Shirley Zak Hayes: WNYC's First Woman Staff Announcer

By the time Shirley Zak Hayes joined the WNYC staff in June 1966 as the station's first full-time woman announcer, she had already distinguished herself as a community activist. In the late 1950s, she led the fight against Robert Moses' plan for a four-lane highway through Washington Square Park. (This activism was duly noted in Jane Jacobs' book The Life and Death of Great American Cities). Hayes had also worked for the Lindsay campaign and was a charter member of the National Organization for Women.

A Chicago native, Hayes hosted the overnight classical music program While the City Sleeps and created, produced, and hosted the shows Landmark Reports and Planning Board Reports (the above audio is from a 1967 episode of the latter). Hayes had plenty of experience and knowledge for both programs, having been a member of Planning Board 2 since 1952 and organizing the successful campaign to preserve Washington Square Park. Planning Board Reports was launched in conjunction with Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton's office on June 4, 1967. The show presented capsule reports and meeting dates for the city's Planning Boards.

On March 8, 1974, Hayes took on the bulk of WNYC's special programming for International Women's Day. This included discussions with experts on women's health, employment, women in broadcasting, and African-American women. She continued to produce special programs focusing on women's issues throughout the year and into 1975.

Hayes chaired several committees of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) union and represented fellow broadcasters at annual conventions as chair of the AFTRA Committee for the Creation of a Television and Film Center in New York City.

Hayes produced and announced for WNYC for 10 years and was among the earliest full-time woman radio announcers in New York City. She worked hard to break into the 'boys club' of announcing, but her repeated efforts to obtain a management position at the station were ultimately unsuccessful.

WNYC Announcer Shirley Zak Hayes in the 1960s.

(Courtesy of Alfred Tropea/WNYC Archive Collections)

Special thanks to: Christopher Hayes; Kenneth R. Cobb, NYC Department of Records; Ted O'Reilly, The New York Historical Society; and Danielle Cordovez, NYPL Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound.