Andy Lanset
Poetry On the Air: WNYC and the Sound of Verse ...
Andy Lanset
Poetry On the Air: WNYC and the Sound of Verse ...

During the seven decades of municipal ownership, both celebrated and obscure poets found their way to WNYC’s microphone. Some programs introduced listeners to canonical voices such as Robert Frost, Marianne Moore, and W.H. Auden. Others opened the airwaves to aspiring writers who might otherwise never have been heard beyond their own neighborhoods. Still others explored the relationship between poetry and radio itself, asking whether the medium might reshape how verse was written, performed, and experienced.

The result was an extraordinary range of programming: educational broadcasts from the station’s early Air College lectures; dedicated poetry series and readings; experimental verse drama; tributes to major poets; and discussions linking poetry to theater, politics, therapy, and everyday life. Together these broadcasts reveal how a municipal station—often overlooked in the larger history of American radio—played a meaningful role in sustaining the oral tradition of poetry.

Katie Ehrlich
Dr. Leona Baumgartner’s Health Commissioner ...

Dr. Leona Baumgartner was the first woman to serve as Commissioner of the Department of Health for New York City. She held that office from 1954 to 1962 under Mayor Robert F. Wagner, who was the first mayor to appoint women agency heads in nearly 40 years. Baumgartner worked her way up at the Department of Health, starting as a child hygiene instructor in 1937. By 1949 she was assistant commissioner, the position she served in, until being elevated to commissioner.

Michael Lorenzini
At the River’s Edge, Maiden Lane and the ...

Recently, the story of the “Leaning Tower of New York,” came to our attention. Also known as “1 Seaport,” the building is located at 161 Maiden Lane on the corner of South Street. In 2018, a contractor on the new 60-story residential tower noted that the structure had begun to lean. In 2020, construction on the site halted when it became apparent the building’s foundation was unstable.

Taking a dive into the rich collections of the Municipal Archives and Municipal Library revealed a long history of failed development at this location. This week, For the Record peels back the layers of history that have made this such a problematic site.

Cynthia Brenwall
Edith McAllister Alexander

This week, For the Record celebrates Women’s History Month with the story of Edith Alexander. An extraordinary woman, Alexander’s work to end discrimination led to creation of the City’s Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). For the Record articles “New Project: Processing and Digitizing Records of the New York City Commission on Human Rights,” “Human Rights Day: How Human Rights Discourse has Impacted the New York City Government since the 1940s,” “Breaking the Color Line: Mayor LaGuardia and the Fight to Desegregate Baseball,” and “NYC Commission on Human Rights, project update,” describe the Municipal Archives’ project to process and digitize records of the CCHR.

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia

Welcoming Home the Troops, 1945

Recently, Municipal Archives conservators began treating an oversize scrapbook of photographs taken in 1945. Located in the Grover Whalen papers, the evocative pictures capture the spontaneous joy expressed by New Yorkers as they welcomed home their sons and daughters and victorious war-time leaders.  

View fullsize

Thousands of spectators lined the streets as General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his motorcade traveled through the City, June 19, 1945.  Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Known as the City’s “Official Greeter,” Whelan led the Mayor’s Office for Receptions to Distinguished Guests, a.k.a. the Mayor’s Reception Committee, from 1918 to 1953.  

On June 19, 1945, just six weeks after hostilities in Europe ceased, Whalen and Reception Committee staff organized a reception for General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Mayor LaGuardia Reads the Comics

Chances are pretty good that if you randomly ask someone about New York Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, they will mention him reading the comics over the radio. They may not know why, when or on which radio station, but people almost always seem to know about the readings. The original recordings, housed at the Municipal Archives, are what I call “aural icons”, unique moments in sound that frame the speaker for the ages. This is their back story.

LaGuardia reading the comics, 1945. NYPR Archive Collection.

In the summer of 1945, as World War II drew to a close, New York City faced an unexpected crisis: a newspaper delivery strike left millions of residents without their daily papers. For many New Yorkers, especially its children, this meant losing access to something they cherished nearly as much as the news itself—the funny papers. Enter Fiorello H. La Guardia, the city’s energetic and unconventional mayor, who responded with what would become the most iconic moments of his legendary tenure.

