Get your 1980s Indian music fix here.

1960's panel discussion show with experts discussing major social issues of the day, hosted by Lee Graham

In the 1940s and 1950s, WNYC regularly aired programs and public service announcements urging the public to donate to the March of Dimes. This collection also includes reports on the development of the Salk Vaccine.

In the 1960s and 70s Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan had a lot to say about radio, television, and what was then, an information revolution-in-progress. His friend and fellow cybernetic guru, Tony Schwartz liked what McLuhan had to say and used him often in his WNYC series Adventures in Sound and Communications Journal. Give a listen to him now and see just how prophetic he was.

Over the years WNYC has aired the proceedings of many conferences, discussions and performances about the radio, television, communications and journalism.

The series was originally produced by Joan and Bob Franklin of Cinema Sound for Westinghouse and other stations in cooperation with the Columbia Center for Oral History. The programs aired on WNYC in 1961.

Harry Maynard hosts this "discussion-demonstration" radio show featuring the "latest developments in the field of sound with the experts."

Weekly music quiz show, "a combination of fun and musical facts" where music experts try to answer questions from host John Savage. Variety wrote: "John Savage was good introducing the queries and got off a few bright ad-libs. Guests were likeable and the broad gamut of music covered didn't permit any one panel member to walk away with the show. At the same time, inclusion of Broadway and folk tunes gave less classical-minded listeners a chance to match wits on an equal footing with the musicologists."

Programs ranging from the 1930s to the 1970s covering a variety of cultural and political topics.

This collection features a selection of digitized archival recordings of Robert Moses' many speeches and ceremonies broadcast on WNYC. Moses was a major figure in New York politics, holding numerous public offices in the city and state from 1924 to 1981. Audio is courtesy of the New York City Municipal Archives.

A compilation of broadcast materials relating to the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York.

This short series from 1968 provided the listener with, "a concentrated group of interviews, discussions and special programs devoted to the many museums in New York City.

Prominent musicians and artists reveal their interests and aspirations.

Author, critic, and commentator Irving Deakin hosts WQXR’s Music and Ballet, a Thursday evening program devoted to dance and music for dance productions "of all peoples in all periods."

A showcase for European Jewish refugee performers who survived 'the Hitler terror' a.k.a, the Holocaust. It was broadcast by WNYC under the auspices of the United Service For New Americans, a social welfare organization founded in 1946 to aid concentration camp survivors who often had no other family members.

Maestro David Randolph's theme-oriented music programs began on WNYC in 1946. His gentle wit and vast knowledge fortified listeners for several decades.

Sara Fishko digs into the audio archives of the 92nd Street Y to bring us the greatest live performances from the stage of the Y's Kaufmann Concert Hall. Curated and hosted by Fishko, the series combines elements from different concerts over the past few years, designed to highlight a particular theme or performer with the radio listener in mind.

Paulette Attie's Musical Playbill was a weekly program of music and interviews aired on WNYC from late 1965 through 1967.

Award-winning weeklong series about "one of NYC's most serious problems": drug addiction.

Broadcasts from and about the annual National Book Awards ceremony.

We've pulled together some of the department's leading preservation work, series and sonic artifacts concerning poetry.

This collection of National Tuberculosis Association recordings, aired on WNYC during the late 1940s to mid-1950s as a public service to educate citizens about the spread of tuberculosis, an infectious disease that primarily affects the lungs.

Tim Page presented hundreds of radio premieres including major works by Meredith Monk, Elliott Carter and Steve Reich. Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson were among his guests. Page is a writer, editor, music critic, producer and professor. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for music criticism as well as the editor and biographer of the American author Dawn Powell.

A New World of Music was a 13-week series produced by New World Records and Recorded Anthology of American Music, Inc. in conjunction with WQXR in the early 1980s. Its aim was to extend the awareness of American music and give exposure to otherwise unavailable recordings by American composers. Sherrill Milnes (then the reigning baritone at the Met) was the host. Elizabeth Ostrow was the series producer with Herman Krawitz as executive producer. WQXR's Robert Sherman was scriptwriter and producer.

