LaGuardia's Weekly Talk to the People; Part 1 : [1944-11-26]
Description:
Mayor LaGuardia is speaking this week from Chicago, where he is a delegate representing the United States at the International Civil Aviation Conference. The Mayor discusses cleaning up tenement housing, wartime food and gas shortages, the perils of gambling, and job training for disabled veterans, among other topics. "New York's municipal station, WNYC, has inaugurated a program which has since become known and familiar to the entire country. Indeed, so popular has it been that it is now rebroadcast weekly over a radio station in Buffalo, WBNY. This program is of course, the 'Weekly Talk to the People' by his Honor Mayor F. H. LaGuardia. "Mayor LaGuardia's Sunday reports to the citizens of New York City cover civic affairs, war developments, consumer information, and the multi topics that affect not only the lives of the City's seven and one-half millions but those of almost an additional four million more persons living just outside the metropolitan area. Informally discussing all aspects of the war and its relation to each individual New Yorker, the Mayor weekly reaches an audience unequaled by any other program on the air at that hour. (Pulse of New York survey gave his broadcast a 6.4 rating as against 2.1 for the next nearest program). The Mayor in his broadcast covers a multitude of problems and exigencies that arise in a tremendous city like New York. He is constantly seeking to improve the welfare of the community and feels that the most direct contact with the people he serves is through the medium of radio. "Thus he is able every Sunday to inform listening housewives of the Markets Department reports on probable best food buys during the coming week, warn violators of OPA, WPB, and other war agency regulations to get into line, report on housing conditions, and keep a constant protection maintained for the average citizen. For example, in the one broadcast of November 26, 1994, transcription of which is enclosed, the Mayor covered all these phases of City Administrations: Department of Markets New Method of Enforcement, Gasoline, Food, Sugar, Meat, Butter and Oleo, Veterans Rehabilitation, Superintendent's Racket, Low-Cost Housing Program, Smoking in Public Places, Water Conservation Necessary, and Children's Underwear."--1944 Peabody Awards entry form.