When the delivery drivers walked off the job in July 1945, New York’s newspapers continued to print, but they couldn’t reach readers’ doorsteps or local newsstands. The 17-day strike created a genuine hardship for the city’s residents, who relied on newspapers not just for information but for entertainment during the final months of the war. Children particularly missed a daily dose of adventure from strips like Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, and other mainstays of the comic pages.

La Guardia, known affectionately as The Little Flower (a translation of his Italian first name), understood the public’s frustration. The mayor had built his reputation on connecting directly with ordinary New Yorkers, through his weekly Sunday radio broadcasts on the city-owned station WNYC. He decided to use this platform in an unprecedented way.

For his Talk to the People program broadcast over WNYC during the strike on July 1st, 8th, and 15th, LaGuardia arrived at his City Hall office with the comic sections from various newspapers. In his distinctive, high-pitched voice full of dramatic flair, the mayor read comics aloud to his radio audience. But this was no monotone recitation—La Guardia threw himself into the July 8th performance of Dick Tracy with enthusiasm.

It can be said that at moments he was a bit too enthusiastic with the oversized bold word balloons of sound effects. The Mayor’s “ripping” and “crashing” challenged both the WNYC engineer and his equipment.

The following Sunday LaGuardia had just sworn in three new magistrates to City agencies. To underscore the point that he was bringing on men of integrity, the mayor read from Little Orphan Annie where judges were conspiring to frame the young heroine. The lesson from this story, he said, was that “sometimes prejudice and hatred get into the hearts of men who’ve sworn to almighty God to uphold the law… that’s why these judges I picked today, they come from homes like you and me. They come with experience. They entertain no prejudices. They’re just folks. Decent. Honest. Clean.”

Families gathered around their radios on Sunday mornings, children sitting rapt as their mayor transformed into a one-man theater company. Five movie news reel cameras, invited to his office after the sensation of the first broadcast, taped the event.

Film footage from 1945 of Mayor LaGuardia reading the comics and families listening. NYPR Archive Collections

Rarely noted too is that before LaGuardia’s initial comic reading on his July 1 broadcast, the mayor requested WNYC Director Morris Novik to broadcast a daily comics program.

“And listen, Morris, every afternoon, I want you to pick the time, and do not tell me that you do not have the time on the program—put something out—because you know that all of your programs are not so hot, so you can always find some space. I want a program every day as long as the papers are not being delivered, of funnies for the children. You find someone who can read the funnies and who can describe them, and if you cannot find anyone, I will do it.”

Novik indeed found people. Among them, personalities like Harry Hershfield, Peter Donald, and Irving Fisher from NBC’s Can You Top This program who read for the WNYC program christened, The Comic Parade.

The comic reading sessions lasted only a few weeks until the strike ended, but their impact endured far longer. The broadcasts have become part of New York City folklore, frequently cited as an example of LaGuardia’s unique ability to connect with everyday residents. For many New Yorkers who heard them as children, the memory of the mayor’s voice dramatically reading their favorite strips remained vivid decades later.

The episode also demonstrated the power of radio as an intimate medium during this era. LaGuardia understood that the airwaves allowed him to enter people’s homes directly, creating a personal connection that transcended the formality of his office. His comic readings weren’t just a wartime stopgap—they were a masterclass in communications and outreach.

Yet the image of “The Little Flower” reading comics over the radio holds a special place in the city’s collective memory. It captured something essential about what made LaGuardia beloved: his understanding that government service meant serving all the people, in ways both grand and small. Whether he was taking on Tammany Hall corruption or ensuring kids didn’t miss “Little Orphan Annie,” LaGuardia approached his duties with the same passionate commitment.

Today, the original recordings and digital copies of LaGuardia reading the comics are preserved in the Municipal Archives WNYC Collection. Digital copies can also be found at the Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University, the New York Public Radio archives, and the Library of Congress. In 2007 the readings were added to the library’s National Recording Registry which called the broadcasts, “one of the most interesting and, historically, certainly most memorable uses of the medium.” https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/LaGuardiaComics.pdf

The Registry recognized the lasting cultural impact of these broadcasts by understanding “the social function of comics to its adult readers,” calling it “the mark of a true populist—to actually understand what's important to people, even the stuff they wouldn’t normally admit to.”