The best of American popular song comes alive on WNYC's 1990 cabaret series, hosted by Steve Ross.

How to navigate 1960s New York.

New York Considered was a local public affairs program about New York neighborhoods and the people who live in them. The format includes news stories, features and mini-documentaries and has been influenced by NPR’s award-winning All Things Considered. The program was produced and hosted by Marty Goldensohn and Peter Freiberg. The series premiered on February 6, 1979.

New York Magazine hosted this program in the late 1960s. Each week, one of several editors of the magazine would host and invite a guest to discuss articles from the most recent issue.

In 1962, Joan and Robert Franklin established Cinema Sound, Ltd., an audio recording studio based out of their Upper West Side townhouse. The Franklin's produced this series of recordings, which illustrate the lives of everyday New Yorkers.

The WNYC and WQXR archive collections blog and landing page.

Sponsored by the Department of Commerce and New York, this program recasts economic history as an engaging, fun topic. Described by the host as "a new series of transcribed historic educational dramas" (1952-53), these shows reenact moments in New York's history of commerce with flair.

In 1951 the Peabody awards panel wrote: "The New York Times Youth Forum has featured unrehearsed discussion by students selected from private, public and parochial schools, on topics ranging from the political, educational and scientific to the international and the United Nations.

The future is uncertain, so WNYC dares to ask the question: What will this city be like in the future? The result, the fascinating series New York Tomorrow, brings city luminaries to the studio to examine aspects of city life (Black power, labor, education) —asking the Big Questions in small doses.

WNYC broadcasts live from the 1939-1940 World's Fair.

Miniseries created by the late Debra E. Bernhardt, Head of the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University. Drawing from their archives, the program showcased oral histories of male and female workers "whose names you aren't likely to find in history books," using them to tell the story of organized labor in New York.

Historic news reports aired over WNYC. When news was made, WNYC microphones were always nearby. This series is a collection of wide-ranging press conferences, local and national news reports, and political speeches made in and around the five boroughs by well-known and influential public figures.

The Next Big Thing is full of unusual sounds and memorable voices. It's a show in which well-known artists like Stanley Tucci and Suzanne Vega casually rub shoulders with subway strap hangers, park bench philosophers, street-corner humorists, and kids on the local basketball court.

The No Show was a showcase for the idiosyncratic views and humor of Steve Post, a world-class curmudgeon whose irreverence and iconoclasm entertained audiences and appalled radio station managers for four decades. (Give or take.)

Weekly debate on housing and politics, produced by Northwestern University's Offices of the Director of Radio (Public Relations).

A program of news and interviews about Norwegian resistance to the Nazi occupation of Norway during World War II.

Medical Talks by Eminent Speakers with generous funding provided by the New York Metropolitan Library Council.

NYU's School of Continuing Education presents panel discussions and lectures on a variety of topics.

OTM tackles sticky issues with frankness and transparency. The program's first regular host was veteran journalist Alex S. Jones followed by Brian Lehrer.

In 1947 One More River was the only radio show in the country produced by “a Negro-White team” who felt they could pool their talent and do something positive for race relations. The Sunday broadcast was produced by The New York Amsterdam News’ Bill Chase and WNYC staff announcer Ken Joseph. The show’s producers said the program aimed to make people aware of the conditions of prejudice and intolerance in the north as well as the south and some shows included dramatizations as well as musical performances.

Opera Topics was hosted by Lorenzo Alvary, a hungarian born operatic bass between 1963 and 1984. It consisted of interviews with contemporary opera singers, historians, and impresarios, as well as reports of operatic performances from around the world. Guests included: Renata Scotto; Licia Albanese; George Lascelles; Zubin Mehta; Sherrill Milnes; Gebor Carelli; Regina Resnik; Friedelind Wagner, among many others.

The original Meet the Composer with host Tim Page represents a broad exploration of contemporary American composition with composers from many different fields including jazz, popular, avant garde, folk and musical theater.

