“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Cooper Union Forum...”
Thus began almost every one of the nearly 800 programs broadcast by WNYC from the Great Hall over the years 1949-1970.
Introduced in the stentorian tones of Cooper Union Forum Chairman Johnson E. Fairchild, Forum speakers included politicians, scientists, psychologists, activists, philosophers, and artists, and their range of subjects was as diverse as their livelihoods.
Listeners tuning into WNYC on a weekly basis might hear NAACP leader Walter White on “The Race Problem in the United States,” gynecologist Lena Levine on “Courtship and Marriage,” psychologist Timothy Leary on “Hallucinogenic Drugs, or How to Use Your Head,” or The Cooper Union’s own President Edwin S. Burdell on “Free Collegiate Education.”
There were also concerts and music performances simulcast from the Great Hall—everything from the WNYC Annual Folk Festival to the Brooklyn Philharmonic.
As WNYC celebrates their 100th year on the air, we remember the decades that Cooper was along for the ride, and wish them another century of superlative programming!
For more information on WNYC centennial events and happenings, visit wnyc.org/100
To listen to WNYC-broadcast programs from the Great Hall, visit greathallvoices.cooper.edu and search "WNYC"
0 Comments.