Some announcers will remain. The Metropolitan Opera will still be heard on Saturdays. Religious programming will disappear. Don’t expect to hear much vocal music. Vivaldi? “Just about anything.”
WQXR, the only classical music station in New York, will have a new sound after Oct. 8, according to plans unveiled on Wednesday by WNYC, its new owner.
Chiefly, “there’s going to be a lot more music,” said Laura R. Walker, the president and chief executive officer of WNYC Radio. “That in and of itself is a huge thing.” She said the new WQXR, which is becoming a public radio station, would have about 4 minutes of underwriting announcements an hour. WQXR’s commercials now can reach 12 minutes an hour.
“We can program the music around the music, not just commercials,” Ms. Walker said.
Although WQXR will travel up the dial to 105.9 from 96.3 FM, WNYC officials were clear that much of its music would remain safe and on the traditional side in an effort not to alienate its longtime listeners. But the station hopes to attract new listeners more accustomed to the public radio sensibility and online listening.
Ms. Walker said she wanted to combine the best of both worlds. “It’s the longstanding tradition of being a 24/7 classical music station with WNYC’s curatorial point of view and passion and commitment to discovery,” she said.
Tradition, though, appears to top boat-rocking. A mission statement prepared by WQXR’s new programmers said, “There may indeed be times when the more radical and unfamiliar pieces work, but we will not favor them over the work that speaks directly to the needs of uplift, beauty and contemplation.”
“Greatness matters,” it added. “Bach trumps Telemann.”
Less familiar works, more modern music and pieces geared toward a younger audience will be presented on the station’s new Internet stream, called Q2. WNYC radio’s listenership is more than double that of its stream, the station said. “Radio definitely trumps Internet still,” Ms. Walker said.
Several WQXR hosts have been rehired, including Jeff Spurgeon, Midge Woolsey and Elliott Forrest, who will have daytime shows, along with a newcomer, Naomi Lewin from WGUC, Cincinnati’s classical public radio station. WNYC’s Terrance McKnight and his colleague David Garland will assume evening duties. Overnight music will continue to be canned, but now with recorded introductions by a host.
The station will continue to broadcast the Met, the New York Philharmonic and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, along with programs — some of them syndicated — including “The McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase,” “Performance Today,” “From the Top” and “Pipedreams.” The fates of “Reflections From the Keyboard” and the Metropolitan Museum of Art concert series are uncertain.
The station will phase out the broadcast of religious services by the end of the year because National Public Radio, of which WNYC is a member, forbids such programming.
Much of the music on WNYC, which has steadily become more of a talk station in recent years, will migrate to WQXR. Weekday evenings on WNYC’s FM station, 93.9, will now be almost all talk. Several music shows will remain, including “Soundcheck” and “New Sounds.” Music will still have a strong presence on WNYC on weekends.
WNYC took charge of WQXR after it was sold by The New York Times Company, a move that probably saved its classical format. The public radio station announced a $15 million fund-raising campaign to pay for the acquisition and operations. Ms. Walker said the station was about halfway there.
The goal for WQXR is to present “the greatest Western music performed by the greatest performers we can find,” said Christopher Bannon, program director for the sister stations.
The mission statement proclaims a philosophy of “the right music at the right time.”
“Monday morning, when you’re trying to get your kids to school, you won’t hear the large choral works,” said Limor Tomer, the executive producer for music.
The programmers also provided a sample list of “core composers” and the works that would most likely play on the radio versus the Internet. They stressed that the list was but a guideline.
Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Wagner were there. So were Copland, Janacek, Gershwin, Satie, Sibelius and the ever-popular Vivaldi. Mahler was missing.
Schubert symphonies were deemed radio-worthy but not the piano trios or songs, which were reserved for Q2. Radio received Ravel orchestra music but not solo piano works; Sibelius’s symphonies but not his tone poems; Janacek chamber works but not operas; Brahms symphonies but not choral works; Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos but not the late piano sonatas, songs or chamber works.
Vivaldi had sweeping approval. Except for “shorter sacred works.”
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