WNYC history

The linguist V. Harrison Berlitz held several different language classes on the air and the later famous NBC and CBS news commentator H. V. Kaltenborn pioneered radio's first quiz program, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle's, "The Current Events Bee" on WNYC in 1926.

1929 saw the beginning of the Masterwork Hour which went on to become "radio's oldest recorded program of fine music."

In 1934, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia seriously considered shutting down WNYC but appointed a citizen's committee to consider all the options.

In 1938, the Municipal Broadcasting System was launched and its head, Morris Novik, reported directly to the Mayor.

WNYC is a member station of National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Radio International (PRI). Since 1940 WNYC and WQXR have been honored with 22 Peabody Awards and citations.

On December 7th, 1941, WNYC was the first United States radio station to announce the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor.

The station added an FM antenna and transmitter on top of the Municipal Building and on March 13, 1943 began full operation on the "static-less" FM band.

During the newspaper deliverymen's strike in July 1945, Mayor La Guardia instituted The Comic Parade, a daily reading of the funny papers in which he took part on two occasions.

In March 1995, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani agreed to sell WNYC AM and FM to the WNYC Foundation for $20 million.

On January 7, 1997 the City transferred ownership of the licenses to the WNYC Foundation and on March 11, 1997, the licenses were assigned by the Foundation to WNYC Radio.

With the launch of wnyc.org in 1998, the station extended its virtual community internationally.

The new century ushered in a significant expansion of programming and in the Spring of 2008 the station moved to new quarters on Varick Street including the street level Jerome L. Greene Performance Space.