How the Radio Program ‘New Sounds' Was Saved

New York Times

18-04-2025

Good morning. It's Friday. Today we'll find out how a program on the public radio station WNYC avoided cancellation thanks to donations from just over 1,000 listeners, one of whom gave $1.2 million. We'll also get details on how congestion pricing got a boost from a federal judge.
New York Public Radio, which has laid off about 50 employees in the last 18 months, says it has 'saved' a program that was facing cancellation after more than 40 years on its station WNYC.
WNYC has run a fund-raising campaign in the last few weeks that raised $1.5 million for the program, 'New Sounds,' which has a particularly influential hold on New York's new music universe. Of the roughly 1,000 listeners who contributed, one far outpaced the others, giving $1.2 million to keep 'New Sounds' going. The station said he had asked not to be named.
The fund-raising for 'New Sounds' came as New York Public Radio — whose holdings include WNYC and WQXR as well as the website Gothamist — said layoffs and other cost-cutting measures had closed a $12 billion budget gap. It announced one round of layoffs just as it was celebrating the 100th anniversary of WNYC with a broadcast from Central Park last September.
New York Public Radio says its payroll now numbers 257 people, down from just over 341 in 2023.
Marquee programs like 'The Brian Lehrer Show' and 'All of It With Alison Stewart' on WNYC were not affected, the station said. But a program called 'Notes from America' disappeared.
And in March the station stopped broadcasting 'New Standards,' a weekly program that featured what the station called 'the midcentury American songbook' and recordings of performers like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. WBGO, a public station in Newark that emphasizes jazz programming, has taken on 'New Standards' and has tentatively scheduled the first broadcast on WBGO for April 30 at 6 a.m.
LaFontaine Oliver, the president and chief executive of New York Public Radio, said that its recent past was 'the familiar story across the media landscape,' citing 'headwinds in particular that have affected noncommercial underwriting or sponsorship.'
New York Public Radios's efforts to find a firmer financial path come as the White House is pressing Congress to rescind more than $1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the government-backed company that supports NPR, PBS and local public stations.
Oliver said that New York Public Radio is less dependent on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting than many public radio stations. New York Public Radio gets roughly $3 million of its annual budget, or 3 to 4 percent, from the corporation, he said.
But cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting could affect programs produced by New York Public Radio that other stations pay to broadcast, including 'Radiolab,' 'The New Yorker Radio Hour' and 'On the Media.'
New York Public Radio was formed after WNYC was spun off by the city, which had owned and operated it since it signed on in 1924, under the Giuliani administration. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia had a weekly program on the station, and when a strike idled the city's newspapers, he famously read comic strips on the air. Then, in the 2000s, New York Public Radio expanded, acquiring WQXR in 2009 and Gothamist in 2018.
WNYC's audience had changed over the years, a point echoed by John Schaefer, the only host 'New Sounds' has had. 'Forty years ago,' he said, 'WNYC was almost totally music. We had the two news tent poles' — 'Morning Edition' and 'All Things Considered' from National Public Radio, with news local segments from WNYC reporters, in the morning and evening. 'In between was almost all music.'
Now, he said, the station still carries the two NPR programs and 'New Sounds,' but 'nothing else from 40 years ago is on the air' on WNYC.
'New Sounds' survived another near-death experience in 2019, when WNYC said it was ending the program. It relented after an outcry from listeners, including some who threatened to drop their WNYC memberships.
This time around, Oliver said, the fund-raising for 'New Sounds' was targeted so that listeners would not give money to 'New Sounds' that they might have given to the station's regular fund-raising campaigns. 'We did not even open this up to the grass-roots membership campaign until after we knew we had some significant funding coming in that could get us over the finish line,' he said.
The $1.5 million for 'New Sounds' will keep the program going for 'three years minimum,' he said. SAG-AFTRA, which represents unionized employees at WNYC, said it was 'thrilled that 'New Sounds' will continue, and thrilled that the longtime union member on the show will remain' on New York Public Radio.
Expect a mostly sunny day with a high temperature around 65 and some gusty winds. Clouds will roll in for the evening, with a dip to around 55.
Suspended for Good Friday.
The latest Metro news
Congestion pricing gets a boost from a judge
The federal judge who could decide the fate of congestion pricing rejected more arguments to kill the program.
The judge, Lewis Liman, issued a 98-page decision brushing away arguments by opponents of the program. He is also presiding over a related case involving the federal government and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that collects the tolls. My colleagues Stefanos Chen and Winnie Hu write that that case is shaping up as the most significant of the lawsuits that are pending, and Liman's decision in the opponents' case appears to be a boost for the M.T.A.
The opponents, including two coalitions of New York City residents, an influential teachers' union and a trucking association, contended that congestion pricing was improperly vetted and was unfair to drivers. The opponents also said that some communities could be burdened with more traffic as motorists found detours to avoid the tolls, which apply to drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th Street.
John McCarthy, the chief of policy and external relations at the M.T.A., said that the agency was pleased with the judge's ruling. The program underwent 'multiple years of study that produced a 4,000+ page environmental review and two re-evaluations' before the first tolls were collected on Jan. 5.
Sean Duffy, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, had set a March 21 deadline for the state to end congestion pricing. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who controls the M.T.A., countered that the toll cameras would stay on; Duffy extended the deadline until April 20. But he also said on social media that the toll program was 'unlawful' and that Hochul's 'open disrespect towards the federal government is unacceptable.'
But the federal government conceded in a legal filing that the toll could stay on for several more months as the case against the M.T.A. wends through the court.
Just lovely
Dear Diary:
Walking into a coffee shop on Second Avenue and 63rd Street, I was having trouble opening the heavy door. A woman behind me grabbed it and held it open.
'Thank you,' I said. 'Are you coming in or are you just lovely?'
'Both,' she said.
Eventually, we headed down Second Avenue together. She said she lived in Las Vegas now but loved New York. She said I looked like a New Yorker.
I said I was.
'Do you know someplace around here where I can get pound cake?' she asked.
I recommended a place three blocks away.
She frowned. I suggested a cafe that was closer.
'Oh forget it,' she said. 'My husband doesn't need it anyway.'
— Marion Barak
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you Monday. — J.B.
P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Stefano Montali and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [e-mail].
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