Archives, librarian Rebecca Rankin, even had her own radio program on WNYC.

WNYC’s first issued program guide, The Masterwork Hour, December 1935. WNYC collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Over time, WNYC Radio grew into both AM and FM stations, as well as a television station that enhanced the civic life of New Yorkers. In 1996, the City sold WNYC TV to a commercial entity. WNYC AM and FM continue today as the core of New York Public Radio, a non-profit organization that also includes WQXR, WQXW, New Jersey Public Radio, Gothamist and The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space.

Although the station was a very public presence in New York and often groundbreaking in programming and technology, it was not always beloved. Mayor John Francis Hylan used the station as a tool to attack his opponents, which led to a 1925 lawsuit and a judgement that WNYC could not be used for propaganda. His successor, Mayor James J. Walker, considered shutting it down, but it survived despite public calls for its elimination, including from mayoral candidate Fiorello H. La Guardia. Mayor La Guardia appointed Seymour N. Siegal as Assistant Program Director to “shut the joint down.” Instead, Siegel returned with a report on how the station could be improved. He saw value in the station as a means to make government more transparent and to educate the public on issues of health and safety. Siegel got a stay of execution from La Guardia as the station was put on probation and a broadcasting panel of experts from the networks studied the situation and eventually reported back to La Guardia with recommendations for what was needed to keep the station going.

WPA Federal Art Project poster by Frank Greco circa 1939 (colorized). NYC Municipal Archives.

WNYC Radio Map, ca. 1937. A.G. Lorimer artist. WNYC Archive Collections. https://www.wnyc.org/story/123806-artist-and-architect-a-g-lorimer

Original can from the WNYC Film Unit. WNYC collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Meanwhile by the mid-to-late 1930s, the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided funding which underwrote half of the programming. It also supported construction of new studios for the station in the Municipal Building and a new transmitter in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. WPA artists even contributed murals and artwork for the studios. La Guardia changed his attitude and saw the station as an educational and cultural tool and began to use it as a way to talk directly to the people of the City. He also separated WNYC from the Department of Plant & Structures and created a new mayoral agency, the Municipal Broadcasting System, with Morris S. Novik as its director.

Title card from “Baby Knows Best,” a WNYC-TV production, ca. 1950s. WNYC collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

WNYC-TV cameraman in City Hall, ca. 1962. Photographer unknown. WNYC collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Ralph McDaniels, creator of Video Music Box, on the cover of Wavelength, 1989. WNYC Archive Collections.

After World War II, Siegel, fresh from five years in the Navy, became the second director. Siegel continued to develop new educational programming for the station, and in 1949 he created the WNYC film unit to develop short educational films for the new medium of television. By 1962, WNYC-TV had its own television channel, the first municipal TV station in the nation. Facing massive budget cuts, Siegel turned in his resignation in 1971. The 1970s were not kind to WNYC, and in 1975 it held its first on-air membership drive to raise money. In 1979 the WNYC Foundation was formed with the idea of eventual independence from the City. In the 1980s, WNYC-TV broke new ground, with the first LGBT TV news series, Our Time, which premiered in 1983, and Video Music Box, which was launched by a young employee, Ralph McDaniels, in 1984. It was the first TV program to regularly air rap videos.

Staff on the roof of the Municipal Building for the 53rd Anniversary of WNYC, July 1977. Photograph by Sal de Rosa. WNYC Archive Collections.

Nelson Mandela receiving the key to the city from Mayor Dinkins, June 20, 1990. NYC Municipal Archives. https://www.wnyc.org/story/mandela-in-new-york/

FM Transmitter on top of World Trade Center, 1986. Photograph by Lisa Clifford. NYC Municipal Archives.

After a tumultuous review, Mayor Guiliani announced the sale of WNYC AM & FM licenses to the WNYC Foundation in 1995. WNYC-TV was to be sold at auction to commercial bidders. June 30, 1996, was the last broadcast of WNYC-TV, and on January 27, 1997, WNYC AM & FM were officially on their own. Of course, it took a little while to move out of the ‘attic.’ It was not until June 2008 that WNYC transferred the studios from the tower of the Municipal Building to the current Varick Street location.

