Fiktiv USA - WQXR 96.3

WQXR-FM (96.3 FM) is an American classical radio station licensed to New York City, and serves the New York metropolitan area. WQXR is owned by The New York Times Company and its transmitter is located at the Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan. On the air since 1939, WQXR-FM is one of the oldest continuously operating FM stations in the world.

WQXR-FM is the outgrowth of a "high-fidelity" AM station, WQXR (1560 AM), which was founded in 1936 by John V. L. Hogan and Elliott Sanger. Hogan began this station as a mechanical television station, W2XR, which went on the air on March 26, 1929.

The radio station 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. In 1941, the station began transmitting from the top of the Chanin Building, where it remained until 1965 when it moved to the top of the Empire State Building. Remnants of the original tower remain on the Chanin Building.

When the Federal Communications Commission began licensing commercial FM stations, W2XQR moved to 45.9 MHz and became W59NY; the special FM call signs 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. When the FM broadcast band was moved from 42–50 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 its frequency for the next 64 years, 96.3 MHz.

WQXR was the first AM station in New York to experiment with broadcasting in stereo, beginning in 1952. During some of its live concerts, it used two microphones positioned six feet apart. The microphone on the right led to its AM feed, and the one on the left to its 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 on several stations in Upstate New York, including ones targeting Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany. This ended when the RRN stations were sold to Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. Both the AM and FM sides continued to simulcast each other until 1965, when the FCC began requiring commonly owned AM and FM stations in large markets to broadcast separate programming for at least part of the day. WQXR-FM concentrated on longer classical works, while WQXR (AM) aired lighter classical music and talk programs produced in conjunction with The New York Times. While this plan gave classical music fans two options, it also increased expenses for the stations.

In 1962, the QXR network was purchased by Novo Industrial Corporation but WQXR remained under the New York Times Company ownership.

After briefly attempting to sell the WQXR stations in 1971, The New York Times was able to get a waiver of the simulcasting rules. The stations continued to duplicate each other until 1992, when the AM side changed its programming from classical to popular standards, becoming WQEW (now WFME). In 1998, the Times entered into a long-term lease for WQEW with ABC, a move which brought Radio Disney to New York City. The Times Company also included a purchase clause in the lease contract, and ABC exercised the option in 2007. This left WQXR-FM as the Times′s lone radio station and, following a sale of its group of television stations to the Local TV LLC company that same year, the Times Company's sole remaining broadcasting property.

WQXR also operates two translator stations – 103.7 in Highland, New York and 96.7 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. On July 29, 2013, WQXR began broadcasting on the former WDFH, now WQXW (90.3 FM) in Ossining, New York, covering northern and central Westchester County. Worldwide, WQXR-FM's standard programming is streamed on its webcast.

WQXR broadcasts in the HD Radio format. The WQXR-HD2 subchannel carries Q2, which focuses on classical works by living composers. Q2's daily playlist is called Living Music, Living Composers. WQXR-HD3 airs a opera music format branded as Operavore, which was launched in 2012.

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. However, when compared to music programming from WQXR's early days (1940s and 1950s) the change in music is not as pronounced as might be expected. WQXR does however play a fair amount of 20th century classical works. It also continues to play long pieces during special broadcasts, and during evening hours (7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.) and also broadcasts a complete opera at least once a week. Most notably, it is the headquarters for broadcasting the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts each Saturday afternoon during its season, from December to April. Their weekday morning block, "The Office Hour," starting at 10:00 a.m., is introduced with a segment from Leroy Anderson's song, The Typewriter.

In addition to music, WQXR provides five minutes of news each hour, uninterrupted by commercials. During the weekday morning hours, a shorter newscast is presented at the bottom of the hour. There are also extended newscasts broadcast every day at 8:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. The newscasts are prepared by The New York Times newsroom, which in turn subscribes to major international wire services and also maintains its own correspondents around the world. Financial updates and business reports are featured throughout the day on weekdays, figuring that financial news is of prime importance to its listeners.

WQXR relies on New York Times contributors for a number of short-form features, such as "The Front Page of Tomorrow's New York Times" broadcast Monday to Saturday following the 9:00 p.m. news, a weekly fifteen minute book feature prepared in conjunction with the New York Times Book Review editors, a weekly review of Dance, and weekday reports on Theatre, Dining, and Wine. The New York Times' White House correspondent also has frequent reports which are aired during Bright and Early, WQXR's morning show.

WQXR also broadcasts some religious services, including a live half-hour Shabbat service from Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York every Friday at 5:30 p.m., a weekly Lutheran service from the previous week on Sunday morning, as well as Sunday morning services, alternately, from two Unitarian churches, the Community Church and All Souls Church (New York).