Radio: Laboring Voice

When Franklin Roosevelt died, the Patroon Broadcasting Co. in Albany, N.Y. asked the Federal Communications Commission if it might use the call letters WFDR. The FCC, deciding that the President's initials should not be identified with a commercial venture, said no. But last week in Manhattan, a nonprofit, FM station called WFDR went on the air.

The station is backed by the 400,000 members of the wealthy, politically potent International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, headed by New-Dealing David Dubinsky. Its purpose, in the words of Frederick Umhey, I.L.G.W.U.'s executive secretary and president of...

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