New York Times to Get $45 Million for Radio Station

New York Times Co. agreed to sell WQXR-FM, the New York classical-music radio station, for $45 million in a series of transactions with a division of Univision Communications Inc. and public broadcaster WNYC.

Univision will pay Times Co. $33.5 million to swap broadcasting licenses. Univision will shift its WCAA broadcast to 96.3 FM from 105.9 FM, which will become WQXR. Spanish-language WCAA will get 96.3 FM’s stronger signal, Times Co. said today in a statement. WNYC will pay Times Co. $11.5 million for 105.9 FM’s license and equipment and the WQXR call letters.

Times Co. has been selling assets, cutting jobs and slashing wages to cope with plunging advertising sales at its New York Times and Boston Globe newspapers. The publisher is also seeking a buyer for its minority stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team.

According to the station’s Web site, WQXR, founded in 1936, is the oldest U.S. classical radio station and has an audience of almost 800,000 weekly listeners. WNYC will continue to operate WQXR as a classical station, Times Co. said.

The transaction should close in the second half, Times Co. said. Catherine Mathis, a Times Co. spokeswoman, declined to say how much the company will save in operational expenses by selling the station.

Times Co. gained 5 cents, or 1 percent, to $5 at 2:38 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares had lost 32 percent this year before today.