WNYC - Programming

Programming

WNYC produces 100 hours a week of its own programming, including nationally-syndicated shows like Studio 360, On the Media 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 live over the internet (and several shows also air over XM Satellite Radio); as a result the station receives listener calls from far-flung states and even has international listeners.

WNYC-FM offers a diverse format of NPR news and cultural programs, while WNYC-AM focuses mostly on news programming.

WNYC has a local news team of 18 journalists.

Studio 360 is a weekly one-hour program about arts and culture hosted by Kurt Andersen, the former editor of Spy Magazine. Taking current issues and trends as jumping-off points, the show explores a broad range of cultural ideas. Each program begins with a topical section of stories about the arts and culture from around the United States and around the world.

On the Media is a weekly nationally-syndicated one-hour program hosted by Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield of Advertising Age covering the media and its effect on American culture and society. Many stories investigate how events of the past week were covered by the press. Stories also regularly cover such topics as video news releases, net neutrality, media consolidation, censorship, freedom of the press, spin, and how the media is changing with technology.

The Brian Lehrer Show is a two-hour weekday talk show covering local and national current events and social issues hosted by Brian Lehrer, a former anchor and reporter for NBC Radio Network.

The Leonard Lopate Show is a two-hour weekday talk show hosted by Leonard Lopate, a painter who studied with Ad Reinhardt and Mark Rothko and the brother of writer Phillip Lopate. The show covers a broad range of topics including jazz and gospel music, literature, science and history.

Soundcheck is a one-hour weekday talk show hosted by John Schaefer about music and the arts. The show features interviews with musicians, critics, journalists, authors and others. It also features live musical performances in mix of genres, including indie rock, jazz, classical, and world music. The show also airs on XM Satellite Radio Channel 133.

WNYC broadcasts the major daily news programs produced by NPR, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, as well as the BBC World Service and selected programs from Public Radio International like This American Life and A Prairie Home Companion.

The station airs many long-running cultural and music programs, including Folksong Festival on Saturday nights that has survived battles with mayors and blacklists. Hosted by Oscar Brand, who debuted the show on December 10, 1945, and who was blacklisted in the McCarthy era, the show was one of the first radio programs in the United States to focus on issues of homosexuality and continues to shake up audiences with anti-American Revolution programs, "bad daddy" shows for Father's Day, "Evil Mothers" for Mother's Day, and more.

In 2006 the station began wnyc2 (lower case letters), an all-classical music channel broadcast on HD Radio and on the Internet. Their slogan is, "Five hundred years of new music", and most of their playlist comes from the late twentieth and twenty first centuries. The station's AM and FM channels carry primarily news and information programming on weekdays but maintain different broadcast schedules.

Locally-produced programs include:

• Big Band Sounds - music from the 1920s to the 1950s
• Folksong Festival - devoted to the traditional and contemporary folksong
• The Infinite Mind - examines scientific, existential, and social issues concerning the human mind with brain researcher Dr. Fred Goodwin
• Jonathan Schwartz - American Popular Standards, classical music, rock, and jazz
• New Sounds - guest musicians from David Byrne to Meredith Monk to Ravi Shankar, presents performances and premieres new works from the classic and operatic to folk and jazz
• The No Show - features music, satire, news commentary and comedy with Steve Post
• Radiolab - each episode is a patchwork of people, sounds, stories and experiences centered around one idea
• Radio Rookies - Radio Rookies provides teenagers with the tools and training to create radio stories about themselves, their communities and their world.
• Selected Shorts - actors read contemporary and classic short fiction, ranging from Chekhov, Maupassant, Malamud, and Singer, to Jhumpa Lahiri and Jonathan Franzen
• Soundcheck - daily talk show about music covering all musical genres, the show focuses on the musical passions of performers, composers, and critics as well as the public radio audience
• Spinning On Air - specializes in unusual, uncategorizeable music, with an emphasis on in-studio performances
• The Takeaway - a weekday morning show co-produced with Public Radio International