WNYE (91.5
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...
) is a
non-commercial educational
A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (television advertisement, TV ads or radio advertisement, radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Fed ...
FM radio station
licensed to
New York, New York
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...
. The station is operated, along with
WNYE-TV
WNYE-TV (channel 25) is a non-commercial independent television station in New York City. It is operated by NYC Media, a division of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, alongside public radio station WNYE (91.5 FM). The two stations ...
(channel 25), by
NYC Media, a division of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. Studios are located at the City University of New York's
Graduate Center
The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public university, public research institution and post-graduate university, postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Divi ...
at
365 Fifth Avenue, and the
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...
is at the former
Condé Nast Building.
Programming
As of August 31, 2015, WNYE aired
adult album alternative
Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, ...
music by
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...
ing WFUV weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 am. On weekday late mornings and afternoons, the station airs news programming from
NPR and other public radio organizations. That includes the NPR news show ''
All Things Considered
''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
'', ''
Here and Now'' from
WBUR-FM
WBUR-FM (90.9 FM) is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Boston University. Its programming is also known as WBUR News. The station is the largest of three NPR member stations in Boston, along with WGBH and W ...
in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
and ''
1A'', a news and interview program from
WAMU in Washington, D.C. Late nights, music programs are heard including the ''
World Cafe'' from
WXPN
WXPN (88.5 FM) is a non-commercial, public radio station licensed to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that broadcasts an adult album alternative (AAA) radio format, along with many other format sh ...
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, ''
Afropop Worldwide
''Afropop Worldwide'' is a radio program that presents the musics of Africa and the African diaspora. The program is produced by Sean Barlow for World Music Productions in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. It is hosted by the veteran Cameroo ...
'' from
Public Radio Exchange
The Public Radio Exchange (PRX) is a non-profit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs. The organization is the largest on-demand catalogue of public radio programs available for broadcast and internet ...
and ''
Echoes'' which specializes in ambient and electronic music. Evenings and weekends are devoted to ethnic programming for the Greek, Irish, Croatian, Haitian, Slavic and Brazilian communities.
Because its funding comes from the City of New York, WNYE is different from most non-commercial radio stations in that it does not ask for listener donations and it airs no fund drives.
History
Establishment as AM Apex station WCNY
Organized radio broadcasting was introduced in the United States in the early 1920s, and by the mid-1930s the standard AM broadcast band was considered to be too full to allow any meaningful increase in the number of stations. Looking to expand the number of available frequencies, the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) began to issue licenses to parties interested in testing the suitability of using higher transmitting frequencies between roughly 25 and 44
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...
. These stations were informally known as
"Apex" stations, due to the tall height of their transmitter antennas, which were needed because coverage was primarily limited to local line-of-sight distances. These original Apex stations operated under experimental licenses, and like standard broadcasting stations used
amplitude modulation
Amplitude modulation (AM) is a signal modulation technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting messages with a radio wave. In amplitude modulation, the instantaneous amplitude of the wave is varied in proportion t ...
(AM) transmissions.
After monitoring the first group of Apex stations assignments, the FCC realized that, due to the strengthening of the ionosphere during periods of high solar activity, at times the lower end of the
VHF frequencies would produce strong, and undesirable, skywave signals that were heard as far way as Australia. This determination led to the FCC moving the developing broadcasting service stations to higher frequencies that were less affected by solar influences. In October 1937, the FCC announced a sweeping allocation of frequency assignments that included a band for Apex stations, consisting of 75 channels with 40 kHz separations, and spanning from 41.02 to 43.98 MHz.
["Upper Bands Set Aside for Television"](_blank)
''Broadcasting'', November 1, 1937, pages 60-61. In addition, in January 1938 the band's first 25 channels, from 41.02 to 41.98 MHz, were reserved for non-commercial educational stations. (Although there had been stations operated by educational institutions on the standard AM band since the early 1920s, at this time there was not a separate license classification for them.)
WCNY began broadcasting as an AM Apex station on 41.10 MHz in November
1938
Events
January
* January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS).
* January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...
, licensed to the Board of Education, City of New York, giving WNYE an earlier starting date than any other FM station in New York City. It was the second educational Apex station, preceded only by WBOE (now
WCLV) in Cleveland, Ohio. The station's original studios and transmitter were located at the
Brooklyn Technical High School
Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is a public specialized high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is on ...
, and it served as a laboratory for developing programming for the city's public school system, and was known as the High School of the Air. Later its broadcasts were expanded to include adult learning, community-interest and ethnic programming.
