WNYC 93.9 FM AM 820 Brian Lehrer Show will remember the start of the pandemic by reading the names of New Yorkers who lost their lives to COVID. The tribute is set for March 16.
On the anniversary of the day NYC public schools first closed and of Brian’s first broadcast from home — the show will devote 90 uninterrupted minutes to 484 listeners who will read the names of 1,780 people in the listening area who have died from the virus.
The list was adapted from Missing Them, an open data journalism project to document New Yorkers who have died due to COVID-19 by The City newsroom and its partners from Columbia Journalism School, Boston College, the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY and volunteers.
As part of the remembrance WNYC’s 2020 Time Capsule, an oral history of New York’s pandemic journey as told through listener voices, will be placed next to WNYC’s antenna at the top of the Empire State Building on March 18.
“Individual stories of grief abound, but our city has endured a collective grief too, for neighbors who have died, businesses that have closed, and for the significant impacts on our cultural and economic landscape,” said Lehrer. “With the reading of the names we will remember those lives lost; and with the time capsule, we hope to provide an audio record of what we’ve been through, what we’ve learned, and our hopes and dreams for the future.”
Who would want to listen to this? Depressing. If your BIG idea is to just read a bunch of names, I mean, c’mon?! There are more creative ways to host a tribute.