The 1938-1939 WNYC City Council programs were the first time in history that the proceedings of an entire legislative session were broadcast to the electorate. Letters to the station called the broadcasts instructive, entertaining, exciting, and a step forward in good government. A WNYC postcard survey determined that a million New Yorkers tuned each week to hear the New York Council session. A bevy of civics groups endorsed the broadcasts with the Women's City Club calling them, "the best education for citizenship." The Times gushed it was, "one of the best shows in the city, appealing in equal degree to the studio audience in City Hall and the radio audience over WNYC."[1]

That notion was echoed by comedian Eddie Cantor, who quipped to Mayor La Guardia that he was interested in getting recordings of an unusually long and embarrassing meeting to use during his act. The entertainer stipulated, however, that he reserved the right not to use anything too funny. The Mayor responded:

Overnight in the City of New York, thousands of housewives, business people and others who listened to the radio during the day, had the welcome relief of an interesting, useful radio broadcast of their own government in action to take the place of the usual soap opera which pervaded the air at that hour. No Hooper rating is available, but judging from the thousands of letters and postcards which deluged Station WNYC when the Democratic majority threatened to cut off the broadcasts, it is fair to say that several hundred thousand citizens listened in daily. In fact, the city received several lucrative offers from private sponsors for the exclusive privilege of broadcasting the Council sessions.[6]

The broadcasts continued “gavel-to-gavel,” without editing or censorship, for two years. Then, without explanation or justification, Democrats, in opposition to the Republican La Guardia administration, pushed through a resolution prohibiting broadcast equipment on the chamber floor and put the kibosh on the freewheeling transmission.  

On the day of the vote (January 16, 1940) WNYC's Chief Engineer Isaac Brimberg arrived at the City Council Chamber with his equipment and was politely, but firmly, refused entry by the legislative body's sergeant-at-arms. The stormy two-hour debate that followed, no doubt, would have been great radio. Instead WNYC broadcast a luncheon for Finnish war relief from the Hotel Commodore. It was a poor substitute, and little solace for our civic-minded listeners.

Yet during the debate, the Democratic majority refused to explain why they opposed the broadcast of Council proceedings. Only Councilman Walter R. Hart of Brooklyn provided a clue.

Ranson also recalled how the broadcasts kept WNYC's engineers on their toes, moving mics and constantly 'riding gain' on the volume control as they jerked from the soft-spoken representatives to "frenzied orators." In addition, there was Councilman Abner C. Surpless of Brooklyn, who always addressed the body with a cigar in his mouth, and Robert K. Strauss of Manhattan, whose peripatetic delivery required two microphones to capture. The inability to stand still was also a factor with Mayor La Guardia and that the microphones, which he had a habit of shoving aside, had to be lowered immediately to accommodate his diminutive stature. According to Ranson, the "hottest and longest" broadcast session was on the 1939 budget, airing for nearly 21 hours straight hours and included Newbold Morris threatening to punch Bronx councilman Charles E. Keegan in the nose. [10] 

And why, you may ask, did they want to investigate WNYC? Please see: Communist Propaganda or Capitalist Commercial? A 1930s WNYC Broadcast is Mired in Controversy.

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