NYPR History Notes

NYPR Archives & Preservation
December 23, 2016 - Volume 15 Issue 52

Edition # 741

BROADCAST ON WNYC TODAY IN…

1945: Mayor La Guardia marks the first postwar Christmas by retelling the story of the Nativity. The broadcast includes performances by the 35-member Collegiate Chorale directed by Robert Shaw, operatic tenor Carlo Corelli and the Queens College Ensemble, led by Boris Schwarz. The broadcast is a live WNYC/City Hall production.

1952: Mayor Impelliteri presents the annual party for the city's underprivileged children. The Master of Ceremonies, Colonel Edward Rickett, introduces Santa. The Sanitation Department band performs Jingle Bells. Afterward, a WNYC reporter describes the chaotic scene and Mrs. Impellitteri's dress.

1973: Erica Jong talks about her third book and first novel, Fear of Flying, with Walter James Miller on The Reader's Alamanac.

December 23, 1966

Christmas tree lighting ceremonies at City Hall being broadcast on WNYC. (Photo: Courtesy of The New York City Parks Department Archives)

October 16, 1943

"NEW YORK-Oct 9. With the deadline for sending Christmas gifts to servicemen overseas coming up next week (15th), the various nets and indies are planning to remember staffers with gifts ranging from smokes to shoeshine kits…WNYC, the city-owned station, has 15 men in the service. The staff and management cooperate in regularly sending packages of candy, cookies, cigarettes, etc. A special Christmas box will go out with a mimeo letter containing news, gags and gossip. Last week 16 members of the staff were Red Cross blood donors and dedicated their action to the 15 boys in uniform…WQXR has 16 people in uniform. To-date, however, no set plans for gifts have evolved. The boys will be remembered in some way, probably by checks which after all is the simple solution…"

Source: Billboard, "Nets, Indies Remember Their Ex-Staffers in Services With Christmas Dough and Works," October 16, 1943, p.10.

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

WQXR's 80th anniversary has come and gone. Onward to 90! To celebrate we've been highlighting some Great Artists interviews in the collection. Among them: Bob Sherman talks to conductor Michael Tilson Thomas in 1979 while he is in New York for a farewell concert as he prepares to leave his post at the Buffalo Philharmonic.
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The Archive Holiday Collection

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92+

WNYC celebrated its 92nd anniversary this past July. Just think, in 7-and-a-half short years to the big 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: Meet Bill Staines, the 1975 National Yodeling Champion.
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This week's NEH-funded Annotations blog series features: 1960: USS Constellation Catches Fire at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. and Looking Back and Looking Forward in 1965.
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Interested in revisiting some of the 740 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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The WNYC Archives is on Twitter with 3,026 followers @wnycarchives. We tweet regular reminders of, and links to, WNYC broadcasts from that day in the past.

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On behalf of Archive Manager John Passmore, Senior Archivist Marcos Sueiro Bal, and Assistant Archivist Ana Marie, I'd like to wish all of our readers and supporters the best of holiday wishes and a healthy new year.

Andy Lanset
Director of Archives
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WNYC Archives in the…