Other People's Business began on August 4, 1941 and ran for 19 years. The host, Alma Dettinger was a charming personality who discussed women's issues, food, books for the WQXR audience.

Broadcast in cooperation with CUNY, this 1942 wartime radio show features members of faculty discussing different aspects of Americanism, the war effort, and the threat of un-democratic ideas.

The OPC aired a variety of programming on WNYC between 1940 and the mid70s, including speeches, awards shows, and question-answer sessions, providing an international perspective on news.

A community-centric variety show with a special focus on youth, performed by members of the Police Athletic League and children from the city. Featuring innocuous skits and popular tunes, this variety show (1949-1955) features the voice talents of police officers, members of P.A.L., and local children.

Patricia Marx Interviews is a series of interviews done for WNYC and other stations that include talks with Woody Allen, Dick Gregory, William Golding, General Omar Bradley, Arthur C. Clarke, David Halberstam, Bob Hope, George Balanchine and others.

WNYC has been winning Peabody Awards since 1944. WQXR has been receiving recognition since the awards started!

A special syndicated series of Cooper Union forums produced by WNYC and distributed by the National Educational Radio Network.

PEN America's weekly 1975 WNYC interview program with host Anne Fremantle. Digital files courtesy of PEN America.

People, Places and Books was a series of essays and commentaries by Dr. Gilbert Highet, a well-known author, teacher and lecturer. Highet was Anthon professor of Latin language and literature at Columbia University and a judge of The Book-of-the-Month Club.

With surprisingly calm moderators, the Plan for Survival series goes beyond the usual "duck and cover" advisement and into the details of an A-bomb attack, fallout shelters, the Soviet threat, first aid, radiation sickness, and food and water supplies following a nuclear attack.

A series of interviews with avant-garde poets with host Michael Silverton. .

Poets reading from their own work.

A children's musical variety show for youngsters who need some supervision. Join Mister Narrator, Talking Piano, Mister Singing Safety Police Officer, Old Man Accident, and others in issuing a strict disciplinary stance on crossing the street with safety. Other topics covered include bicycle safety, avoiding strangers, ab rhyming schemes, and general carefulness.

The series is based on the work of Dr. Karen Horney (horn-AY), a German psychoanalyst whose views both relied on and questioned those of Sigmund Freud. Speakers are members of the Association for the Advancement for Psychoanalysis who have taken up Dr. Horney's work after her 1952 death.

A weekly interview show featuring important news makers whose "opinions and decisions affect the lives of all new Yorkers." Hosted by former New York State Senator Frederic S. Berman.

A series in celebration of Queens College and public discourse.

Sixteen city government departments compete to see which department knows best how New York City government works.

In the mid 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, WNYC was one of few American stations to broadcast cultural programs from Radio Moscow, the international news service of the USSR.

Artist interview program, sponsored by RCA.

Reader’s Almanac was one of WNYC’s longest running shows, airing for nearly 50 years through hot and cold wars, economic booms and crises, the passage and perseverance of literary trends, and the jolting culture shocks and shifting mores of an era of enormous change.  It also won a Peabody.

Hosted by Edward T. Canby, this show covered a wide range of genres including Baroque, French Impressionism, Medieval folk, and experimental electronic music.

From public welfare to firefighting to water safety, this program updates the public about disaster preparedness. Arthur J. Wallander, Civil Defense Director for New York City, interviewed the heads of city departments about the steps their departments had taken to meet the needs of the city's civil defense system.

News for "when science plays such a large part in supplying our war needs." Talks by members of the City College of New York faculty discussing how their disciplines help the war effort. Topics include astronomy, mathematics, biology, and more.

The program highlighted not only exhibitions and events at the museum, but broader issues facing the art community at galleries and museums in a time of significant social and institutional changes. Host Mimi Poser was a development and public affairs officer for the museum from the early ’70s to late ’80s.

