More Classical Music on the Radio for Westchester County

Over-the-air broadcasts of the classical music radio station WQXR are being restored for some Westchester County residents. The station’s parent company, New York Public Radio, on Monday bought the small Ossining radio station WDFH-FM, at 90.3.

Residents of the area lost access to the WQXR signal in 2009, when New York Public Radio bought the station from The New York Times Company and moved the programming to a weaker signal on the FM band.

Listeners could still hear WQXR online or through a mobile app, but they wanted it terrestrially, Laura R. Walker, the president and chief executive of New York Public Radio, said in a telephone interview. “People were really asking for it,” she said. “Unlike other media in the digital age, radio is not going away. It’s still very much heard in cars and at work, and it’s also free.”

New York Public Radio said it paid $400,000 for WDFH, with help from a $300,000 Ford Foundation grant. It will now be known as WQXW and will simulcast WQXR. In the fall the station’s signal will be strengthened to extend WQXW’s reach to new parts of Westchester County, including Katonah, home of Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. WQXR said it would expand its existing programming partnership with Caramoor.