call letters shared by a pair of non profit noncommercial public radio stations located in new york city . new york public radio formerly did business as wnyc radio until march 2013 . 1 wnyc am broadcasts on 820 khz and wnyc fm broadcasts on 93.9 mhz . both stations are owned by new york public radio 1 and are members of npr and carry local and national news talk programs . some hours the programming is simulcast some hours different shows air on each station . wnyc reaches more than one million listeners each week and has the largest public radio audience in the united states . the wnyc stations are co owned with newark new jersey licensed classical music outlet wqxr fm 105.9 mhz and all three broadcast from studios and offices at 160 varick street in the tribeca section of manhattan . wnyc s am transmitter is located in kearny new jersey ; 2 wnyc fm s transmitter is located on the empire state building in new york city . 3 contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 great depression and world war ii 1.3 independence from the city 1.4 move to new studios 1.5 acquisition of wqxr 1.6 new jersey expansion 1.7 past personalities 2 programming 3 financing 4 listenership and new media 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit early years edit mayor fiorello h. la guardia on his talk to the people program on wnyc wnyc is one of the oldest radio stations in new york . funds for the establishment of the station were approved on june 2 1922 by the new york city board of estimate and apportionment . wnyc made its first official broadcast two years later on july 8 1924 at 570 am with a second hand transmitter shipped from brazil . with the commencement of wnyc s operations the city of new york became one of the first american municipalities to be directly involved in broadcasting . in 1928 wnyc was forced into a time sharing arrangement on 570 am with wmca another pioneering new york radio outlet . this situation lasted until 1931 when the federal radio commission a forerunner to today s fcc moved wnyc to 810 am . the frequency move did not help wnyc from an operational standpoint as it now had to share its frequency with the more powerful wcco in minneapolis limiting wnyc to daytime only operations broadcasting from sunrise to sunset . am radio waves travel farther at night and wnyc had to protect wcco from interference . great depression and world war ii edit wnyc s transmitter was moved in 1937 from the top of the municipal building to city owned land at 10 kent street in greenpoint brooklyn as part of a works progress administration project . the site was later designated as wnyc transmitter park . in 1938 the municipal broadcasting system was established by the city of new york to run the station . for its first 14 years wnyc had been run by the new york city commissioner for bridges plant and structures . now under an agency devoted singularly to its function and with the leadership of new director morris s. novik appointed by mayor laguardia wnyc became a model public broadcaster . among its many landmark programs was the annual american music festival . in 1941 the north american regional broadcasting agreement shifted wnyc s dial position a second time to 830 khz . wcco was moved to 830 as well and was given clear channel authority . wnyc would remain a 1 000 watt outlet for the next 48 years . later that year on december 7 wnyc was the first radio station in the united states to announce the japanese attack on pearl harbor . during world war ii the fcc allowed wnyc to stay on the air a few extra hours in the evening due to the public service it was providing . wnyc began regularly scheduled broadcasts on the fm band on march 13 1943 at 43.9 mhz . known originally as w39ny the fm outlet adopted its present wnyc fm identity and its present frequency of 93.9 mhz within a few years . in 1961 the pair were joined by a television operation as wuhf channel 31 took to the air in an experimental format . the following year the station was renamed wnyc tv . the municipal broadcasting system which was renamed the wnyc communications group in 1989 helped to form national public radio in 1971 and the wnyc stations were among the 90 stations that carried the inaugural broadcast of all things considered later that year . in 1990 wnyc am moved from 830 khz to 820 khz commenced around the clock operations and increased its daytime power to 10 000 watts while maintaining 1 000 watts at night to protect wbap in fort worth texas ; wbap is also a clear channel 50 000 watt station but much farther from new york city than minneapolis . the brooklyn transmitter site was decommissioned and the am transmitter was moved to belleville turnpike in kearny new jersey sharing three towers with wmca its former shared time partner . 2 the station s ownership by the city meant that it was occasionally subject to the whims of various mayors . as part of a crackdown on prostitution in 1979 then mayor ed koch tried to use wnyc to broadcast the names of johns arrested for soliciting . announcers threatened a walkout and station management refused to comply with the idea ; after one broadcast the idea was abandoned . see john hour . independence from the city edit shortly after assuming the mayoralty in 1994 rudolph w. giuliani announced he was considering selling the wnyc stations . giuliani believed that broadcasting was no longer essential as a municipal service and that the financial compensation from selling the stations could be used to help the city cover budget shortfalls . 