WNYC Celebrated Its 100th Birthday with Live Audience, On-Air From Central Park

By Claire Davenport

Hundreds of people from all five boroughs and New Jersey came out on Monday night to celebrate WNYC’s 100th anniversary in Central Park at SummerStage.

Lawn chairs set up for members, along with the the turf surrounding the stage, were filled with people, mostly adults. Even though Labor Day had passed, it felt like summer. The smell of bug spray was in the air, and shoes decidedly came off. 

The show started exactly at 7 p.m., with Sean Carlson, WNYC host of “All Things Considered,” giving the audience some radio prep beforehand. He explained how throughout the show they would be “hitting a post,” or getting the timing just right, since the celebration was being broadcast live on WNYC 93.9 FM and AM 820.

A big light-up sign reading “On Air” on the stage indicated when the audience’s cheers could be heard in earbuds and on car radios throughout the tri-state area. 

The baton was then passed off to emcee Brian Lehrer. Throughout the show, he switched off with Alison Stewart, who introduced and interviewed some of the musical guests. 

The first music act was Freestyle Love Supreme, an improv hip-hop group started by Lin-Manuel Miranda that has performed on Broadway. Other performances included sets by mxmtoon, Nada Surf, and a provocative political-commentary-meets-musical-performance by Laurie Anderson and Sex Mob. 

The celebration included many reflections on WNYC’s history, along with plenty of nods toward its status as a New York institution. Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger, hosts of “On the Media,” took attendees through the history of WNYC, moving between live narration, archival tape, and quirky pre-recorded reenactments of turning points in the radio show’s past. 

There was also storytelling by Gabrielle Shea from “The Moth” and “This American Life’s” Ira Glass, who took the crowd through some groundbreaking moments in radio, playing recordings of Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad in the earlier days of Radiolab. 

“It was a new way to think about structuring and producing a radio show,” he said, talking about the impact the show had on radio as a medium. He ended with an appeal for experimentation to continue to be nourished on air. “The more room there is to play, the more room there is to grow,” he said.

There was a lot of audience engagement throughout – some pre-selected attendees went on stage for live trivia on topics like New York City critters. Every time the person on stage got a trivia question right, some WNYC swag was slingshotted into the crowd. 

Rhonda Kirschner, who went on stage to answer trivia questions about New York’s history, said she’d come out to see the people she hears every day on the radio. When she walked on stage, Brian Lehrer felt so familiar that she gave him a kiss on the cheek. 

“I’ve listened to WNYC for as long as I can remember – decades,” she said. “Their shows really enlighten us about New York.” 

“WNYC is the only station I listen to,” said Stefanie Vinopal from the Bronx, one of the many fans who came out to watch the live show. “I wake up to Brian Lehrer, set the clock radio to WNYC, and fall asleep to it.” Someone else walked by in a shirt that read “Peace, Love, & Brian Lehrer.”

Suzie Baer from Manhattan, sitting nearby in the crowd in a red-and-white WNYC T-Shirt, said she’d been listening since 1996. “All day all the time. When I was a stay-at-home mom, it really saved my life,” she added.

To listen to the recording of the broadcast or learn more about WNYC’s history, you can go to https://www.wnyc.org/100/. 

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