Records of WNYU
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Abstract
The Records of WNYU (RG 39.5) document WNYU's history from 1949-2026, from its inception as an educational AM radio station to its acquisition of an FM frequency and emergence as innovative music programming. Administrative files, audio recordings of broadcasts, publications, and architectural drawings situate WNYU's growth and impact within NYU, New York City, and music history. The administrative files in this collection date from 1949-1969 and include correspondence, minutes, legal documents, memoranda, and subject files that portray the efforts of WNYU's staff to build up an AM-FM radio station and maintain educational programming in the New York metropolitan area. The audio recordings in this collection document WNYU's FM programming from 1973-1992, which highlighted music of various genres from the 1960s-1990s. Listeners could hear DJ sets, live performances, and interviews with musicians in shows such as the New Afternoon Show, Crucial Chaos, Club 89, and Music View, among others. A few recordings in this collection also highlight NYU events and lecture series. This collection also contains architectural drawings of the WNYU radio station and publications of WNYU, including newspapers published from 1957-1973 and Static program guides published from 1986-2024.
Historical Note
WNYU was formed in 1949 on the University Heights campus of New York University by a group of engineers. Initially, the station only broadcast to the University Heights cafeteria. Well established by 1956, WNYU became a member of the Inter-Collegiate Broadcasting System (IBS). In 1955 the radio division of the Television, Motion Picture and Radio Department of the Communications Arts Group started a closed circuit station, WCAG, at the Washington Square Campus. In 1963 WNYU (Heights Station) and WCAG (Washington Square Station) merged into one closed circuit radio station through the use of a telephone cable. It was decided that WCAG would broadcast to both campuses during the day while WNYU would take over in the evenings. This continued until 1973, when NYU sold the University Heights campus. At that time the equipment was brought to Loeb Student Center on Washington Square. During the period of 1965-1973 the station worked to acquire an FM frequency. In 1965 NYU made an agreement with the United Nations to use their channel, "206." NYU submitted their first application to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in 1965. After three years the FCC decided that channel "206" should be shared by NYU and Fairleigh Dickinson University of New Jersey. WNYU broadcast from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. on weekdays.
Arrangement
This collection has been organized into six series:
Series I. Administrative Files
Series II. Drawings
Series III. Publications
Series IV. Subject Files
Series V. Recorded Programs
Series VI. Archived Websites
Scope and Contents
The Records of WNYU (RG 39.5) document WNYU's history from 1949-2024, from its inception as an educational AM radio station to its acquisition of an FM frequency and emergence as innovative music programming. Administrative files, audio recordings of broadcasts, publications, and architectural drawings situate WNYU's growth and impact within NYU, New York City, and music history.
The administrative files in this collection date from 1949-1969 and include correspondence, minutes, legal documents, memoranda, and subject files that portray the efforts of WNYU's staff to build up an AM-FM radio station and maintain educational programming in the New York metropolitan area. Correspondence is predominantly between WNYU's staff and other constituent parts of the University, including Joseph Steinberg, the station's manager during the 1960s with University offices; the Inter-Colligiate Broadcasting System; Miller, Montgomery and Spanding concerning construction for WNYU facilities; and Larry J. Hollander, the faculty advisor to the WYNU staff, with Steinberg. Other correspondence relates to the broader media and metropolitan community, such as correspondence of the staff with fellow radio stations including the Columbia University station, concerning such topics as the election of 1964, Ray Nelson, and a Senator Claiborne Pell interview about youth legislation; letters from The New York Times to Arnold Rosner, Director of Classical Music at WNYU; letters from the Police Department of New York City; and letters from United Press International. Also included are minutes of meetings of the WNYU Board of Directors, budget reports and operating expense estimates of WNYU members, log forms, schedules, applications, architectural drawings, certificates from Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, advertising brochures, programs, newsletters, printed promotional material, newspapers published from 1957-1973, Static programs published from 1986-2024, and archived websites from 2013 to the present (2026 as of this writing).