Breaking the Color Line: Mayor LaGuardia and the Fight to Desegregate Baseball

On October 24th, 1945, newspapers announced that the Brooklyn Dodgers had signed Jackie Robinson to their Montreal farm team, effectively ending segregation in professional baseball. General manager Branch Rickey did not participate in the signing ceremony, but he quickly made sure that the press knew he was the one behind it.

What went underreported at the time were the behind-the-scenes efforts of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and the City’s Committee on Unity, led by Dan Dodson, a professor within the Educational Sociology Program at NYU…. The Mayor’s correspondence files and the records of the NYC Commission on Human Rights in the Municipal Archives help tell the little-known story of the political pressure at play in breaking the color line in baseball.

Stacy H. Wood, Illustrator

In a continuing series of articles highlighting unusual or unexpected items found in Municipal Archives or Library collections, this week For the Record features a delightful pictorial map created by artist Stacy H. Wood.

Hotel Governor Clinton map, by Stacy H. Wood, 1936. Mayor LaGuardia papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Measuring 18 by 28.5 inches, the map depicts the United States decorated with clever cartoon figures and illustrations. It had been sent to Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia from the Hotel Governor Clinton, located on Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street in Manhattan. The Mayor’s mail room clerk date-stamped it received on June 9, 1936.

Hotel Governor Clinton map (detail), by Stacy H. Wood, 1936. Mayor LaGuardia papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

The purpose of the map is not entirely clear but seems to relate to the Democratic National Convention that would take place in Philadelphia on June 23, 1936. The legend on the lower left portion of the map is a message to Mayor LaGuardia: “You are invited to indulge, to your heart’s content, in all the pastimes and pleasures this great Metropolis affords, both before & after your quiet sojourn in Philadelphia.” And to that end, the map provides useful information about New York City events such as the dates for upcoming baseball games, arrival of ocean liners S.S. Normandie and Queen Mary, and the Zeppelin Hindenburg. It also helpfully notes the Hotel’s proximity to Radio City, the Hayden Planetarium, and Pennsylvania Station, as well as department stores, Macy’s, Gimbel’s, Saks, and B. Altmans.

Hotel Governor Clinton map (detail), by Stacy H. Wood, 1936. Mayor LaGuardia papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

City archivists came across the pictorial map in “Mayor LaGuardia Oversize Box #1.” In accordance with processing procedures, items that are too large to fit in half-cubic foot archival containers are “separated” from their original locations and placed in enclosures appropriate to their size. In place of the removed item, the processing archivist substitutes a “separation sheet” that provides a brief description of the item, date removed, and the new location.

The separation sheet attached to the poster indicated that it had been originally filed in LaGuardia’s subject series in a folder labeled “Favors, Requests for, 1936-37.” Examination of the folder contents, and others similarly labeled, revealed an eclectic assortment of items. As one would expect, there are numerous letters to the Mayor (and/or his assistants) asking for help in obtaining jobs or other services. For example, on October 6, 1937, G. W. Cahan, of the Greenwood Lakes Estates Co. wrote to LaGuardia’s aide Stanley Howe asking for an introduction to Sanitation Commissioner William Carey, “... as I have an interesting proposition I would like to take up with him.” But it also contained other seemingly random objects such as a birthday greeting to the Mayor in the form of a colorful Western Union telegram.

Western Union telegram, 1934. Mayor LaGuardia papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Most of the correspondence consists of the incoming letter and a carbon copy of the Mayor’s response. For the pictorial map there was neither a cover letter, nor a response. Perhaps the LaGuardia’s clerks decided that the poster’s legend inviting him to “indulge ... in all the pastimes and pleasures of this great metropolis” constituted a request for a favor.

Hotel Governor Clinton map (detail), by Stacy H. Wood, 1936. Mayor LaGuardia papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

The serendipitous discovery of the pictorial map points out one of the limitations of archival description practices. Typically, archivists processing voluminous collections such as mayoral correspondence use the original record-creators’ identifications to describe folder contents, in this instance, “Favors, Requests For.” Item-level processing is generally not practical. It is unlikely that researchers interested in the work and career of the artist, Wood, would think of municipal government records as a possible venue for information. And even if they did, the “Favors, Request for” folder would not be an obvious source.

