WQXR-FM

WQXR-FM
Broadcast area	New York City
Frequency	96.3 MHz
First air date	November 26, 1939
Format	Classical
ERP	6,000 watts
HAAT	415 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	29022
Callsign meaning	a nod to the calls of 1929 experimental television station W2XR. The cursive version of Q mimicks the number 2.
Owner	The New York Times Company
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	http://www.wqxr.com/

WQXR-FM (96.3 FM) is a classical radio station based in New York City, licensed to The New York Times. It broadcasts from the top of the Empire State Building, and is the most listened-to classical music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000. On the air since 1939, WQXR-FM is also one of the oldest continuously operating FM stations in the world.

On July 14, 2009 it was announced that the 96.3 frequency has been sold to Univision Radio. As a result, Univision's WCAA will move to the 96.3 frequency while WQXR will move to 105.9 and be run by WNYC in a $45 million deal.[1]

Translators

History

See also: WQEW History

WQXR-FM is the outgrowth of a "high-fidelity" AM station, also called WQXR (now WQEW), which was founded in 1936 by John V. L. Hogan and Elliott Sanger. (Hogan began this station as the mechanical television station W2XR, which went on the air on March 26, 1929.)^[1] WQXR broadcast mainly classical music recordings. One of the station's listeners was the inventor of frequency modulation, Edwin Howard Armstrong. When Armstrong put his experimental FM station, W2XMN, on the air, he arranged to rebroadcast some of WQXR's programming. This ended in 1939, when Hogan and Sanger put their own experimental FM station on the air, W2XQR, just down the dial from Armstrong at 42.3 MHz.

When the Federal Communications Commission began licensing commercial FM stations, W2XQR moved to 45.9 MHz and became W59NY; the special FM callsigns were later dropped and the station became WQXQ. In 1944, Hogan and Sanger sold their holding company, Interstate Broadcasting Company, to The New York Times Company, which still owns the station today (the AM sister station, since re-called as WQEW was partly sold to ABC in the late 90's to broadcast Radio Disney, and was fully bought by ABC in 2007). When the FM band was moved from 42–50 MHz to its present frequency range of 88–108 MHz in 1945, WQXQ moved to 97.7 MHz. Within a few years, the station had adopted its current callsign, WQXR-FM, and frequency, 96.3 MHz.

An older logo of WQXR displaying both FM & AM frequencies.

WQXR was the first AM station in New York to experiment with broadcasting in stereo, beginning in 1952. During some of their live concerts, they used two microphones positioned six feet apart. The microphone on the right led to their AM feed, and the one on the left to their FM feed, so a listener could position two radios six feet apart, one tuned to 1560 and the other to 96.3, and listen in stereo.

During the 1950s, WQXR-FM's programming was also heard on the Rural Radio Network in Upstate New York; this ended when the RRN stations were sold to Pat Robertson's new Christian Broadcasting Network. In the late 1960s, the FCC began requiring commonly-owned AM and FM stations to broadcast separate programming for at least part of the day. After briefly putting the stations up for sale in 1971, the Times was able to get a waiver of this rule and the stations continued to simulcast until 1992, when the AM broke away to become WQEW.

Programming

As with most remaining classical music stations in the United States, WQXR's playlist has changed over the years to focus on shorter and more easily assimilated pieces and away from long pieces and most vocal music including opera. However, when compared to music programming from WQXR's early days (1940s and 1950s) the change in music is not as pronounced as might be expected. WQXR does however play a fair amount of 20th century classical works. It also continues to play long pieces during special broadcasts, and during evening hours (7PM to 6AM) and also broadcasts a complete opera at least once a week. Most notably, it is the headquarters for broadcasting the Metropolitan Opera each Saturday afternoon during its season, from December to April. Their weekday morning block, "The Office Hour," starting at 10 AM, is introduced with a segment from Leroy Anderson's song, The Typewriter.

In addition to music, WQXR has newscast and financial updates of various lengths, from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, which are prepared by Bloomberg Radio (WBBR-AM 1130 kHz New York City). WQXR dissolved its 2-person news department in late 2008. It had broadcast from the actual newsroom of the New York Times, about 2 miles from the WQXR facility.

WQXR relies on New York Times contributors for a number of short-form features, such as "The Front Page of Tomorrow's New York Times" broadcast six evenings at 9PM and prepared by NYT reporter James Barron, also a weekly fifteen minute book feature prepared in conjunction with the New York Times Book Review editors, a weekly review of Dance, and weekday reports on Theatre, Dining, and Wine. The New York Times' White House correspondent also has frequent reports which are aired during the Morning Show.

WQXR also broadcasts some religious services, including a live half-hour Shabbat service from Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York every Friday at 5:30 p.m., a weekly Lutheran service from the previous week on Sunday morning, as well as Sunday morning services, alternately, from two Unitarian churches, the Community Church and All Souls Church (New York).

The station also features a weekly program about piano entitled "Reflections from the Keyboard" which is hosted by David Dubal. Mr. Dubal had previously been Music Director at WNCN, WQXR's competitor in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Many of the current WQXR announcers, as well as its Program Director, were previously employed at WNCN.

Staff

Management

WQXR is managed by:^[2]

• General Manager – Thomas Bartunek
• Program Director – Margaret Mercer
• Content Director - Jeffrey Spurgeon

Announcers

The announcers of WQXR are:^[3]

• Candice Agree
• Annie Bergen
• Clayelle Dalferes
• Elliott Forrest
• Bill Jerome
• Jeff Spurgeon
• Midge Woolsey
• Nimet Habachy (Retired Apr 28, 2007)

References

• Jaker, Bill; Frank Sulek and Peter Kanze (1998). The Airwaves of New York: Illustrated Histories of 156 AM Stations in the Metropolitan Area, 1921–1996. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company. pp. 169–172. ISBN 0-7864-0343-8, LCC TK6548.U6J35. 
• Sanger, Elliot (1973). Rebel in Radio: The Story of WQXR. New York City: Hastings House. ISBN 0-2405-0845-9, LCC HE8698.S33 (paperback ISBN 0-8115-0016-0). 

External links

• WQXR official website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WQXR
• Radio Locator information on WQXR
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WQXR
• Press Release: WQXR Celebrates Three Notable Anniversaries in 2004
• Nimet Habachy, WQXR's New York at Night Host, Retires