The first WQXR-FM in turn traced its history to an earlier New York City station, WQXR, which broadcast on the AM band.

[4] On July 29, 2013, programming began to be simulcast on the former WDFH, now WQXW, 90.3 FM in Ossining, New York, covering northern and central Westchester County.

Additional programming includes New Sounds Radio, focusing on classical works by living composers, which is both streamed and broadcast over WQXR-FM's HD2 subchannel.

In 1936 it was converted into a standard AM broadcast station at 1560 kHz, licensed to New York City with the call letters WQXR.

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.

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.

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

In 1998, the Times entered into a long-term lease for WQEW with ABC, a move which brought Radio Disney to New York City.

On September 19, 1961, following competitive hearings, an Initial Decision was issued recommending approval of an application from the Cosmopolitan Broadcasting Company for a new station, located in Newark, New Jersey on 105.9 MHz.

[17] In 1972, WHBI's 1969 application for license renewal was designated for an FCC hearing, to determine whether the owners were qualified to remain as licensees.

This recommendation was formally adopted on May 19, 1976, after finding that "Cosmopolitan had operated its broadcast facility so as virtually to relinquish all interest and control over the station's programming", and "As a result of its abdication of licensee responsibility, numerous violations of Commission Rules occurred, including (but not limited to) the promotion of a lottery, false and misleading advertising, improper logging, failure to meet filing requirements, and inadequate record keeping".

[18] The FCC conducted hearings in order to award an Interim Operation authorization to run the station until a new permanent licensee was chosen.

[23] The first music played on 105.9 MHz was a live broadcast of Dumbarton Oaks of Igor Stravinsky performed by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

After the frequency swap, WQXR-FM transmissions continued to originate from the master antenna atop the Empire State Building.