WKTU

WNNJ and pre-move WPAT-FM (1948–1956)

The 103.5 frequency first went on the air in 1948 as WNNJ licensed to Paterson, New Jersey. It soon changed its call sign to WPAT-FM , simulcasting WPAT (AM). In 1950, WPAT-FM's Garrett Mountain transmitter was damaged by a tropical storm and due to FM’s small listenership in those early days, it was never rebuilt. WPAT-FM went back on the air in 1956 at 93.1 FM.

WGLI-FM/WTFM (1958–1982)

The WTFM logo from 1980–1982

The 103.5 frequency was assigned to Babylon, New York as WGLI-FM in 1958, simulcasting sister station WGLI 1290AM. William Reuman the founder and owner of WWRL in New York City was the owner of WGLI. In March 1960, Friendly Frost Inc. (a Long Island based appliance store chain) acquired WGLI Inc. from Mr. Reuman and his partners.^[1] In November 1961 Friendly Frost moved the station from Babylon to Lake Success and the call sign was changed to WTFM. WTFM transmitted with 20kW from a 200-foot stick outside the studio building visible from the Long Island Expressway.^[2] Eventually,the transmitter was relocated to the Chrysler Building, and a major signal boost was accomplished. As WTFM, the station used the slogan "The International Stereo Sound of New York," and played an instrumental-based easy listening format. Initially, it was strictly instrumental versions of pop standards. By 1969, the station began playing soft instrumental versions of rock and roll baby boomer pop songs as well as standards. By 1971, the station began playing soft vocalists once every 15 minutes including soft songs by rock artists and standards artists. They kept this format until the fall of 1978, when the old WKTU (on 92.3 FM) went from an adult contemporary format to a disco format. As an easy listening station, WTFM was up against similar stations: WRFM and WPAT AM & FM, that had higher ratings. As a result, in Autumn 1978 the station switched to a soft rock leaning adult contemporary format. Ultimately, ratings continued to remain low with the new format.

WAPP (1982–1986)

The WAPP apple logo from 1982–1986

In early 1982, Doubleday bought the station. In April of 1982, the station changed the call letters to WAPP but did npot change formats right away. But on June 14th, the station switched to an Album-oriented rock format similar to WPLJ and WNEW-FM down the dial. The station was renamed "The Apple 103.5", with those call letters WAPP;^[3] the format began with "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who.^[4] The station went commercial-free for the duration of that summer, and as a result, it became the highest-rated radio station in New York City. After the station added commercials, listeners switched back to WPLJ and WNEW-FM, and so ratings went down. In 1983, when WPLJ switched to a CHR format, the station's ratings got a slight boost.

In 1983, a then-unknown Jon Bon Jovi visited the station and wrote and sung the jingles for the station. He spoke with DJ Chip Hobart, who suggested Bon Jovi let WAPP include the song "Runaway" on the station's compilation album of local homegrown talent. Bon Jovi was reluctant, but eventually gave them the song, on which Bon Jovi had used studio musicians to play on "Runaway" (which was written in 1980). WAPP worked with WOR-TV (now WWOR-TV) in nearby Secaucus, NJ on a music video show, Rock 9 Videos, for a short time in 1984. As part of a marketing effort, WAPP-FM launched a contest called "New York Rocks 1983." Local music acts were encouraged to submit demo tapes to this competition. Among the tapes submitted to this contest was "Runaway", but didn't win the competition. Another act called the "Frankie Carr Band" won the honors. This competition was repeated in 1984.

As 1984 progressed, WAPP's ratings were on the upswing. However, the station's owners decided to change the station's format to CHR that fall in October abruptly. They felt that if co-owned stations in Washington, D.C. and Minnesota could do well with the format, then this station could as well. This would not be the case, as the station could not compete with WPLJ or Z-100, and their ratings fell. The station quietly segued back in a rock direction with a rock leaning CHR format in June of 1985. The station leaned current based rock while p;laying a limited amount of rhythmic cuts. Even that would not be able to turn the station's ratings around as FM 92.3, the original WKTU flipped to rock as K Rock.

WQHT (1986–1988)

In 1986, Emmis Broadcasting bought WAPP from Doubleday.^[5] On August 13, 1986, WAPP began stunting with a classic rock format as "Classic 103."

On August 15, 1986, at 6 p.m., The Rolling Stones' "It's All Over Now" and a bomb noise rang out, marking the end of WAPP. The station then flipped to a CHR/Dance format as "Hot 103" with new call letters WQHT. The first song on "Hot" was "R.S.V.P." by Five Star.^[6] No one in the radio industry expected it, but the new format that would be labeled "Rhythmic CHR" was taking shape. WQHT was the second such station with the format, months after Emmis launched it on KPWR in Los Angeles earlier that year.

