Long Island Radio and Television Historical Society

01/18/2026

Today's meeting at the Sayville Public Library has been canceled due to snow.

12/31/2025

Our condolences to all who knew and worked with Paulette.

Long Island broadcast journalist and educator Paulette Brinka died Sunday in hospice after seven months of fighting gallbladder cancer, according to her friend of nearly 40 years, Susan Murphy.

Paulette is second from the left in the photograph below, taken during the PCLI Media Awards event celebrating Susan Murphy's induction into the LI Journalism Hall of Fame in 2015.

Among her career highlights; Paulette was a news-anchor and reporter for Long Island's heritage news and community service radio station WALK; Professional Women's Group Coordinator, Dress for Success Brookhaven; and served among the faculty of Suffolk Community College, St. Joseph's College, and Hofstra University.

Visitation is scheduled, tentatively, for Friday in Wading River with funeral services Saturday.

12/31/2025

Happy New Year! We hope you've had a great 2025 and are ready for a fantastic 2026. If you're an LIRTVHS member, this latest edition of our Distant Sparks magazine is in the mail to you as I type.

Not a member? You can join (or donate) online at https://lirtvhs.org/membership/

12/07/2025

We're conducting an inventory of our collection and wanted to share this piece of history. It's part of the LORAN (long range navigation) system. Developed in secret during World War 2, LORAN used receivers installed on moving craft to detect signals from fixed low frequency transmitters in fixed locations.

One of our founding members, Van Field, played a part in installing LORAN transmitters throughout the Pacific during the war.

04/26/2025

Happy ! We celebrate with this view of the Marconi station at Sagaponack. It was his first station on the island, eventually joined by Babylon and Sea Gate in Brooklyn.

03/14/2025

The US Navy took over complete control of the Telefunken station in West Sayville in 1917 shortly after our country's entry into World War I. These photos are from 1918. By all accounts, the Navy upgraded the operations of the station, adding new facilities and structures as needed.

The large building in the photos is the power house. What's more intriguing is the photo, taken from a roof of one of the buildings, looking down at the base of the main antenna. You can see a row of vintage cars parked behind it.

But if you squint and look into the distance to what is roughly northwest of the site, you can see the outlines of the Bourne Dairy Farm with its iconic windmill. This would have been taken a year before Bourne's death and the subsequent breakup of his estate in Oakdale.

Here's looking at you, Oakdale Historical Society

03/14/2025

We're saying goodbye to our Radio Tower podcast with some last looks.

Ironically, we had asked many guests if they had a favorite sign-off from their radio work. Here's our 2021 interview with Bernie Bernard who left us with:

"“Keep a smile on your face and your teeth in your mouth.”
(quoting Kevin Jeffries) "

Bernie Bernard got her start at CW Post on station WCWP. Drawn by progressive rock and the chance to interview members of the music industry, she went on to a career that included stints at WBAB and WNEW as disc jockey, music director, and sometime newscaster, followed by work at Voice of America an...

03/01/2025

If you're a current LIRTVHS member, this Distant Sparks is in the mail to you as we speak - with a bonus surprise!

Articles include a look at Hugo Gernsback magazine The Electrical Experimenter, the history of the car radio, and Ed Taylor's experience fixing radio equipment on the German/Czech border in the early 1960s.

Great stuff!

02/24/2025

WSNL - Channel 67! 1973-75! UHF only!

Do you remember? We're helping some friends at the Press Club of Long Island by researching the history of the station. Specifically, their Action News show under the direction of Gary Gunter.

If you have any info, we'd love to hear it. Memories of watching? Connections to the staff? Actually on the staff? Leave a comment or email us at [email protected].

Thanks.

02/23/2025

We’re thrilled to tell you about an awesome donation we just accepted from former member George Flanagan. George spent a lifetime researching all aspects of Long Island radio history- these photos are just the tip of the iceberg.

We look forward to sharing more with you all. Many thanks to George and the Flanagan family!

09/14/2024

Garage sale is in full swing! Come on down to 43 Sayville Blvd if you want to help support the Society.