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Tuesday, July 14, 2009
WNYC Buys WQXR from the NY Times: Preserving Classical Music on NYC Airwaves
WNYC buys WQXR. Here's the press release from WNYC:
Laura Walker, the President and CEO, and Herb Scannell, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of WNYC AM/FM, the nation’s largest public radio station, today announced the acquisition of WQXR and 105.9 FM from The New York Times, enabling New York City’s only dedicated classical music station to continue to serve New York City.
As part of the transaction, which was announced in a joint statement today by the three parties involved, Univision will pay the Times Company $33.5 million to exchange the FCC 105.9 FM broadcast license and transmitting equipment for the Times Company’s license, equipment, and signal at 96.3 FM. At the same time, WNYC will purchase the FCC broadcast license for 105.9 FM, all related transmitting equipment, and WQXR’s call letters and Web site from the Times Company for $11.5 million. Through the acquisition, WNYC will preserve WQXR’s 73 year classical music format, and move it to 105.9 FM.
WNYC has launched The Campaign to Preserve Classical Music Radio in New York City, a $15 million campaign co-chaired by renowned classical pianist Emanuel Ax, along with WNYC Board members Nicki Tanner and Martha Fleischman. The Campaign will assist with the purchase and ongoing operation of the station. The Jerome L. Greene Foundation, the Campaign’s lead donor, has agreed to a $5 million challenge grant, based on 1-to-1 pledges from other individuals, foundations and corporations. The Jerome L. Greene Foundation previously set a philanthropic record for the largest single gift to a public radio station of $6 million, which was recognized in the naming of The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space -- the station’s recently-opened street-level broadcast studio and performance venue. Additional contributions totaling close to $2 million have been pledged by members of the WNYC Board of Trustees including a generous commitment of $1 million toward the Foundation’s match offered by Bernard and Anne Spitzer.
“As one of the world’s leading and most dynamic musical cities, New York deserves its own dedicated classical music station,” said Laura Walker, President and Chief Executive Officer of WNYC. “For generations, WQXR has made classical music available free to millions, and has infused the concert hall experience into the daily lives of New Yorkers. We are delighted to continue this tradition and to extend WNYC’s own 85-year commitment to classical music and the arts. We look forward to building a powerful and vibrant classical music experience for millions of people on the radio, on the internet and in our new performance space. ”
“Seven years ago, I was one of the voices calling for WNYC to preserve as much classical music as possible on its air,” said Emanuel Ax. “Today, I am happy to stand with WNYC as it carries off the sonic equivalent of saving Carnegie Hall from the wrecker’s ball by preserving WQXR as our sole all-classical music station. I know that all of my colleagues will rejoice in this wonderful and meaningful use of the airwaves, and I urge all of New York to embrace and support WNYC’s leap of faith.”
“The Jerome L. Greene Foundation is proud to support WNYC’s bold undertaking to preserve WQXR as a world-class classical music station,” said Dawn Greene, Mr. Greene’s widow and the President and CEO of the Jerome L. Greene Foundation. “Our foundation believes in supporting organizations that make significant contributions to the cultural and educational life of our City, and WQXR is unmatched in its ability to make classical music accessible to so many New Yorkers. Ensuring its continuation for generations to come would delight my late husband, who was so dedicated to supporting so many cultural and educational programs that made great music possible.”
As a part of the WNYC family, WQXR will be transformed into a public radio station. In contrast to the current WQXR commercial model, with its total reliance on advertising, the public radio model provides for a mix of funding through contributions from members and other individual donors, private foundations, city, state and federal entities and grants, and corporate underwriting. This will allow WQXR to remain a key connector between arts and cultural organizations and their audiences.
WNYC intends to continue two of WQXR’s most listened to live programs – Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and The Philharmonic This Week – on WQXR.
WQXR will begin airing on 105.9 FM in October. It will operate out of WNYC’s new facilities on Varick Street in Hudson Square and the signal will continue to broadcast from the Empire State Building.
Zarin Mehta, President and Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic said, “This is great news for classical music lovers, as well as all those who support the arts and culture in the City. WQXR has always been more than a classical music station – it is a destination on the radio dial where you can hear about a variety of cultural events throughout the City. WNYC is already an established and vital presence in the cultural life of New York City and is the ideal steward for this cultural icon.”
July 14, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
What a thought-provoking article!!
I wonder if you were smiling, knowing that only someone who read it all the way through would spot the DATE of publication.... All I can say is that one thing IS very different this time - where the word "massacre" is, I have to admit, a little shrill and overblown, even though I think there IS some appropriateness in using it.
The WSJ piece REALLY dealt with a time when capacity constrained things - i.e., there ARE only 24 hours in the day, and all he talked about was WNYC-FM.
NOW, there are TWO stations on the FM dial. Again, we get into the question of whether there really is ANY future for FM broadcasting - really. Or is it like Vinyl? (Cult status, realistically!)
Let's say that 10-15% of the listeners would really prefer classical music. If you use what to me seems like the best metric - programming time accessible on FM to people likely to listen to WNYC - it looks to me like classical music is now dramatically underserved.
Which goes back to the LESS GOOD (on that we can agree, I'm sure) 105.9 frequency. Having said all that, I'll concede that other metrics would lead to other conclusions - probably including fund-raising.
AND - barring the kind of "reversal" that the WSJ article, properly, emphasizes - I guess a forward-looking WNYC pretty much had to make the call that it did. I'm only human! ... When the conclusion that logic demands varies from the conclusion that one's "heart" demands, there's a temptation to throw a tantrum. (I've harped on the fact that 96.3 is music-ready, while 105.9 really isn't, but logic demands that I acknowledge that WNYC simply could not and CANNOT "gray out" Long Island and other places in terms of its long suit, talk radio.)
Hope you don't come to view the last couple of years (in terms of classical music on WNYC) as a kind of "Cultural Revolution," a brief period of "flowering," followed by a return to "orthodoxy." ... Well, at least YOU are not likely to have a Tienamin-style final chapter.... Keep up the REALLY fine writing you do!
Posted by: Ed Rosten | Oct 13, 2009 7:47:05 AM
What is important is that the gains made in programming through the work of George Preston and Brad Cresswell which resulted in wnyc2 and then served to re-invigorate Evening Music, especially with the arrival of Terrance Mcknight, what is important is that regardless of the FM frequency, these gains not be lost. WQXR was a medocrity at best.
Posted by: Richard S Mitnick | Jul 15, 2009 2:19:23 PM
Who made an FM frequency in NYC valuable?
Who is rightly entitled to that value?
Did the NYT make 96.3FM valuable? Well, maybe ... for as long as the pushbuttons on car radios last.
Who made 105.9FM valuable? Whoever had it last?
Or was it we-the-people, by our presence and our buying power?
WHY ON EARTH SHOULD THAT VALUE BE PRIVATIZED?
Yes, many of us have a strong affection for WNYC, and if this is good for WNYC, we tend to be happy about it.
But the reality is that ... altogether now! ... the airwaves belong to the American people, and commercial and other ventures ought not to be permitted to privatize value that all of us have created.
Every entity which claims for its use some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum ought to be paying annual rent to we-the-people based on the value of what they claim. The payment ought to be high enough that licenses change hands for a nominal price, or a price based only on the equipment involved.
Spectrum is a natural resource. Secure title is important, but it ought not to be a source of enrichment to those who own it. USUFRUCT.
Posted by: LVTfan | Jul 14, 2009 9:09:17 PM
