The book Marty Glickman: The Life of an American Jewish Sports Legend (NYU Press, 2023) by Jeffrey S. Gurock takes a look at Marty Glickman, who for close to half a century after World War II, was the voice of New York sports. [Read more…] about Marty Glickman: American Jewish Sports Legend
Radio History
FBI’s Covert Anti-Nazi Long Island Radio Station
On this episode of the A New York Minute in History podcast, Devin Lander and Lauren Roberts tell the recently declassified story of a covert radio station built by the FBI on Long Island to deceive the Nazis during the Second World War. [Read more…] about FBI’s Covert Anti-Nazi Long Island Radio Station
The WGY Players: A Pioneering Radio Acting Troupe
A century after the first commercial radio station began broadcasting, 83% of Americans ages 12 or older listen to the radio in a given week. It’s a technology that we may take for granted now, but the rapid development of radio technology and programming in the early 1920s led to significant changes in American culture and communication. [Read more…] about The WGY Players: A Pioneering Radio Acting Troupe
High Quality Music in Radio’s Early Years
This week on The Historians Podcast violinist Ann Marie Barker Schwarz discusses the high quality of music aired in the early days of WGY radio in Schenectady in the 1920s.
Barker Schwarz said WGY when it began in 1922 “was really at the cutting edge of technology and the caliber of the music being played was of such high quality.” Violinist Edward Rice played a piece called “Romance” by renowned Polish composer Henri Wieniawski during WGY’s first broadcast on February 20th, 1922. [Read more…] about High Quality Music in Radio’s Early Years
Farm Paper of the Air: WGY & The Sage of Lawyersville, Jared van Wagenen
The boom in home radio usage began in the early 1920s. The Department of Commerce issued regulations to control the chaotic spread of radio stations in December of 1921.
A listing from March 10th, 1922, included 67 stations that were officially licensed to use the public airwaves. One of those would become extremely significant in the life of Jared van Wagenen, Jr., a graduate of Cornell University and a farmer who lived at Hillside Farm at Lawyersville (north of Cobleskill) in Schoharie County.
Van Wagenen (1871-1960), though a self-proclaimed “dirt farmer,” was a prolific writer and speaker on all things agricultural. He championed an agricultural civilization where human values were prized over profit. [Read more…] about Farm Paper of the Air: WGY & The Sage of Lawyersville, Jared van Wagenen
Radio Station WGY’s 100th Anniversary of Broadcasting
Capital Region radio station WGY, New York State’s oldest broadcaster, will celebrate their 100th year with a live afternoon of broadcasting on Sunday, February 20th.
WGY’s original licensee was General Electric (GE), headquartered in Schenectady. In early 1915, the company was granted a Class 3-Experimental license with the call sign 2XI. That license was canceled in 1917 due to the First World War, but 2XI was re-licensed in 1920. [Read more…] about Radio Station WGY’s 100th Anniversary of Broadcasting
New York’s First Radio Station WGY Celebrates 100 Yrs
This week on The Historians Podcast, a look at the 100th anniversary of WGY, the pioneer Schenectady radio station founded by General Electric in 1922. GE sold the station in the 1980s. Featured are the voices of broadcasters Kolin Hager, Martha Brooks, Howard Tupper, Earl Pudney, Don Tuttle, Elle Pankin and Diane Ward. [Read more…] about New York’s First Radio Station WGY Celebrates 100 Yrs
Amsterdam’s Racetrack and Other Mohawk Valley Stories
This week on The Historians Podcast, Bob Cudmore has stories from his Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder Focus on History columns including Amsterdam’s horse racing track, the life of a volunteer nurse in the Civil War and Amsterdam radio announcers who served in Armed Forces Radio. [Read more…] about Amsterdam’s Racetrack and Other Mohawk Valley Stories
WMHT’S Radio Information for the Blind History
This week on The Historians Podcast, Joyce Stah on the history of RISE, WMHT’s radio information service for the blind and print disabled in New York’s Capital Region and Hudson Valley.
RISE volunteers read articles from newspapers, periodicals and books to audiences who would otherwise be unable to access such information. RISE also carries each episode of The Historians Podcast. [Read more…] about WMHT’S Radio Information for the Blind History
1922 World Series Was First To Be Broadcast
Nationally-syndicated sports writer Grantland Rice penned a parody of a classic nursery rhyme for the opening of the 1922 World Series.
“Sing a song of sixpence, and eke of dollar bills,” he wrote in a poetic ditty, published October 3rd, 1922 in The Post-Star of Glens Falls. “Four and thirty thousand fans, paying for their thrills.” [Read more…] about 1922 World Series Was First To Be Broadcast