WQXR goes public
It was official a few seconds after 8pm, last night.
WQXR, New York City premiere classical music radio station was transferred to its new owners WNYC and began broadcasting as a public radio station on a new frequency.
As part of a complicated financial deal, Univision gave ultimate buyer WNYC a lot of money to complete the transaction. WQXR would then switch dial position with Univision’s WCCA. Actually, not only dial position but WCCA would then own a more desirable class of FCC broadcast license.
So, last night, WCCA switched to WQXR’s highly desirable 96.3 MHz and WQXR bounced to WCAA’s less desirable 105.9 MHz.
WCAA (which once was known as WHBI) now calls themselves “X96 Mix” and plays what they term “Spanish Tropical” music.
WQXR now announces that they’re “WQXR, Newark and New York.”
For the record, WQXR’s seller was The New York Times. If they hadn’t sold their radio station their daily newspaper would probably have to sell for $10 a day in the near future.
If you don’t know the history, WQXR has been around for long, long time. According to the new WQXR Website:
The nation’s first commercial classical radio station began in 1936 when W2XR owner and founder John Hogan joined with advertising executive Elliott Sanger to create the Interstate Broadcasting Company. The company’s chief asset was W2XR. In December 1936, W2XR’s call letters were changed to WQXR. It was a 50,000 watt, AM radio station operating at 1560 KHz.
WQXR-FM signed on in 1939 and both were sold to The New York Times Company in 1944.
The Times Company completed the sale of the AM station to Radio Disney in 2007.
Now, that station’s call letters are WQEW.
I still miss the ability to hear classical music on the AM band. Actually, I miss the ability to hear any music on the AM band. Especially now with the modern advantage of better sounding AM HD radio broadcasts.
Speaking of HD radio, the new WQXR now broadcasts in HD – something the NY Times refused to do when they owned it. In my northern Manhattan outpost the new WQXR sounds fantastic. Even though the new frequency’s reception map says WQXR’s broadcast signal won’t reach as far as the old station did reception is much more stable in my location.
In addition, just like new owners WNYC’s other radio stations, there is more than one HD broadcast “stream” available on the frequency.
That means there are now two new WQXRs to listen to: WQXR 105.9 and something called Q2 described as an “eclectic 24/7 online music stream that celebrates 500 years of new music and provides a companion for the musically curious.” I have no idea what that means.
If you don’t have an HD radio yet you can listen to both new WQXRs and both WNYCs via audio streams on the WQXR Website.
The next move for WQXR would probably be not up but off the dial. Future generations of New Yorkers need to be able to listen to WQXR. I hope you listen to the new station(s) and support them.
My God, can’t WQXR get corporate sponsorship or a government bailout?