More challenges awaited WNYC. In September 2001, WNYC lost its FM transmitter in the collapse of the north tower of the World Trade Center. The AM station continued to broadcast using a telephone land-line patch. In August 2003, the northeast blackout plunged the city into darkness, but the station stayed on the air with candlelight and emergency generators. In 2012, the WNYC-AM transmitter site in the new Jersey Meadowlands was damaged by Hurricane Sandy, taking it off the air. And in March 2020, WNYC had to set up home studios for its hosts as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down offices. Independence for WNYC also meant the launching of new magazine programing, podcasting, and a bevy of Peabody and other awards for programming including work by the producers of Radiolab, Studio 360, On the Media, Soundcheck and others.

Recovery efforts at Ground Zero, September 2001. Photographer unknown, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Masterwork Bulletin, May-June 1971. WNYC Archive Collections.

Fitting 100 years of this history into a 20-foot-long shipping container presented a challenge. An easy solution would have been to just illustrate some part of the station’s history, but that did not seem to be fitting for this momentous birthday. The early years of WNYC were well photographed by Eugene de Salignac, agency photographer, but the Municipal Archives had few photos from the 1970s and 1980s. Luckily WNYC engineer Alfred Tropea had taken some beautiful color slides of the Greenpoint transmitter site and WNYC operations. And the WNYC program guides started to include more colorful covers with photographs of some hosts. Although Photoville centers on photography, we knew to tell the story we would need to use archival photographs, ephemera, and audio clips to celebrate WNYC’s history and importance to the City of New York. Even then, the story is too broad to tell fully. The exhibit had to be an immersive experience, with audio and visual components, so we settled on using four panels, each with a collage of images. A timeline underneath each panel marks highlights in the station’s history. An audio montage accompanies the visual panels:

Brian Lehrer broadcasting from his home, March 2020. Wayne Schulmister/WNYC Engineering.

Not everything made the cut, and the reasons are rather random. The great blues musician Huddie ‘Leadbelly’ Ledbetter was a hugely important presence for WNYC in the 1940s, but the audio was hard to fit in. Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie were also cut, but Bob Dylan’s first radio broadcast went in. Rebecca Rankin, despite her importance to the Municipal Archives, was cut from the exhibit, but stayed in the audio. For Photoville we wanted to include a panel discussion on modern photography with Edward Steichen, Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans, Irving Penn, and Ben Shahn from 1950 but it was hard to find a good short clip. Instead, we went with a rare interview with Diane Arbus, recorded shortly before her death in 1971. A 1961 Malcom X interview was left out and Martin Luther King, Jr. was included simply because the Malcolm X interview was not an official WNYC broadcast and the 1964 King event was an important City celebration. We had wanted to include something on gay rights in the wake of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, but we found a better clip of an ACT UP demonstration for more funding for the AIDS crisis, which happened to be recorded by a young reporter named Andy Lanset.

WNYC Transmitter building, Greenpoint, ca. 1980s. Photograph by Alfred Tropea, WNYC Archive Collections.

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WNYC audio and WNYC-TV/Film collections are available from the NYC Municipal Archives and from the New York Public Radio Archive.

To learn more about WNYC’s history, follow Andy Lanset’s New York Public Radio History Notes Newsletter. Here are some highlights in addition to the links in this article.

