The donation was announced this morning by WNYC Chairman Nicki Tanner and President Laura Walker at the site of the station's new studios and offices at 160 Varick Street in Lower Manhattan. In recognition of the gift, the 2,300 square-foot broadcast/performance space on the ground floor of the new headquarters will be named the Jerome L. Greene Performance Center, after the late real estate lawyer and philanthropist.

The $6 million Greene gift is one of the leadership donations to the Campaign for New York Public Radio, a new capital fundraising drive also announced today by Tanner and Walker.

The Campaign aims to raise $57.5 million: $45 million to finance WNYC's move to its new location this fall and $12.5 million for a new programming fund.

The station has already passed the Campaign's halfway mark: $30,803,000 has been pledged from foundations, major donors and board members. In addition to the Greene Foundation grant, major donations have come from the Kaplen Foundation ($5 million), the Ford Foundation ($4 million) and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation ($1.5 million). The City of New York has contributed $10.1 million, through a partnership between the Mayor's office, the City Council, and Manhattan Borough President's Office.

Among the plans that WNYC will implement with the help of the Campaign's programming fund are: doubling the station's news staff over the next three years, increasing coverage of the arts and of New York City's varied communities, fully digitizing the new studios and broadcast signals, and the launch over the next several years of three new programs, one local and two national. Among those new programs is a national morning drive-time news show (announced last month) to be co-produced with Public Radio International and in collaboration with The New York Times, the BBC and WGBH Boston.