Brooklyn birth certificate for Stacy H. Wood, 1887. Historical Vital Records collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Hotel Governor Clinton map (detail), by Stacy H. Wood, 1936. Mayor LaGuardia papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Nevertheless, this work by the illustrator Stacy H. Wood is in the collection. An online search resulted in only minimal biographical information. He is described as an American children’s book illustrator and graphic artist active in New York during the first half of the 20th Century. Born in Brooklyn in 1887, he studied at Amherst, the Pratt Institute, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Among other cited works are other pictorial maps including one of the United States for the Boy Scouts of America 1935 Jamboree. Wood died on June 7, 1942, in Mt. Vernon, N.Y.

And the Hotel Governor Clinton? Renamed the Hotel Stewart at some point, it still stands today, a handsome example of Art-Deco-era construction in Manhattan. For interested researchers, the Manhattan Building Permit and Plan collections in the Archives would serve to trace its history beginning with the new building application filed on December 28, 1927, by architects Murgatroyd and Ogden. Subsequent applications document alterations and modifications through the 1970s. More recent reports indicate the building may be slated for residential conversion.

Now that we have “found” the artist Stacy H. Wood, readers are invited to take a closer look at his work. But be forewarned, you will need some time—there is a lot going on in this picture!

Hotel Governor Clinton map (detail), by Stacy H. Wood, 1936. Mayor LaGuardia papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Hotel Governor Clinton, ca. 1939. Tax Photograph collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Hotel Governor Clinton (Hotel Stewart), 2025. Photograph by the author.

100 Years of WNYC

Since 2015, the Municipal Archives has participated in the annual New York City Photoville festival. Photoville is a citywide two-week pop-up exhibit. The main venue is directly under the Brooklyn Bridge at the corner of Water and New Dock Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn. This year, it runs from June 1-16, 2024. For the core exhibits, each Photoville participant transforms a shipping container into a temporary gallery. Our exhibit this year celebrates 100 years of WNYC.

Municipal Building with WNYC radio antennae, July 18, 1924. Photo by Eugene de Salignac. NYC Municipal Archives.

From 1924 until 1997, WNYC radio was owned and operated by the City of New York for “Instruction, Enlightenment, and Entertainment.” WNYC turns 100 this year, and its history is intimately related to both City government and the NYC Municipal Archives. From the first broadcast on July 8, 1924, preserved in photographs by Eugene de Salignac, to historic broadcasts (both radio and television), the Municipal Archives is the repository of much of WNYC’s historical audio and video programs. The rest of its history has been preserved by the New York Public Radio Archives, founded in 2000. Its archivist, Andy Lanset, has spent more than two decades gathering ephemera, equipment, and lost recordings. He has been awarded several collaborative grants to digitize the recordings housed in the Municipal Archives and New York Public Radio.

WNYC’s first day on the air, July 8, 1924. (Earlier in the day - first broadcast at night) Grover A. Whalen, WNYC’s founder, (in tux) is joined by Public Address Operators Bert L. Davies and Frank Orth (seated) who is operating a wave meter. Photo by Eugene de Salignac. Department of Bridges/Plant and Structures collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Grover Whalen, Commissioner of the Department of Plant & Structures launched WNYC Radio on July 8, 1924. Through their original programming and recordings made at City Hall events and press conferences, WNYC Radio reporters, engineers and producers captured a wide range of important cultural and political personalities. John Glenn and John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, Josephine Baker and Bob Dylan, astronauts and politicians, artists, musicians and poets all made appearances on WNYC. The founder of the Municipal Archives, librarian Rebecca Rankin, even had her own radio program on WNYC.

WNYC’s first issued program guide, The Masterwork Hour, December 1935. WNYC collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Over time, WNYC Radio grew into both AM and FM stations, as well as a television station that enhanced the civic life of New Yorkers. In 1996, the City sold WNYC TV to a commercial entity. WNYC AM and FM continue today as the core of New York Public Radio, a non-profit organization that also includes WQXR, WQXW, New Jersey Public Radio, Gothamist and The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space.