1. The night WNYC became real: www.wnyc.org/story/wnycs-first-official-broadcast

2. WNYC and the Federal WPA:  www.wnyc.org/story/wnycs-wpa-murals

3. The Plan and Promise of WNYC: www.wnyc.org/story/new-york-citys-silver-jubilee-plan-and-promise-wnyc

4. Morris Novik and a Model of Public Radio: www.wnyc.org/story/218821-morris-s-novik-public-radio-pioneer

5. WNYC’s ID – Hope for the World: www.wnyc.org/story/where-7-million-people-live-peace-and-enjoy-benefits-democracy

6. Lead Belly on WNYC Throughout the 1940s: www.wnyc.org/story/king-twelve-string-guitar-wnyc-regular-through-1940s

7. Christie Bonsack and Early WNYC: www.wnyc.org/story/christie-bohnsack-wnycs-first-director

8. WNYC – The Station that Dodged Bullets: www.wnyc.org/story/wnyc-station-dodged-bullets

9. WNYC’s Journey to Independence: www.wnyc.org/story/going-public-story-wnycs-journey-independence

10. WNYC – Visions of a Flagship Station for a Cultural Network: www.wnyc.org/story/1937-vision-wnyc-flagship-station-non-commercial-cultural-network

100 Years of WNYC, Audio montage, list of clips

1. Re-enactment of first 1924 WNYC broadcast, 1948

2. Sweet Georgia Brown, Ben Bernie and His Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra, 1925

3. Col. Lindbergh Tickertape Parade Reception, June 13, 1927

4. Emergency Relief Committee Orchestra, 1931

5. Station sign-off, December 1931

6. Rebecca Rankin, Municipal Librarian, 1938

7. News broadcast, 1938

8. World’s Fair station ID, 1939

9. Pearl Harbor attack broadcast, December 7, 1941

10. Mayor La Guardia war-time Talk to the People, January 2, 1944

11. Mayor LaGuardia reads the comics during newspaper strike, July 8, 1945

12. Audio from City of Magic, WNYC-TV/Film, 1949

13. AM and FM Station ID, January 11, 1950

14. Bert the Turtle, Duck and Cover, ca. 1952

15. Audio from This is the Municipal Broadcasting System, WNYC-TV/Film, 1953

16. Eleanor Roosevelt DJs Elvis Presley’s song Ready Teddy, February 6, 1957

17. Last run of the 3rd Avenue El, May 12, 1955

18. Footloose in Greenwich Village, May 6, 1960

19. Bob Dylan’s first radio appearance, October 29, 1961

20. John Glenn, first American to orbit the earth, February 20, 1962

21. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Gulf of Tonkin announcement, August 4, 1964

