CD 101.9 is Back on the Air in New York City

That's if you have an HD Radio...

Smooth jazz is back on the air in New York City at 101.9 FM. The station is a side channel on the new 101.9 New Rock. Merlin Media dropped its "all news" presentation earlier this month and switched to a new alternative rock format on its main FM signal. Now it has decided to drop the country format on its HD2 channel and return to the smooth jazz format of “CD 101.9” WQCD. During its best ratings period in the 80's and 90's the music was simply referred to as "cool" with a mix of contemporary jazz or cool jazz, soft rock, and new age music. The name "Smooth Jazz" wasn't associated with CD 101.9 until much later on in its existence.

The station was uniquely marketed when it came on the scene in 1987. They promoted themselves as a better quality sounding station because the music they played were from CD's (remember those) and not from analog black vinyl records that could skip. Many people tuned in not only for the music but because the digital music quality sounded better. And the rest was history as they say. Actually most music stations at the time played tapes from a cart machine and not records.

Now you can hear CD 101.9 again...IF only you had an HD Radio, but who has one of those?

Onkyo HD Radio Tuner - UP-HT1