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BROADCAST ON WNYC TODAY IN…
1939: Mayor La Guardia joins host Gene Buck for the ASCAP Music Festival.
1945: Luncheon at the Metropolitan Club for Colonel James Devereaux, recently released from a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
1959: Edwin C. Fancher, publisher of the Village Voice, discusses the tensions and problems facing New York's Greenwich Village, on this edition of Campus Press Conference.
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Sen. JFK on WNYC From Community Center
Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy speaking at the dedication ceremonies for the Lieut. Joseph Kennedy Jr. Memorial Community Center at 34 West 134th Street, May 10, 1954.
(Photo courtesy of the New York Times)
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LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS
Behind the Scenes...
"Here I was, 20 years old and still talking on the periphery of New York City radio. I'd take anything, and that's what I go. A job at WNYC, the city's own radio station (before there was NPR). I traded Sinatra for Sibelius, was the erudite co-host of a talk show on FM (only) called For Doctors Only. I asked physician guests prescripted questions which hinted that I was at least an intern: 'So that if hemoglobin ratios are to be maintained during the onset of leukemia...?' "
"Also introduced David Randolph, who was to become Conductor of the St. Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra some 13 years later. Then, he was known as the leader of the David Randolph Singers, whose genuine musical genius was matched by a penchant for condescension. On WNYC, he hosted the program 'Music for the Connoisseur.' He had, as I remember entering the studio before airtime to open his show, the reedy voice of easily exasperated royalty.
" 'I'm David Randolph. Please keep in mind that the word is pronounced con-oh-syur, and not con-oh-sewer...not sewer.' 'Ah, we must have had the same French teacher...'
"54 years later, the place must be different. Then it was sedate, leaning towards fussiness. There was an exception: Tommy Cowan. He was the first radio announcer. In the world. Really. Elderly. A delightful old sprite of a man by the time I met him. An opera lover whose Monday at 8 PM performances, recorded by the world's greatest artists, were legendary. Each was preceded by a totally ad-libbed description of the evening's opera, highlight of the libretto and critiques (mostly positive) of the singers. These expositions which might take 10 to 15 minutes, were delivered with verve and humor and love for the music. But no script. I learned much from Cowan, listening to him and grasping at the wonder of how his mind advanced the narrative, sometimes logically, sometimes not, but always pulling his audience forward and into the opera's legend or fable or myth. However, as much as Tommy loved opera, he could easily denounce other disciplines. He disdained, for instance, what he called 'chamber-pot music'. Of popular music, he knew nothing, or at least nothing he'd admit to..."
Source: Lee Murphy, writing in Get That Kid Outta Here...!, Author House, 2009, pgs. 199-200.
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