22. Martin Luther King, Jr. welcome at City Hall, December 17, 1964

23. Station ID, 1963

24. Diane Arbus, interviewed for Viewpoints of Women by Richard Pyatt, September 2, 1971

25. Shirley Chisholm announces run for presidency, January 25, 1972

26. WNYC Golden Anniversary, Mayor Abraham D. Beame reading proclamation, July 8, 1974

27. Mayor Ed Koch town hall in Jackson Heights, June 1, 1979

28. Transit Strike, April 3, 1980

29. “Voices of Disarmament” rally, June 14, 1982

30. Vito Russo’s Our Time: Episode 1 - Lesbian & Gay History, February 16, 1983

31. Philip Glass interviewed on New Sounds by John Schaefer, January 6, 1985

32. ACT UP demonstration at City Hall, Andy Lanset reporting, March 28, 1989

33. Ladysmith Black Mambazo, August 30, 1987

34. Mayor David N. Dinkins and Nelson Mandela in New York, June 20, 1990

35. Snap!, The Power, Video Music Box with Ralph McDaniels, WNYC-TV, September 14, 1990

36. Audio from Heart of the City with John F. Kennedy, Jr., March 2, 1994

37. WNYC Independence Celebration, January 27, 1997

38. Kurt Vonnegut, Reporter for the Afterlife, 1998

39. World Trade Center montage, September 11, 2001

40. Brooke Gladstone, On the Media, December 20, 2002

41. Blackout announcement, August 14, 2003

42. David Garland, NYPR takeover of WQXR, October 8, 2009

43. RadioLab intro, February 20, 2010

44. John Schaefer, Soundcheck live from The Greene Space, December 15, 2011

45. Hurricane Sandy aircheck, October 29, 2012

46. Brian Lehrer Show, first broadcast from his apartment due to COVID-19, March 16, 2020

47. Protests, September 4, 2020

48. All of It, Allison Stewart, October 21, 2021

49. New Yorker Radio Hour, May 11, 2024

50. Notes From America with Kai Wright, May 19, 2024

51. Morning Edition, Michael Hill with Andy Lanset on the Anniversary of WNYC, July 8, 2023

Mayor James J. Walker

Portrait, Mayor James J. Walker, March 2, 1932. Department of Bridges, Plant & Structures Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor James J. Walker (1926-1932), a.k.a. “Jimmy” Walker, typically conjures images of a man about town enjoying the good life – the very symbol of jazz-age New York. Until the party ended: corruption, scandal, and a resignation in 1932. There is no debate about his downfall, but more recently historians have suggested that Walker and his administration might warrant a reassessment.

Our recent blog Unemployment in the Great Depression describes the Walker administration’s robust response to the rising tide of unemployment in the early years of the Great Depression.  Many of their innovative ideas served as models for the eventual New York State efforts and the federal programs enacted by President Franklin Roosevelt after his election in 1932. 

In another of our series highlighting the mayoral record collections in the Municipal Archives, this week we will take a look at Walker’s papers for examples of accomplishments that may have been overshadowed by his ignominious end.

Tammany Hall, 4th Avenue and 17th Street, October 28, 1929. Photographer: Eugene de Salignac.  Department of Bridges, Plant & Structures Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Born in Manhattan to Irish-immigrant parents in 1881, James John Walker rose through the Tammany-dominated political landscape of the first decades of the 20th century, mentored by powerhouse Al Smith. His career began in the New York State Assembly in 1909. He won a seat in the Senate beginning in 1914, and in 1925, Democratic leaders chose him to run against incumbent Mayor John F. Hylan. He won the election, and took office on January 1, 1926.

The Mayor Walker collection is organized in the same three series as most 20th-century mayoral administrations: departmental correspondence; general correspondence, and subject files. Folder headings in the subject files provide a good snapshot of the important issues of each  respective administration.

The Mayor’s Committee on Aviation celebrated the opening of Floyd Bennett Field in 1930 with a full slate of events including an “informal” dinner for members of the press in Manhattan. Mayor’s Committee on Aviation, Invitation, May 23, 1931. Mayor James Walker Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The 118 folders devoted to aviation, and in particular, Floyd Bennett Field are striking. It is apparent that Walker, like millions of Americans, was enthralled by the idea of air travel. During his mayoralty, Walker presided over no less than eight ticker-tape parades for pioneers in aviation. The massive reception on June 13, 1927, for Charles Lindbergh, celebrating his trans-Atlantic flight, attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators to lower Manhattan and made the ticker-tape parade famous around the world. It also made Lindbergh the focus of unprecedented world adulation, and the first media superstar of the 20th century. One year later, on July 6, 1928, Walker welcomed Amelia Earhart to City Hall after the ticker-tape parade acclaiming her achievement as the first woman to complete a trans-Atlantic flight. The parades were great fun of course, but Walker and his administration understood their greater purpose in promoting the possibility of commercial aviation.

Mayor Walker’s interest in aviation also manifested itself in support for construction of a municipal airport on 1,500 acres in Jamaica Bay. Named Floyd Bennett Field for the pilot who flew Admiral Richard Byrd over the North Pole in 1926, Walker presided over the dedication four years later, in 1931. Located more than an hour from Manhattan, it was soon eclipsed by the North Beach municipal airport built in Long Island Sound. North Beach airport was later renamed for Walker’s successor, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, another very enthusiastic supporter of air travel.

