Great Voices of WQXR-FM (NYC classical): Spurgeon & Bergen on last day as commercial station 8Oct09 скачать в хорошем качестве

Great Voices of WQXR-FM (NYC classical): Spurgeon & Bergen on last day as commercial station 8Oct09

This is the 6th in my series of recordings of great WQXR-FM announcers from the 1960s to the present, emphasizing men and women who were heard during the years in which the station was a commercial one owned by The New York Times. On the evening of October 8, 2009, WQXR-FM, pursuant to its July 2009 sale by longtime owner New York Times Co. (the Times had purchased the station in 1944) to New York Public Radio (operator of WNYC AM & FM), switched from being a commercial broadcaster to becoming a public non-for-profit one, and moved to a new FM frequency, from 96.3 to 105.9. But NYPR retained the WQXR classical music format and kept on some of the station's longtime on-air staff -- among them morning drive host Jeff Spurgeon and midday host Annie Bergen (though her shift assignment was changed (?)). At this writing (2024), both of these very talented broadcasters are still on-air mainstays at the station. In this excerpt from a live recording that I made on that final morning of the station's commercial broadcasting (as "The Radio Station of the New York Times"), Mr. Spurgeon heads towards his daily 10 am sign-off, closing with moving comments about the transition from New York Times ownership. He's followed by the top-of-the hour news. However, the news was no longer an in-house news production (which had been voiced in recent decades by Sam Hall and then Steve Powers and drew on the resources of The New York Times) but is instead provided by Bloomberg News -- further proof that change was in the air! The news is followed by host Annie Bergen opening her shift, with her daily "The Office Hour." She too makes reference to the impending change. Note: At the 4:30 mark, there's also a pre-recorded station ID voiced by Lloyd Moss (who had retired 3 years earlier), perhaps newly recorded and aired only for this special moment (his voice sounds weak). (Note: I deleted the 2-minute commercial break that occurred during the news.) Ms. Bergen had joined commercial WQXR as a staff announcer in 2004 (after working as an announcer at the former WNCN FM commercial classical station in NYC) and Mr. Spurgeon had joined in 1996. Their biographies, along with audio of some of their great on-air work, are posted at the station's excellent website, WQXR.org.