Mayor Eric Adams is launching a new Sunday radio show where New Yorkers will get the chance to call-in and ask him direct questions, he announced Thursday.
The new show, coined “Hear from the Mayor,” will be broadcasted on WBLS 107.5 FM “semi-regularly” on Sundays, according to the mayor’s office. It will include the “news of the day”, interviews with special guests and a live call-in segment where New Yorkers can ask about issues “they care about.”
The radio spot marks Hizzoner’s latest bid to bypass the City Hall press corps and communicate directly with the people he governs.
“Every day, we are ‘Getting Stuff Done’ for working class New Yorkers, but so many working class New Yorkers are also doing so many wonderful things to move our city forward; this program will highlight all that and more as we hear directly from New Yorkers,” the mayor said in a statement. “Tune in or give me a call, and hear directly from your mayor on what we are doing to build a better New York City.”
The first episode will hit the airwaves this Sunday, July 23, at 10:30 a.m. Listeners can call into the show by dialing 212-545-1075.
The radio show follows Adams starting his own email newsletter, “Hear From Eric,” and podcast, “Get Stuff Done-Cast” earlier this year.
The mayor’s newsletter contains links to press releases and news articles documenting his recent announcements of new programs and initiatives. His podcast features interviews with a variety of guests such as administration officials, nonprofit leaders and small business owners.
Up until now, Adams has not opted to take questions directly from his constituents in a live-radio forum. That stood in sharp contrast to his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, who had a weekly segment on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, where New Yorkers could hold his feet to the fire.
The announcement comes after Adams has gone on many screeds as of late about how he feels he’s been treated unfairly by the news outlets who cover him every day. In an interview with NY1 that aired last week, Adams complained that no matter how many purported successes his administration has, the press only wants to report negative stories about him.
“Let’s really talk about the success, the great comeback of this city,” Adams said in the interview. “And some people, no matter how much we’re coming back, they’re not accurately reporting that … This is a city that has an amazing recovery story and that’s not being reflected?”
Veteran political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said he thinks Adams is going on the radio to reverse recent poor poll numbers he’s garnered amid the ongoing migrant and housing crises affecting the city, as he gears up for reelection in 2025.
“[It’s] because his numbers are lousy, because he’s two years away from reelection, because he’s concerned about the future, and he feels that the press is constraining his capacity to communicate with the public,” he said.
Sheinkopf said he doesn’t believe Adams’ gambits to speak directly to New Yorkers are working because as the mayor, Adams will ultimately get blamed for any noticeable problems in the city.
“New Yorkers, really, they empower the mayor significantly in their minds,” Sheinkopf said. “He is the figure that turns the lights on in the morning when they wake up and turns them off at night when they go to sleep. That being said, if crime is up, if homeless people are in the street, if there’s a migrant issue, [they] don’t blame the City Council. They blame the mayor.”
Read more: Mayor Adams Pushes Back on Media Criticism in NY1 Interview