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Express Highway, Manhattan. Architectural schematic drawing, Sloan and Robertson, architects, 1928. Borough President Manhattan Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Express Highway, Manhattan. Looking north from Gansevoort Street, August 21, 1930. Borough President Manhattan Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Express Highway, Manhattan. Plaque. October 27, 1930. Borough President Manhattan Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Looking at the other end of the alphabetically-arranged subject files, the folders labeled ‘West-Side Improvement’ and ‘West-Side Highway,’ point to another of Walker’s accomplishments related to transportation—the elevated limited access highway built along Manhattan’s West Side. Officially called the Miller Elevated Highway, but better known as the West Side Highway, it ran from Rector Street to 72nd Street. The highway was noted for the architectural flourishes built into its design. Unfortunately, neglect and deferred maintenance over the ensuing decades led to its collapse in the 1970s.  

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Mayor James Walker (at right, with the dark overcoat) helps a young constituent throw the switch to power the new IND subway service, 1932. Municipal Archives Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. 

Walker’s records concerning transportation did not end with the airplane and automobile, but also extended to rapid transit. Folders labeled transit are numerous and document his efforts to expand subway service.  The Board of Transportation submitted a comprehensive plan for the Independent (IND) subway system to the Board of Estimate in 1925. The Mayor’s power over that body subsequently brought about approval of a revised plan in July 1927. Walker presided over the opening of the first section of the subway along Eighth Avenue in Manhattan on September 10, 1932.

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Mayor Walker operated a steam shovel at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new psychiatric hospital in the Bellevue complex, June 18, 1930. Photographer: Robert A. Knudtsen. Mayor Walker Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor Walker is also credited with the reorganization of City departments related to hospitals and sanitation. In 1929 he renamed the Street Cleaning Department the Department of Sanitation, and gave it control over solid-waste disposal functions throughout the city. This centralization brought about the first significant improvement in sewage treatment in decades. Walker also brought together under one head all of the city’s public hospitals.

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Walker telegrammed Governor Franklin Roosevelt his expectations regarding the press announcement of his response to the corruption charges. Postal Telegraph, April 17, 1931. Page 1 of 2.

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Postal Telegraph, April 17, 1931. Page 2 of 2. Mayor James Walker Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The popular mayor easily won re-election for a second term in 1929, defeating Fiorello LaGuardia. But the good times were over.  Walker’s mayoral records are not useful for documentation of the other side of his time in office – the corruption scandals. However, there is one folder labeled ‘City Affairs Committee - Criminal Charges Against Mayor Walker and his Administration.’ The contents, although noteworthy, appear to be mostly congratulations Walker received for his “successful” response to the corruption charges. The primary engine of his downfall, Judge Samuel Seabury, and his investigation into the municipal malfeasance that ultimately led to Walker’s resignation, was a state-created entity; not city.

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Mayor Walker’s affair with musical comedy and film actress Betty Compton further fueled his downfall. Walker and Compton married in France in 1933; they divorced in 1940. Walker died in New York City in 1946. Former Mayor Walker and Betty Compton on the deck of SS Normandie, June 17, 1936. Municipal Archives Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. 

Mayor Walker’s subject files contain one other intriguing folder.  It is labeled “Biography.”  The contents are a typescript titled: “James J. Walker: Life and Accomplishment, 1881-1932,” by Sylvester B. Salzano. More than two-hundred pages in length, it is undated. Although it is difficult to assess its accuracy, the overall tone is very positive. Mr. Salzano’s conclusion makes it clear he was a fan: “…Walker is a phenomenon in his own right. He has endeared himself to his people. The wealthy, the poor, the soldier, the sailor,…  all pay homage to this unusual character. He is loved and revered not only for his great brain, for his dignified position in the world, for his greatness as a Mayor, but for his bewitching and extremely enticing smile and personality… and for his everlasting willingness to rush to the aid of the destitute.”

We look forward to welcoming researchers back to the Municipal Archives when we re-open. And perhaps some will take a deeper dive into Mayor Walker’s papers. In the meantime, look for the installation of ArchivesSpace on the DORIS website (coming soon!); this tool will allow researchers to easily access finding guides and inventories of all Municipal Archives collections, including Mayor Walker.