The audio recordings in this collection document WNYU's FM programming from 1973-1992, which highlighted music of various genres from the 1960s-1990s with an emphasis on punk and underground scenes. Shows included the New Afternoon Show, Crucial Chaos, Club 89, Music View, Rap This!, and Unheard, among others. Live performances and interviews with musicians and groups such as Sonic Youth, the Dead Kennedys, the Smashing Pumpkins, k.d. lang, LL Cool J, Band of Susans, Butthole Surfers, Frank Zappa, and Sarah McLaughlin were showcased between DJ sets. The New Midnight Society provided a platform for NYU students and faculty to read their written works and showcase musical compositions. A few recordings in this collection also highlight NYU events and lecture series.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form: Identification of item, date (if known); Records of WNYU (Radio Station: New York, N.Y.); RG 39.5; box number; folder number or item identifier; New York University Archives, New York University Libraries.
To cite the archived website in this collection: Identification of item, date; Records of WNYU (Radio Station: New York, N.Y.); RG 39.5; Wayback URL; New York University Archives, New York University.
Custodial History
The records of WNYU Radio Station were transferred to the New York University Archives when the radio station was moved from Gould Memorial Library at the University Heights campus to Loeb Student Center on Washington Square in June 1973. Further accretions to the collection have been added in the intervening years.
In May 2025, Sam Colburn, Archives Director of WNYU, transferred issues of the newsletter Static; the accession number associated with this transfer is 2025.023.
http://wnyu.org/, http://wnyustatic.tumblr.com/, https://orgsync.com/63665/chapter/, https://www.facebook.com/wnyuradio, and http://earshotwnyu.wordpress.com/wnyu-radio/ were selected by Aleksandr Gelfand in 2013-2014 as part of the RG 39: Student Organizations and Publications Web Archive using Archive-It. Archive-It uses web crawling technology to capture websites at a scheduled time and displays only an archived copy, from the resulting WARC file, of the website. In June 2023, https://staticmag.org/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2023.034. In 2026, https://www.youtube.com/@wnyu9181/videos was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2026.010.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Access to audiovisual materials in this collection is available through digitized access copies. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room.
Audiovisual materials that have not been preserved may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact NYU Special Collections (special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596) with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Take Down Policy
Archived websites are made accessible for purposes of education and research. NYU Libraries have given attribution to rights holders when possible; however, due to the nature of archival collections, we are not always able to identify this information.
If you hold the rights to materials in our archived websites that are unattributed, please let us know so that we may maintain accurate information about these materials.
If you are a rights holder and are concerned that you have found material on this website for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), you may request the removal of the material from our site by submitting a notice, with the elements described below, to the special.collections@nyu.edu.
Please include the following in your notice: Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and information sufficient to permit us to locate the material; your contact information, such as an address, telephone number, and email address; a statement that you are the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed and that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and made under penalty of perjury; and your physical or electronic signature. Upon receiving a notice that includes the details listed above, we will remove the allegedly infringing material from public view while we assess the issues identified in your notice.
About this Guide
Processing Information
This collection was processed by University Archives staff in 2000, and the finding aid was revised by Katie Senft in 2003. In December 2022, audiovisual accretions 14-045, 2016-031, and 15-025 were arranged and described by an archivist. Wherever possible, record titles were transcribed directly from labels provided by WNYU. Physically, items are stored together with others of the same format.
9 quarter inch audio reels were identified as moldy in December 2022. These items are currently isolated from other items by housing them in polyethylene bags with desiccated boards and RH monitor strips. If a strip indicates an RH greater than 50%, contact the Preservation Department immediately. Do not open this packaging without contacting the Preservation Department.
In 2023, archived websites were added to the finding aid and administrative information was updated. In 2026, an additional website was added and the Series was rearranged.
In May 2025, issues of the newsletter Static were rehoused in an archival box and folder, intellectually integrated into the collection's existing arrangement structure, and physically rehoused in Shared University Archives 156 Folder 7.