New York Times to sell NYC radio station

The New York Times Co said it will sell its New York City classical music radio station WQXR for $45 million, in a two-part sale that will help the struggling newspaper publisher pay off debt. The station will continue to broadcast classical music, something it has done for 73 years, but at 105.9 on the FM radio dial instead of 96.3 FM. Under the terms of the deal, Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Radio will pay $33.5 million for the 96.3 slot on the FM radio dial that the Times uses to broadcast WQXR. The Times in turn will get the broadcast license for 105.9 FM, the slot that Univision currently owns. It plans to sell the license, its transmitting equipment and the WQXR call letters to WNYC Radio for $11.5 million. The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year. The Federal Communications Commission, which supervises broadcast licenses, must approve the sales.