WQXR-FM

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WQXR-FM is an FM radio station licensed to New York City. It broadcasts on 96.3 MHz 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 (as of Spring 2004). WQXR-FM has two translators, both independently owned: W279AJ in Highland, New York on 103.7 MHz, and W244AS in Oakhurst, New Jersey on 96.7. On the air since 1939, WQXR-FM is also one of the oldest continuously-operating FM stations in the world.

History

WQXR-FM is the outgrowth of a "high-fidelity" AM station, also called WQXR, which was founded in 1936 by John V. L. Hogan and Elliott Sanger. 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 both stations today. When the FM band was moved from 42–48 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.

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. WQXR does however play a fair amount of 20th century classical works.

In addition to music, WQXR also broadcasts some religious services, including a live half-hour Shabbat service from Temple Emanu-El every Friday at 5:30 p.m., a weekly Presbyterian service from the previous week on Sunday morning, and less frequent services from Unitarian and Ethical Culture churches.

References

• Sanger, Elliot (1973). Rebel in Radio: The Story of WQXR. Hastings House. ISBN 0803863298, paperback ISBN 0811500160

External links

• [WQXR.com]
• [Query the FCC's FM station database for WQXR-FM]
• [Query the FCC's FM station database for W279AJ]
• [Query the FCC's FM station database for W244AS]
• [Press Release: WQXR Celebrates Three Notable Anniversaries in 2004]
• [New York Daily News: Big Town Songbook: WQXR and how it got that way]

 

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