NYC Radio: After 37-Years, WNYC Drops New Sounds

WNYC 93.9 FM told its staff this week that it would end “New Sounds,” a genre-defying radio program that has played an outsize role in the city’s new music scene for nearly four decades, reports The NYTimes.

The station said in an email sent to its staff on Thursday that it planned to close the program by the end of the year, along with most of its remaining music programming, as it shifts to more news and talk.

“This is a continuation of the momentum that began when we replaced daytime music on WNYC-FM with news/talk format programs in 2002,” the station said in the email to its staff.

“New Sounds,” which has been hosted since its beginning by John Schaefer, eked out a distinctive place on the dial with programming that was truly eclectic.

“What I set out to do was to give a home on the radio to music that was, I guess, homeless — that didn’t fit into any of the neatly defined categories back in the days of the record store,” Mr. Schaefer said. “I thought there were lots of people out there like me, who are just curious — and would like something if you just gave them the chance to hear it.”

The show’s disappearance comes as radio is changing dramatically, both nationally — where stations that play classical music and noncommercial genres are being eliminated in many markets — and locally, where public radio stations have been going through significant upheaval.