During World War II a number of WNYC staff went to serve in the armed forces. To keep them up to date with what happening at the station, The Transmitter newsletter was launched in early 1944. Edited by newsman Mike Jablons, it was a typical in-house publication featuring staff updates, happenings, changes and challenges for the municipal station in wartime New York. Recurring columns included "Patch Chords", "The Mailbag", and "Behind the Mike", which Jablons wrote himself. 

The Transmitter was sprinkled with humor (often sexist) and generally made an effort to kep the news upbeat, while informing its uniformed readers of marriages, births, adventures and incidents within the WNYC community. "The Mailbag" consisted of letters addressed to the station from staffers abroad. The radiomen tell of their training, trials and travails, but mostly of how much they missed their radio home and “that lady atop the Municipal Building," a reference to the gilded copper statue of a woman called Civic Fame.

From April 1944 Transmitter "Mailbag"

(WNYC Archive/WNYC Archive Collections)

Because of wartime security the newsletter was prohibited from publishing the addresses of those abroad but Jablons would connect those in the service with the addresses of their fellows in arms if they wished to correspond with each other.

Letters from abroad

(WNYC Archive/WNYC Archive Collections)

Among the highlights mentioned are a fire in the Municipal Building, election night, D-Day, and WNYC’s 20^th Anniversary. But for the most part it's an informal effort by staffers to stay in touch in “this war-torn world” with news of familiar spaces and co-workers happenings, no matter how common place. Details of a broken water cooler and Jablons accidentally flipping the power switch in Master Control are included.