For more than 30 years Schwartz produced a weekly segments on WNYC called Adventures in Sound. The Library of Congress Sound Division has generously provided digital files of some one hundred Adventures in Sound broadcasts to the WNYC Archives to publish online for the first time.

Three decades of shows produced and recorded by Dave Sear. Artists include Reverend Gary Davis, Mable Hillery, Utah Phillips, Tom Paxton, Happy Traum, Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Robin and Linda Williams, and many many more.

Victor Manyukov, Theater Director and Teacher; Vladimir Prokofyev, Historian and Theoretician; Angelina Stepanova, Actress; and Vasily Toporkov, Actor discuss Stanislavsky's method of acting at a symposium on the Moscow Art Theatre.

Richard Pyatt hosts this interview program that discusses "trends, activities and theater practice across the country" with "outstanding artists and craftsmen in every facet of theater."

In 1960 the Peabody awards panel said that "Ireene Wicker brings to her weekly program, The Singing Lady, literate taste, tender understanding, wit, gaiety, and style. A benign sorceress as well as an artist of consummate skill, Miss Wicker has been a steadfast foe of violence and brutality and a true friend to children everywhere."

A drama about polio focusing on symptoms, illness, and eradication efforts from the Sister Elizabeth Kenny Foundation.

Helping women learn more about themselves and to have men better understand the women in their lives. The show was hosted by Carrie Carmichael and Amy Goodman.

Commentaries and interviews by Lee Edward Stern, WNYC's Dance Critic.

This interview, commentary, and discussion program features some of the greatest composers, performers, and critics of the music world.

A program of news, interviews, and the culture of Norway as well as the resistance to the Nazi occupation during World War II with host Gladys Petch.

A fictional radio drama starring Dr. Walter Bell, the Health Commissioner of Empire County. Brought to you by the New York State Department of Health and produced by the State Radio Bureau, this program aired in 1955. 

Your city station and the New York Branch of the United States Veteran Administration present "a quarter hour of veteran's news and timely comment."

The New York City Tunnel Authority provides historical context for "jaunts around the city" through its numerous tunnels and connectors.

A radio series dramatizing the folk tales and legends ​from different lands.

The famous Sunday afternoon talks by Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, “the people’s mayor.” These recordings, made during World War II, include the two iconic readings of the comics (only two of three were ever recorded) during the newspaper deliverymen’s strike of July 1945.

Don Gillis presents "a musical heritage that is as rich and full and all-encompassing as the world has yet seen", believing that from "the outpourings of Americans has come music that is worthy, is great and necessary."

This Office of War Information-produced radio docudrama series describes the activities of the Axis powers during World War II.

The WNYC News Department in collaboration with the NYPR Archives (Site under reconstruction).

With a mix of drama and sober/clinical assessments, the program aims to cast prison time as rehabilitative rather than punitive. The show was written and produced by Lily Supove with assistance from Antioch College interns Rod Serling, J. Michael Kitross, and Kit Davidson. 

Town Hall Club is a series of talks delivered at Town Hall between 1925 and 1955 by notable people.

Tributes is large series of interviews with notable people who have passed away. They were interviewed by Leonard Lopate and others at WNYC over the course of many years.

The United Parent's Association Forum tackles various issues related to children and education.

A 1960s lecture series about film history and aesthetics. Brought to you from Queens College.

Recordings from the United Nations Radio.

This program urged New Yorkers to take tolerance and unity to heart and to push prejudice to the side during the war effort. The series aired on New York's leading radio stations.

The University of Chicago Roundtable brings together a host of panelists in the fields of journalism, science, philosophy, politics, literature, business, and others, in order to address the big questions of the day.

The Public Health Service, in tandem with Columbia University, produced a number of programs aimed to stamp out syphilis.

Victory Concerts at The New York Public Library on 5th Avenue and 42nd Streets began on February 7, 1942 and ran for the duration of the war. Their target audience was "servicemen and their women guests."

Join host Ruth Bowman as she interviews notable artists, curators, and museum directors in the New York City art scene.

