NYPR History Notes

Famous Yiddish Playwright

Yiddish radio great Nuchem Stutchkoff at the September, 1949 opening of the Shirley Joyce Katz Pavilion at the Jewish Sanitarium and Hospital for Chronic Diseases in Brooklyn. Stutchkoff was a prolific dramatist whose radio plays focused on immigrant Jewish families struggling to adapt to life in America. (Photo courtesy of Steve Barron, and a tip of the hat to Henry Sapoznik)

WNYC Trivia For the Ages

WNYC broadcast on shortwave in 1941 at 26.1 megacycles after the AM station went off the air at sundown, The call letters were W2XVP. Production and announcing were handled by Cy Blum.

WNYC's experimental call letters were 2XHB during a brief trial transmission period in June, 1924.

WNYC-FM's first call letters were W39NY in 1943 and the frequency was 43.9 FM.

WNYC's annual payroll in 1926 was $37,000.

WNYC's main phone number in September, 1943 was WOrth 2-5600. Ten years later it was WHitehall 3- 3600.

In 1966 at 229 West 43rd Street

WQXR had an engineering staff of 15 men and an auditorium studio with a capacity for 189 people; five Johns-Manville designed studios, three control rooms and two timing rooms for the testing and timing of tapes and discs. The station was equipped with RCA 70 series turntables (3-speed) and Ampex 351 tape machines for mono and stereo. The studio consoles were 10-position Collins Radio # 212A-1. The station was also equipped with a recording lab for cutting transcription discs and recording tapes.

WNYC's 90th year of broadcasting is upon us. (The actual anniversary is next July 8th.) In this space we'll be linking to various WNYC champions and milestones. This week: WNYC Intern - Rod Serling.

In June,1944 WQXR played about eight minutes of the 30-minute 'Lyric Suite' by Alban Berg. The broadcast caused a bit of a brouhaha with listeners: Half loved it; half hated it. By September there was an accounting. Read it at: It's a Matter of Opinion.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of what some call "the most important public health document of the 20th century": the Surgeon General's first Report on Smoking and Health. More at: COUGH.

Thanks this week go out to Nancy M. Shawcross,
Curator of Manuscripts at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania for allowing us to obtain a copy George Shirley's 1974 WQXR interview with Marian Anderson. And thanks to George Blood of George Blood Audio for his generous donation of time and equipment for the digital transfer.

Tomorrow is the beginning of BLACK HISTORY MONTH.
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The WNYC Facebook page has a station timeline (1922-present) with more than 607 milestones, photos, and links to audio. (Right hand column)

We're also working on the WQXR Facebook timeline. (1929 - present)

Do your friends want to subscribe to this newsletter? Have them sign up at: NEWSLETTERS.

Check out the @mayorlaguardia Twitter feed straight from the WNYC broadcasts! His Honor now has 525 followers.

The WNYC Archives is on Twitter with 1736 followers @wnycarchives. We tweet daily reminders of, and links to, WNYC broadcasts from that day in the past.

Weâ€™ve got a Tumblr page too! More than 9,100 followers. Check it out at:

WNYC Archives in theâ€¦

LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS

WQXR - 'Long Reads' from WWII