4 the final decision was made in march 1995 while the city opted to divest wnyc tv now wpxn tv through a blind auction to commercial buyers wnyc am fm was sold to the wnyc foundation for 20 million over a six year period far less than what the stations could have been sold for if they were placed on the open market . 5 while the sale put an end to the occasional political intrusions of the past it required the wnyc foundation to embark on a major appeal towards listeners other foundations and private benefactors . the station s audience and budget have continued to grow since the split from the city . manhattan municipal building wnyc s home from 1922 to 2008 the terrorist attacks of september 11 2001 destroyed wnyc fm s transmitter atop the world trade center . wnyc am fm s studios in the nearby manhattan municipal building had to be evacuated and station staff was unable to return to its offices for three weeks . the fm signal was knocked off the air for a time . wnyc temporarily moved to studios at national public radio s new york bureau in midtown manhattan where it broadcast on its still operating am signal transmitting from towers in kearny new jersey and by a live internet stream . the stations eventually returned to the municipal building . move to new studios edit on june 16 2008 wnyc moved from its 51 400 square feet 4 780 m2 of rent free space scattered on eight floors of the manhattan municipal building to a new location at 160 varick street near the holland tunnel . the station now occupies three and a half floors of a 12 story former printing building . the new offices have 12 foot 4 m ceilings and 71 900 square feet 6 680 m2 of space . the number of recording studios and booths has doubled to 31 . there is a new 140 seat street level studio for live broadcasts concerts and public forums and an expansion of the newsroom of over 60 journalists . renovation construction rent and operating costs for the new varick street location amounted to 45 million . in addition to raising these funds wnyc raised money for a one time fund of 12.5 million to cover the cost of creating 40 more hours of new programming and three new shows . the total cost of 57.5 million for both the move and programming is nearly three times the 20 million the station had to raise over seven years to buy its licenses from the city in 1997 . 6 acquisition of wqxr edit on october 8 2009 wnyc took control of classical music station wqxr fm then at 96.3 fm . wqxr s intellectual property call letters and format was acquired from the new york times company as part of a three way transaction with univision radio . 7 wnyc also purchased the 105.9 fm frequency of univision s wcaa now wxny fm . wqxr fm s classical format moved to 105.9 and wxny s spanish tropical format debuted at 96.3 . the deal resulted in wqxr becoming a non commercial station . with wqxr as a co owned 24 hour classical station wnyc fm dropped its remaining classical music programming to become a full time news talk station . new jersey expansion edit on june 6 2011 the new jersey public broadcasting authority agreed to sell four fm stations in northern new jersey to new york public radio . the transaction was announced by governor chris christie as part of his long term goal to end state subsidized public broadcasting . the four stations were previously the northern half of new jersey network s statewide radio service with the stations in southern new jersey going to philadelphia public radio station whyy fm . upon taking control of the four stations on july 1 2011 they were rebranded as new jersey public radio . 8 past personalities edit past wnyc radio personalities include h. v. kaltenborn who hosted radio s first quiz program on wnyc in 1926 the brooklyn daily eagle s current events bee a forerunner to shows like national public radio s wait wait ... don t tell me in its early years the station lacked funds for a record library and would borrow albums from record stores around the manhattan municipal building where its studios were located . legend has it a listener began lending classical records to the station and in 1929 wnyc began broadcast of masterwork hour radio s first program of recorded classical music . following the u.s. entry into world war ii then mayor fiorello h. la guardia made use of the station every sunday in his talk to the people program . during a lengthy newspaper workers strike la guardia also used the wnyc airwaves to read the latest comic strips to local youngsters while they were not available in new york . margaret juntwait an announcer and classical music host at wnyc for 15 years left for the metropolitan opera in september 2006 . prior to her death in 2015 juntwait served as announcer for the met s saturday afternoon radio broadcasts the first woman to hold the position and only the third regular announcer of the long standing broadcast series which was launched in 1931 . john schaefer a music show host at wnyc for 20 years has written liner notes for more than 100 albums for everyone from yo yo ma to terry riley and was named a new york influential by the magazine new york magazine new york . programming edit wnyc produces 100 hours a week of its own programming including nationally syndicated shows such as studio 360 on the media selected shorts and radiolab as well as local news and interview shows that include the leonard lopate show soundcheck and the brian lehrer show . the entire schedule is streamed