On October 25, 1939, the station's call letters were changed to WNYE, because the original
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...
was considered to be too similar to
WNYC
WNYC is an audio service brand, under the control of New York Public Radio, a non-profit organization. Radio and other audio programming is primarily provided by a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations: WNYC (AM) and WNYC- ...
, the New York City-owned municipal station.
Conversion to FM
At the time the Apex band was established the FCC noted that "The Commission at an early date will consider carefully the needs and requirements for high-frequency broadcast stations using both conventional
Mmodulation and frequency modulation".
The commission's studies soon found significant advantages to FM transmissions over the Apex AM signals, with sound quality, and especially resistance to interference from static, including from lightning, found to be far superior for FM. In May 1940, the FCC decided to authorize an FM broadcast band, effective January 1, 1941, operating on 40 channels spanning 42–50 MHz, with the first five channels reserved for educational stations. This new assignment also resulted in the elimination of the Apex band, and the Apex stations were informed that they needed to either go silent or convert to FM. Prior to switching over to FM, WNYE received a series of special authorizations that permitted it to continue to use its Apex AM transmitter until June 29, 1941.
In 1942 WNYE made the conversion to
FM transmissions, now broadcasting at 42.1 MHz. Three years later the FCC announced that, due to interference concerns, it was reallocating the current FM "low band" frequencies to other services, and existing FM band stations would be relocated to 88-106 MHz (later expanded to 108 MHz). In July 1946 the FCC directed that FM stations currently operating on 42-44 MHz would have to move to new frequencies by the end of the year, and WNYE's assignment was changed to 44.9 MHz, although it was also reported that instead of making this short-term adjustment the station planned to stay silent until it was ready to begin operations on the new FM band, where it was initially assigned to 91.7 MHz. A subsequent reallocation in the fall of 1947 moved WNYE to its current frequency of 91.5 MHz.
In April 1967, the Board of Education added a television station,
WNYE-TV
WNYE-TV (channel 25) is a non-commercial independent television station in New York City. It is operated by NYC Media, a division of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, alongside public radio station WNYE (91.5 FM). The two stations ...
(channel 25), also broadcasting classroom instruction programs and other educational shows.
In the mid-1990s, WNYE's studios were moved to nearby
George Westinghouse High School in
Downtown Brooklyn
Downtown Brooklyn is the third-largest central business district in New York City (after Midtown Manhattan, Midtown and Lower Manhattan), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. The neighb ...
.
In December 2004, the Department of Education transferred the WNYE-FM-TV licenses to the
. This integrated WNYE-FM-TV's operations with those of the city-owned cable television services CUNY-TV and Crosswalks Television Network, to form
NYC Media. WNYE's format remained largely unchanged at that time, but in March 2007 the station was rebranded as "Radio New York, WNYE 91.5 FM". On February 11, 2008, station management announced a partnership with
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
station
KEXP-FM to produce a new format branded as "Radio Liberation", featuring
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...
music simulcast from KEXP. The format started on March 24, 2008, replacing a number of
NPR,
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
and
Public Radio International
Public Radio International (PRI) was an American public radio organization. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, PRI provided programming to over 850 public radio stations in the United States.
PRI was one of the main providers of programmi ...
shows.
In 2009 it launched its digital programming with a new transmitter located at the Condé Nast Building (4 Times Square). In the early 2010s, WNYE carried
New York Islanders
The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (N ...
hockey games, simulcast with
WRHU in
Hempstead, New York
The Town of Hempstead is the largest of the three towns in Nassau County (alongside North Hempstead and Oyster Bay) on Long Island, in New York, United States. The town's combined population was 793,409 at the 2020 census.
It occupies the s ...
. On June 1, 2011, KEXP was replaced with "The Alternate Side" from
Fordham University
Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...
's
WFUV. It featured indie rock and alternative rock programming. This ended on August 21, 2015.
"WFUV Dissolves The Alternate Side"
by Lance Venta, August 20, 2015 (radioinsight.com).
References
External links
*
*
* ( Guide to reading History Cards) (covering 1938-1981 as WCNY/WNYE)
"New York, New York: 1923-1924, 1937 to date"
''Public School Broadcasting to the Classroom'', by Carroll Atkinson, 1942, pages 11–18.
{{NPR New York
1938 establishments in New York City
Brooklyn Technical High School
NPR member stations
Radio stations established in 1938
NYE