A weekly interview conducted by WNYC Program Director Richard Pyatt with a professional working in commercial radio. The program includes talks with disc jockeys, show hosts, administrators, editors and others in the industry.

Voices at the New York Public Library presents writers, performing artists and officials talking about everything from racism in sports to Bernard Shaw to the New York City subway system

A collection of appearances and discussions about the writer Kurt Vonnegut and Vonnegut family members over WNYC in years past. These include his series, Reporter on the Afterlife, as well as interviews for the Reader's Almanac and other programs.

The Mayor Robert F. Wagner collection includes audio reformatted from acetate open-reel tape and 16" transcription discs pulled from the NYC Municipal Archives. The collection spans his entire time as mayor, but the extant recordings concentrate on his third term, 1961-1965.

An interview program featuring Washington politicians and policymakers. Hosted by Barbara Newman.

New York City has a rich and storied history, one that has played out on WNYC’s airwaves since 1924. "Way Back on WNYC" is a fortnightly portrait of the city's past as heard through archival audio.

Host, Lilian Supove, provides a report on the various weekend arts and culture events happening around New York City.

A weekly program dedicated to various articles and short stories published in the Atlantic Monthly. Hosted by WNYC Program Director, Richard Pyatt.

A weekly program on WNYC presented by the League of Women Voters of New York City to encourage participation in and discussion of municipal issues.

This award-winning show, created by Philadelphia station WFIL in 1950, invited big names to wax patriotic for three to four minutes. The show had a wide range of guests, and though the emphasis was on liberty and freedom, there are moving testimonies and some candid criticisms.

An annual forum series from the early 1950s for robust discussion about art.

A series of self-reflection and celebration

Compact discs published by WNYC with WNYC broadcast material.

A series of political panel discussions.

A series of articles about WNYC's colorful past, programs and producers.

A series about New York City - its people, agencies, problems, and solutions.

The New York Public Radio Archives has pulled together some of the department's leading preservation work, series and sonic artifacts concerning women's history.

Since January 1969 Woody's Children has aired the likes of Judy Collins, Odetta, Tom Paxton, Tom Chapin, Josh White, Jr., Peter, Paul & Mary, Pete Seeger and many other folk singers. The show was hosted and produced by Bob Sherman for 30 years on WQXR before the station decided it no longer fit its format. However, it did not die! Thankfully, Woody's Children was then picked up by WFUV where it can be heard to this day.

From the mid-1930s to early 1940s, the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) distributed thousands of transcription discs to hundreds of radio stations around the United States, including WNYC.

An arts magazine program produced by the Office of Cultural Affairs of the City of New York that interviewed various curators, museum directors, and artists in New York City.

A series featuring interviews with many of the 20th Century's greatest dancers and choreographers.

We gathered here some choice bits of WQXR's distinguished past.

Host Robert Sherman digs deep into the station's rich archives for this mini-series celebrating the first 50 years of WQXR.

A series of articles and blog pieces using material from the WQXR Archive Collections highlighting shows, personalities and interviews from the station's 80+ years on the air.

Leading conductors, composers, commentators, WQXR staff and others have their say about music and broadcasting in turbulent times.

A discussion of health issues and advice with a host of prominent medical practitioners.

A discussion of home ownership and tenants' rights issues in New York City.

You Can't Do Business With Hitler was written and produced by the radio section of the Office of War Information (OWI). The program is based on a book by the same name detailing the experiences of Douglas Miller, who was for 15 years commercial attaché to the American Embassy in Berlin. (Site under construction)

The Young People's Concerts at the New York Philharmonic are the longest-running series of family concerts of classical music in the world, according to Wikipedia. They began in 1924 under the direction of "Uncle" Ernest Schelling and have run uninterrupted under this name since 1926.

A monthly series featuring Commissioner Carl Madonick of the City's Department of Real Estate.

From the Office of Price Stabilization for New York and New Jersey, this show discusses the pennies and nickels of city life.

A civics series intended to teach youngsters about participatory democracy.