Elliott Maxwell Sanger was born to a Jewish family in Manhattan on March 2, 1897.[1] He graduated from Townsend Harris High School and then the Columbia University School of Journalism.[1] During World War I, he served as an ensign tasked with selling war bonds before accepting a job as a copywriter at an advertising agency and then as the director of advertising and sales at hosiery manufacturer J.R. Beaton Company.[1] In 1936, Sanger co-founded a small 250 watt radio station WQXR-FM (originally the Interstate Broadcasting Company) above a garage in Long Island City with John Vincent Lawless Hogan with whom he shared a love for classical music with the belief that high quality, high fidelity, live music would eventually attract advertisers.[1] As an early advocate of the clarity and high fidelity of FM broadcasting, WQXR became the first FM station in New York City and the first nationally to present a regularly scheduled FM program.[1] In order to maintain its semblance of decorum, the station prohibited "singing jingles and raucous sound effects."[1] In 1944, WQXR The New York Times bought the station.[1] Sanger served as executive vice president and general manager of WQXR from its founding until 1965 and chairman until 1967 when he retired.[1]
Sanger documented his story in the 1973 book, Rebel in Radio: The Story of WQXR, published by Hastings House.[1]