Although the station was a very public presence in New York and often groundbreaking in programming and technology, it was not always beloved. Mayor John Francis Hylan used the station as a tool to attack his opponents, which led to a 1925 lawsuit and a judgement that WNYC could not be used for propaganda. His successor, Mayor James J. Walker, considered shutting it down, but it survived despite public calls for its elimination, including from mayoral candidate Fiorello H. La Guardia. Mayor La Guardia appointed Seymour N. Siegal as Assistant Program Director to “shut the joint down.” Instead, Siegel returned with a report on how the station could be improved. He saw value in the station as a means to make government more transparent and to educate the public on issues of health and safety. Siegel got a stay of execution from La Guardia as the station was put on probation and a broadcasting panel of experts from the networks studied the situation and eventually reported back to La Guardia with recommendations for what was needed to keep the station going.

WPA Federal Art Project poster by Frank Greco circa 1939 (colorized). NYC Municipal Archives.

WNYC Radio Map, ca. 1937. A.G. Lorimer artist. WNYC Archive Collections. https://www.wnyc.org/story/123806-artist-and-architect-a-g-lorimer

Original can from the WNYC Film Unit. WNYC collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Meanwhile by the mid-to-late 1930s, the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided funding which underwrote half of the programming. It also supported construction of new studios for the station in the Municipal Building and a new transmitter in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. WPA artists even contributed murals and artwork for the studios. La Guardia changed his attitude and saw the station as an educational and cultural tool and began to use it as a way to talk directly to the people of the City. He also separated WNYC from the Department of Plant & Structures and created a new mayoral agency, the Municipal Broadcasting System, with Morris S. Novik as its director.

Title card from “Baby Knows Best,” a WNYC-TV production, ca. 1950s. WNYC collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

WNYC-TV cameraman in City Hall, ca. 1962. Photographer unknown. WNYC collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Ralph McDaniels, creator of Video Music Box, on the cover of Wavelength, 1989. WNYC Archive Collections.

After World War II, Siegel, fresh from five years in the Navy, became the second director. Siegel continued to develop new educational programming for the station, and in 1949 he created the WNYC film unit to develop short educational films for the new medium of television. By 1962, WNYC-TV had its own television channel, the first municipal TV station in the nation. Facing massive budget cuts, Siegel turned in his resignation in 1971. The 1970s were not kind to WNYC, and in 1975 it held its first on-air membership drive to raise money. In 1979 the WNYC Foundation was formed with the idea of eventual independence from the City. In the 1980s, WNYC-TV broke new ground, with the first LGBT TV news series, Our Time, which premiered in 1983, and Video Music Box, which was launched by a young employee, Ralph McDaniels, in 1984. It was the first TV program to regularly air rap videos.

Staff on the roof of the Municipal Building for the 53rd Anniversary of WNYC, July 1977. Photograph by Sal de Rosa. WNYC Archive Collections.

Nelson Mandela receiving the key to the city from Mayor Dinkins, June 20, 1990. NYC Municipal Archives. https://www.wnyc.org/story/mandela-in-new-york/

FM Transmitter on top of World Trade Center, 1986. Photograph by Lisa Clifford. NYC Municipal Archives.

After a tumultuous review, Mayor Guiliani announced the sale of WNYC AM & FM licenses to the WNYC Foundation in 1995. WNYC-TV was to be sold at auction to commercial bidders. June 30, 1996, was the last broadcast of WNYC-TV, and on January 27, 1997, WNYC AM & FM were officially on their own. Of course, it took a little while to move out of the ‘attic.’ It was not until June 2008 that WNYC transferred the studios from the tower of the Municipal Building to the current Varick Street location.

More challenges awaited WNYC. In September 2001, WNYC lost its FM transmitter in the collapse of the north tower of the World Trade Center. The AM station continued to broadcast using a telephone land-line patch. In August 2003, the northeast blackout plunged the city into darkness, but the station stayed on the air with candlelight and emergency generators. In 2012, the WNYC-AM transmitter site in the new Jersey Meadowlands was damaged by Hurricane Sandy, taking it off the air. And in March 2020, WNYC had to set up home studios for its hosts as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down offices. Independence for WNYC also meant the launching of new magazine programing, podcasting, and a bevy of Peabody and other awards for programming including work by the producers of Radiolab, Studio 360, On the Media, Soundcheck and others.

Recovery efforts at Ground Zero, September 2001. Photographer unknown, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Masterwork Bulletin, May-June 1971. WNYC Archive Collections.

Fitting 100 years of this history into a 20-foot-long shipping container presented a challenge. An easy solution would have been to just illustrate some part of the station’s history, but that did not seem to be fitting for this momentous birthday. The early years of WNYC were well photographed by Eugene de Salignac, agency photographer, but the Municipal Archives had few photos from the 1970s and 1980s. Luckily WNYC engineer Alfred Tropea had taken some beautiful color slides of the Greenpoint transmitter site and WNYC operations. And the WNYC program guides started to include more colorful covers with photographs of some hosts. Although Photoville centers on photography, we knew to tell the story we would need to use archival photographs, ephemera, and audio clips to celebrate WNYC’s history and importance to the City of New York. Even then, the story is too broad to tell fully. The exhibit had to be an immersive experience, with audio and visual components, so we settled on using four panels, each with a collage of images. A timeline underneath each panel marks highlights in the station’s history. An audio montage accompanies the visual panels:

Brian Lehrer broadcasting from his home, March 2020. Wayne Schulmister/WNYC Engineering.

Not everything made the cut, and the reasons are rather random. The great blues musician Huddie ‘Leadbelly’ Ledbetter was a hugely important presence for WNYC in the 1940s, but the audio was hard to fit in. Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie were also cut, but Bob Dylan’s first radio broadcast went in. Rebecca Rankin, despite her importance to the Municipal Archives, was cut from the exhibit, but stayed in the audio. For Photoville we wanted to include a panel discussion on modern photography with Edward Steichen, Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans, Irving Penn, and Ben Shahn from 1950 but it was hard to find a good short clip. Instead, we went with a rare interview with Diane Arbus, recorded shortly before her death in 1971. A 1961 Malcom X interview was left out and Martin Luther King, Jr. was included simply because the Malcolm X interview was not an official WNYC broadcast and the 1964 King event was an important City celebration. We had wanted to include something on gay rights in the wake of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, but we found a better clip of an ACT UP demonstration for more funding for the AIDS crisis, which happened to be recorded by a young reporter named Andy Lanset.

WNYC Transmitter building, Greenpoint, ca. 1980s. Photograph by Alfred Tropea, WNYC Archive Collections.

The display panels from Photoville are on view at the Municipal Archives, 31 Chambers Street, and the online exhibit lives on at: https://www.archives.nyc/photoville-2024

WNYC audio and WNYC-TV/Film collections are available from the NYC Municipal Archives and from the New York Public Radio Archive.

To learn more about WNYC’s history, follow Andy Lanset’s New York Public Radio History Notes Newsletter. Here are some highlights in addition to the links in this article.

  1. The night WNYC became real: www.wnyc.org/story/wnycs-first-official-broadcast

  2. WNYC and the Federal WPA:  www.wnyc.org/story/wnycs-wpa-murals

  3. The Plan and Promise of WNYC: www.wnyc.org/story/new-york-citys-silver-jubilee-plan-and-promise-wnyc

  4. Morris Novik and a Model of Public Radio: www.wnyc.org/story/218821-morris-s-novik-public-radio-pioneer

  5. WNYC’s ID – Hope for the World: www.wnyc.org/story/where-7-million-people-live-peace-and-enjoy-benefits-democracy

  6. Lead Belly on WNYC Throughout the 1940s: www.wnyc.org/story/king-twelve-string-guitar-wnyc-regular-through-1940s

  7. Christie Bonsack and Early WNYC: www.wnyc.org/story/christie-bohnsack-wnycs-first-director

  8. WNYC – The Station that Dodged Bullets: www.wnyc.org/story/wnyc-station-dodged-bullets

  9. WNYC’s Journey to Independence: www.wnyc.org/story/going-public-story-wnycs-journey-independence

  10. WNYC – Visions of a Flagship Station for a Cultural Network: www.wnyc.org/story/1937-vision-wnyc-flagship-station-non-commercial-cultural-network

