Brief History

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. The FM station 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.  The sale of WQXR-FM to WNYC was approved by the FCC on September 8, 2009 in a multipart deal including Univision, which closed on October 8, 2009. To learn more about WQXR through the ages, see our Visual History Slideshow.

Hosts

The "new" WQXR will sound largely familiar to longtime WQXR listeners, with a commitment to the "best of the best" of the classical core, hosted by Jeff Spurgeon in the morning, Midge Woolsey in the afternoons and Elliott Forrest during the weekend "brunch" hour.  WNYC's David Garland and Terrance McKnight, currently heard in the evenings on WNYC, will host classical music in the evenings on WQXR.  Naomi Lewin, the new afternoon host, joins WQXR from WGUC, Cincinnati's Classical Public Radio. Lewin has also produced Met Cameos for the Metropolitan Opera's international radio broadcasts. To learn more about all of our hosts, see our Hosts page.

Programs

Listeners of Classical WQXR 105.9, as the station will now be known, will continue to hear many of their favorite shows at the same times as in the past, such as 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; they will also hear more programming from the city's cultural organizations such as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.  Exploring Music, hosted by Bill McLaughlin, will now be heard at 11 PM and its production will migrate to WNYC's studios in Hudson Square. To download the complete WQXR schedule, click here.

Q2

At the same time that Classical WQXR 105.9 was launched, a new radio stream called “Q2” debuted. This new online radio station features "500 Years of New Music" and is programmed by WNYC’s Executive Producer for Music, Limor Tomer. With a more contemporary focus than WQXR, it 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 weekly two-hour version of Q2 airs on WQXR on Saturday nights at 10 PM, hosted by Terrance McKnight. To learn more about Q2, see our Q2 page or check out the Q2 blog.

Reception

WQXR can be heard 24/7 at 105.9 FM. To learn more about listening to the station through a radio, computer, or mobile device, see Audio Help.

WQXR.org

To learn more about signing up, logging in, sharing, or liking things on our site, or why you'd want to do any of that, visit the Join Our Website Community page.

RSS Feeds

To learn about RSS Feeds on WQXR.org, see our RSS Feeds page.

Streaming

To learn more about listening to WQXR and Q2 streaming online, see our Audio Help page.

Privacy Policy

WQXR is committed to protecting the privacy preferences of its listeners through the internet, email, and on the phone. To learn more, visit our Privacy Policy.

Board of Trustees

To learn about the WNYC Board of Trustees, visit our Board page.

Careers

To learn more about careers at WQXR, visit our Careers page.

Contact Us

To communicate with listener services, see our Contact WQXR page. To learn more about how you can show your support for WQXR, see our Support page.