WNYC Program Director Nathan M. Rudich in the 1940s courtesy of Glynn Rudich.

Seventy-two years ago today WNYC program director Nathan M. Rudich arrived at the studio at 6:15 a.m. just before the AM station signed on. News and Special Events Director Lily Supove had been at her desk since 4:30 a.m. It would be another in a series of nerve-wracking days anticipating confirmation that the war was really over. We know this because Rudich had typed a  two-page single-spaced letter to station director Morris S. Novik about the events leading up to V-J Day.

Director Novik had gone overseas at the invitation of General Eisenhower, and approval from the White House, as part of a delegation of fifteen American broadcast executives. The trip was aimed at acquainting them with broadcast operations in the European theater as well as military radio in wartime. Before he left, he had told Rudich that peace just might break out on his watch and to "do what we did on V-E Day."

Rudich's letter, written on August 21st, confirms that they did. It also provides a rare behind-the-scenes accounting of the charged atmosphere in the city from Saturday, August 11 through Tuesday, August 14, the day World War II ended. A copy of the letter was generously made available to WNYC by Rudich's daughter Glynn.

Note: The audio above is from Mayor La Guardia's regular Sunday, Talk to the People on August 12, 1945 courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives. "Mike" in the letter below is WNYC newsman Mike Jablons.

Saturday into Sunday/August 11 and 12

Excerpt of August 21, 1945 letter from Nat Rudich to Morris Novik.

(Courtesy of Glynn Rudich.)

Monday/August 13

WNYC had three public address sound trucks on alert and ready to be dispatched, but nothing was happening. People all over the city were tense. They were beginning to think rumors that the war was over were a hoax. Rudich described the waiting as "most exasperating."

Tuesday/August 14

Tokyo radio announced at 1:50 a.m. the Japanese had accepted the surrender terms and Rudich got a call from Lily Supove. Still, there was no confirmation from Washington. It was more hurry-up and wait with WNYC's engineers following Mayor La Guardia from Gracie Mansion to City Hall in the event news broke so he could make a statement.

Excerpt of August 21, 1945 letter from Nat Rudich to Morris Novik.

(Courtesy of Glynn Rudich.)

Mayor La Guardia at 9:45 A.M. August 14, 1945.

Through it all, WNYC kept telling listeners to "go to work" and "stay on the job" and that there still was no confirmation. At 1:00 p.m. there were no doubt groans in the newsroom. Swiss diplomats had still not received any definite word. Everyone remained on standby and at the edge of their seats for another five hours.

Newsroom Bulletin

Excerpt of August 21, 1945 letter from Nat Rudich to Morris Novik.

(Courtesy of Glynn Rudich)

Mayor La Guardia at 7:35 PM August 14, 1945. You can hear the celebratory horns and whistles in the background.

Excerpt of August 21, 1945 letter from Nat Rudich to Morris Novik.

(Courtesy of Glynn Rudich)

This letter is a sobering reminder of the pre-digital age when history-making events were not instantaneously flashed across the screens of billions of smartphones, televisions, tablets, and computers. Vacuum tubes, like incandescent light bulbs, were the common carriers while transistors and microchips remained in the domain of science fiction. Still, you could say this coverage was 24/7 news in its infancy; clunky and filled with all the noise and static that came with a mechanical analog world.  

As for the letter writer Nathan M. Rudich, he directed radio and live shows for the Civilian Defense Organization and the United Nations during the war. In fact, some of these radio dramas were broadcast on WNYC and others aired at WOR and WINS. He also taught in the Dramatic Workshop at the New School (later known as the Actors Studio). In 1944 he came to WNYC as the station's drama director, rising to Program Director by the end of 1945. It was Rudich who would offer a young Canadian-born folksinger named Oscar Brand the chance to do a radio show.

After WNYC, he was a partner with Mike Jablons and Jack Gaines in a public relations firm. During the 1950s he was a program director at WLIB, then owned by the brothers Harry and Morris Novik. Rudich moved on to be a television producer and director at WOR. Subsequently, he worked as publicity manager at United Artists before spending 16 years as executive assistant to Otto Preminger*, the movie director and producer, earning Associate Producer credit on several Preminger films. When Nathan M. Rudich died in 1975 at the age of 56, he was the national director of marketing services for the 20th Century‐Fox Corporation.

Original transcription disc sleeve from the 9:45 a.m. August 14, 1945 broadcast by Mayor La Guardia

(Courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives)

In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a sailor and a nurse kiss passionately in Manhattan's Times Square, as New York City celebrates the end of World War II, on August 14, 1945.

(AP Photo/U.S. Navy/Victor Jorgensen)

Audio courtesy of the New York City Municipal Archives WNYC Collection.