100 Years of WNYC, Audio montage, list of clips

  1. Re-enactment of first 1924 WNYC broadcast, 1948

  2. Sweet Georgia Brown, Ben Bernie and His Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra, 1925

  3. Col. Lindbergh Tickertape Parade Reception, June 13, 1927

  4. Emergency Relief Committee Orchestra, 1931

  5. Station sign-off, December 1931

  6. Rebecca Rankin, Municipal Librarian, 1938

  7. News broadcast, 1938

  8. World’s Fair station ID, 1939

  9. Pearl Harbor attack broadcast, December 7, 1941

  10. Mayor La Guardia war-time Talk to the People, January 2, 1944

  11. Mayor LaGuardia reads the comics during newspaper strike, July 8, 1945

  12. Audio from City of Magic, WNYC-TV/Film, 1949

  13. AM and FM Station ID, January 11, 1950

  14. Bert the Turtle, Duck and Cover, ca. 1952

  15. Audio from This is the Municipal Broadcasting System, WNYC-TV/Film, 1953

  16. Eleanor Roosevelt DJs Elvis Presley’s song Ready Teddy, February 6, 1957

  17. Last run of the 3rd Avenue El, May 12, 1955

  18. Footloose in Greenwich Village, May 6, 1960

  19. Bob Dylan’s first radio appearance, October 29, 1961

  20. John Glenn, first American to orbit the earth, February 20, 1962

  21. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Gulf of Tonkin announcement, August 4, 1964

  22. Martin Luther King, Jr. welcome at City Hall, December 17, 1964

  23. Station ID, 1963

  24. Diane Arbus, interviewed for Viewpoints of Women by Richard Pyatt, September 2, 1971

  25. Shirley Chisholm announces run for presidency, January 25, 1972

  26. WNYC Golden Anniversary, Mayor Abraham D. Beame reading proclamation, July 8, 1974

  27. Mayor Ed Koch town hall in Jackson Heights, June 1, 1979

  28. Transit Strike, April 3, 1980

  29. “Voices of Disarmament” rally, June 14, 1982

  30. Vito Russo’s Our Time: Episode 1 - Lesbian & Gay History, February 16, 1983

  31. Philip Glass interviewed on New Sounds by John Schaefer, January 6, 1985

  32. ACT UP demonstration at City Hall, Andy Lanset reporting, March 28, 1989

  33. Ladysmith Black Mambazo, August 30, 1987

  34. Mayor David N. Dinkins and Nelson Mandela in New York, June 20, 1990

  35. Snap!, The Power, Video Music Box with Ralph McDaniels, WNYC-TV, September 14, 1990

  36. Audio from Heart of the City with John F. Kennedy, Jr., March 2, 1994

  37. WNYC Independence Celebration, January 27, 1997

  38. Kurt Vonnegut, Reporter for the Afterlife, 1998

  39. World Trade Center montage, September 11, 2001

  40. Brooke Gladstone, On the Media, December 20, 2002

  41. Blackout announcement, August 14, 2003

  42. David Garland, NYPR takeover of WQXR, October 8, 2009

  43. RadioLab intro, February 20, 2010

  44. John Schaefer, Soundcheck live from The Greene Space, December 15, 2011

  45. Hurricane Sandy aircheck, October 29, 2012

  46. Brian Lehrer Show, first broadcast from his apartment due to COVID-19, March 16, 2020

  47. Protests, September 4, 2020

  48. All of It, Allison Stewart, October 21, 2021

  49. New Yorker Radio Hour, May 11, 2024

  50. Notes From America with Kai Wright, May 19, 2024

  51. Morning Edition, Michael Hill with Andy Lanset on the Anniversary of WNYC, July 8, 2023

Mop Shaking

The Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia collection has proven time and again to be a treasure-trove of interesting material, leading to several blog posts on important topics as well as the 2022 Conference on Conditions in Harlem. A surprising entry in the collection guide is named “Mop Shaking” which lists two folders dating to 1944-1945.

