New York, NY —
On Thursday, October 8 at 8:00 pm, WQXR – New York City's classical music station – celebrated its move to 105.9FM on the radio dial with a live broadcast from Carnegie Hall. By buying WQXR from The New York Times, WNYC is preserving classical music on New York City's airwaves as a listener-supported public radio station. You hear more music with fewer interruptions, and thoughtfully curated programming rooted in New York City's cultural life.
If you’re a longtime listener to WQXR, the new WQXR sounds familiar to you. We still feature the best of the best of the classical repertory, hosted by Jeff Spurgeon in the morning, Midge Woolsey in the afternoons and Elliott Forrest during the weekend brunch hour. David Garland and Terrance McKnight, formerly heard on WNYC in the evenings, now hosts evening classical music programs on WQXR. Naomi Lewin, the new afternoon host, joins WQXR from WGUC, Cincinnati's classical public radio station. Lewin has also produced Met Cameos for the Metropolitan Opera's international radio broadcasts.
Classical WQXR 105.9, as the station will now be known, broadcasts many of your favorite shows at the same hour as before, including the Metropolitan Opera Radio Saturday Matinee Broadcasts, The Philharmonic This Week on Thursday evenings, McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase on Wednesday evenings, and Symphony Hall each weeknight. You also hear more programming from the city's notable cultural institutions, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Exploring Music, hosted by Bill McLaughlin, is now broadcast at 11 pm, and its production migrates to WNYC's studios in Hudson Square.
We also launched a new radio stream called Q2 simultaneously with Classical WQXR 105.9; you can find it at www.wqxr.org. This new online radio station features 500 Years of New Music, programmed by WNYC’s Executive Producer for Music, Limor Tomer. With a more contemporary focus than WQXR, Q2 features large-scale festival programming as well as live concerts from venues around New York, including WNYC's new performance studio, The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. A two-hour version of Q2 airs on WQXR every Saturday night at 10 pm, hosted by Terrance McKnight.
The first music you heard when you tuned in to WQXR 105.9 FM at 8 pm on October 8 was a concert by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, broadcast live from Carnegie Hall, featuring music of Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Bach and a world premiere by Aaron Jay Kernis. David Garland and Midge Woolsey were the hosts.
To learn more about the acquisition, please click here.
For help tuning into Classical WQXR 105.9, please click here.
For program schedules for WNYC 93.9FM and AM 820 effective October 9th, please click here.
For a program schedule for Classical WQXR 105.9 effective October 9th, please click here.
For the Listener Services Forum (archives of frequently asked questions, initial listener comments, responses to listener feedback, and detailed technical information), please click here.