With a corona-excited supersonic expansion technique using a pinhole-type glass nozzle, the jet-cooled o-cyanobenzyl radical was generated from o-tolunitrile seeded in a large amount of inert carrier gas He. The vibronically resolved visible emission spectra of the o-cyanobenzyl radical in the D-1 -> D-0 transition were recorded for the first time with a Fourier transform spectrometer equipped with a visible beam splitter. The electronic transition and a few vibrational modes in the ground electronic state were identified from the analysis of the spectra observed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.