Letter to Mayor LaGuardia, regarding mop shaking, November 28, 1944. Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Letter to Mayor LaGuardia, regarding mop shaking, November 28, 1944. Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Indeed, mop shaking violated the City’s Sanitary Code as did shaking rugs and dusters. The folders contain several complaints sent to the Mayor, many made anonymously. Consider an excerpt from a letter received at City Hall on November 4, 1944.

“I have a neighbor right next door to me who shakes her dust mop out of her front window every morning two and three times full of dirt and dust. My husband painted our apt. last week and our windows were open with white enamel paint on the wood work and this woman shook her mop out and all the dirt set right in the wet paint. My husband nearly went mad and had to take benzine and clean it all off and paint it over again….”

The frustration oozes off the paper. In response to this and other complaints, the Mayor’s staff would forward the information to the Commissioner of Health with instructions to “Investigate and Report.”

Referral to Commissioner Stebbins, Department of Health, from the office of the Mayor, November 13, 1944. Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Health inspectors were dispatched to the address provided and, inevitably, they found no evidence of the dust shakers. Considering the chain of events, that’s not surprising. The complaint was mailed to City Hall, opened by the Mayor’s staff, circulated to the Health Commissioner, the location was added to the inspectors’ route and the inspection took place. The results were relayed to the Commissioner, who, in turn, dutifully reported back to the Mayor the absence of a dust nuisance. Little wonder since days expired between the offending incident and the actual inspection.   

Report to Mayor LaGuardia from Ernest L. Stebbins, Commissioner of the Department of Health, November 29th, 1944. Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Reporters seemed to get a kick out of City Hall’s efforts against the shaking of mops out of windows. One report stated that inquiries “received a gentle brush-off from city departments in a survey conducted to ascertain where and how the daunted housewife may legally clean a mop.”  The city recommended wet mopping over dry mopping and pointed to the Sanitary Code which contained a variety of prohibitions including the ban on shaking rags and mops out of windows, hanging bedding from balconies or sweeping sidewalks after 8. a.m. in much of the City. A New York Tribune headline read, “Mayor would Mop Up Practice of Shaking Mops Out Windows” and referenced Mayor LaGuardia’s radio broadcast in which he said “It is very dangerous, because nothing is more dangerous than spreading germs or dust in that manner. Besides, it is a very serious offense.”

The radio broadcast indicates how seriously the Mayor took this issue. Normally his broadcasts on WNYC ran for thirty or forty minutes. In this instance Mayor LaGuardia was in Chicago and was limited to ten minutes for his remarks. Along with reducing the exorbitant interest rates on mortgages, commercial rent, leashing dogs, stopping smoking in the subways and the hazards of gambling, he included shaking mops… “a very filthy thing to do….civilized people don’t do it.”

One letter began, “I live near 180th St and the people around here think your request not to shake mops out windows is silly—all I hear is “what does he want me to do with the dust,” but Sir, judging by some of the dust coming from windows nearby one would think the owners of same were raising a victory garden under the beds.” The writer continued on to make specific complaints and suggest the dust was a cause of polio.

Another plea: “I have hesitated writing you regarding warning people not to shake their dust mops out of windows. However, it has gotten to a point where I must ask your help,” from 115 B West 168th Street, the Bronx. There was an anonymous complaint about a Mrs. Grillo in Woodside who allegedly shook her carpets.  Commissioner Ernest Stebbins reported that Grillo “was instructed not to cause any nuisance.”

“How to Clean a Mop in New York,” New York World-Telegram, October 26, 1944. Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

It’s actually remarkable that any violations were issued at all. Nevertheless, The New York World Telegram reported that in October 1944 two housewives were fined $5.00 each for the violation. The City even included this menace in a public service announcement that also focused on littering on the subways and sticking gum on the seats.  

The sanitary code now is administered by the City’s Department of Sanitation. The penalty for shaking or beating a mat, carpet or cloth that creates litter or dust is punished with a $50.00 fine for the first offense and $100.00 for subsequent violations. There’s no word on whether violations have actually been issued.