Tuesday, January 13, 2015

WNYC






WNYC AM & FM are non-commercial, public radio stations in New York, New York.  They began broadcasting in 1924 at 570 AM and moved to 810 AM in 1931.  Ten years later they moved to 830 AM and operated only during daylight hours to protect the signal of clear channel outlet WCCO in Minneapolis, Minnesota which shared the same frequency.  WNYC was owned by the City of New York until the mid-1990s.  This resulted in some curious programming choices (depending on whoever the mayor was at the time) including 1979's infamous John Hour which broadcast the names of "johns" who were arrested for soliciting prostitutes.  The 9/11 attacks destroyed WNYC's transmitter which sat atop the World Trade Center.  The tower is now on the Empire State Building.  With an audience of one million unique listeners each week, WNYC has the largest audience of any public radio station in the United States.

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