WNYC and The United Nations

 
“I'm a very lucky guy, because when I get up every morning and look out my window, I see the most magnificent example of architecture anywhere in the City of New York. I look at the United Nations building, right on the shores of Manhattan's East River.

 

"That reminds me of the work WNYC is doing in taking advantage of what United Nations Radio has to offer. This is something we must continue to do, and I appeal to each one of you who have radio stations to do likewise. In the last four years, WNYC has devoted about 1,500 hours a year to the broadcast of United Nations sessions -- everything from the General Assembly to the Security Council and the World Health Organization. When they hold their meetings over in Paris, we make special arrangements to carry those shows. That means we have had to cancel our own programs, right and left, and many times we have run into all sorts of difficulties. Mr. MacAndrew can tell you of the times we have disappointed a million school children sitting in their classrooms waiting eagerly for the program because, possibly, Mr. Molotov was holding forth. We get all sorts of objections from our listeners, but it is also heartening to have thousands and thousands of people continue to write every single year, telling us that they want to hear more about what goes on at the UN.
 
"[The] UN has established a special five-minute newscast just for us, originating from Lake Success.  This goes on every night. News from the UN and from all over the world is made available to 16 million people in the Metropolitan Area of New York…”
 
Source: WNYC Director Seymour N. Siegel from a panel discussion on Radio and U.S Foreign Policy, Education On The Air: Twentieth Yearbook of the Institute for Education by Radio, ed. O. Joe Olson, Ohio State University, 1950, pg. 69.