WQHT's first Program Director was Joel Salkowitz. Steve Ellis, formerly of WAPP, was Music Director. Don Kelly was the consultant for both WQHT and KPWR in those early months.

WQHT played a different variety of music than what was on the New York radio dial at that time. There was no CHR/Dance station in the market since WKTU left the air a year earlier. WQHT came on the air with a new and improved dance-oriented format, which radio trade magazines of the day called a hybrid format. The station mixed in Top 40 hits with Dance and Club music of the day. The station was also known for playing "hotmixes" or extended versions of certain songs. The "hotmixes" were either just the extended versions available commercially on 12" singles, or mixes that were created by local club DJs, such as "Little" Louie Vega. They also aired regular versions of the songs that had longer intros than that of their competitors. Noel used WQHT's version of his single "Silent Morning" for the song's music video, as evidenced in the video's credits. With the debut of WQHT, some record labels such as Atco and Elektra reportedly started to see a spike in 12" single sales in the New York Metro, as was reported by Billboard Magazine.

WQHT's imaging sounded similar to that of sister station KPWR, as WNAP alums Chuck Riley and Eric Edwards became the official voices of the station. While Chuck mainly voiced bumpers and sweepers, Eric on the other hand mostly voiced promos and specialty liners. These two were also the voices for other Emmis stations at the time such as KPWR, WLOL, and WAVA.

A month after the station's launch, WQHT began adding an airstaff. Some of the first DJs, or "Hot Jocks", to join WQHT were Deborah Rath-Howell from KPWR in Los Angeles, Alan "Al Nouveau" Bandiero from WKTU, Johnny "Big John" Monds from WUSL in Philadelphia, Sonny Joe Fox from KMEL in San Francisco, Frederick "Fast Freddie" Colon and Niecie Colon from WBLS, as well as Vanessa Scott, Rufus Hurt, and Mitch Phillips, who were hold overs from WAPP.

"Broadway" Bill Lee from KPKE in Denver joined the station around Christmas 1986 as the youngest of the Hot Jocks. With Rick Allen also joined as Production Director, as well being the voice of WQHT's electronic prizedroid Robojock. Allen and TM Communications customize KPWR's "K-Power!" jingle package for WQHT under the name of "The Hot Streak!" with Chuck on rapping vocals, and would be utilized on other stations. (Allen would go on to fame as the person who created the famous "From the top of the World Trade Center" legal ID, also voiced by Chuck.) Because of the success of Allen's production, many radio production directors were impressed by his work and released some of the production elements and music beds used for WQHT into syndication under the brand name "Continuous Climax."

By 1987, WQHT was making a name for itself by playing Freestyle in regular rotation. Artists such as Noel, Safire, The Cover Girls and TKA were made famous because they were played in heavy rotation right next to Mainstream Top 40 artists such as Exposé, Debbie Gibson and Taylor Dayne. Freestyle and club music from other cities such as Miami, who had (and continues to have) an active dance and club scene, wasn't ignored either. Company B and Tiger Moon, who were famous in the Florida club scene, were played on WQHT as well. In fact, Hot 103 pioneered custom station versions of songs, where the artists would change lyrics and sing about the station. Because of WQHT's success with the genre, WHTZ copied the station's success by adding a few Freestyle titles, as well as Urban Contemporary stations WBLS and WRKS, who were playing long versions of the records they played as well.

That same year, WQHT added a local weekly countdown show called New York's Hot Tracks, hosted by Bill Lee, which counted down the top 10 selling 12" singles of the week. The show started on Sunday nights, then moved to Friday nights at 6:00pm and then later at 5:00pm. It featured short interview clips and aired sonovox numbers produced by Rick Allen identifying the chart position. "Hot Tracks" was produced, for a time, by PD Joel Salkowitz and researched by Angie Martinez, who would later become an afternoon host after the station flipped to Hip-Hop and R&B in 1992. (The show would later be hosted by Jeff Thomas, and was cancelled in 1993.)

In July 1987, WQHT wanted to devote some airtime to older dance music at the urging of Al Bandiero. Management agreed, and thus began "The Disco Classics' Showcase", which would feature dance music older than seven years. The show was broadcast for an hour from 8 pm-9 pm on Sunday nights. In 1989, the show was expanded to two hours. Later hosts would be Paco Navarro in 1992 from WKTU fame, and Freddie Colon. The show lasted until 1994.

WYNY (1988–1996)

The WYNY logo used from 1988–1996

On September 22, 1988, at 5:30 p.m., WQHT would change frequencies, as Emmis acquired NBC's radio stations. Since Federal Communications Commission regulations at the time required that a company could only own one FM radio station in a market, Emmis sold the 103.5 frequency to Westwood One (which, coincidentally, had also acquired the remnants of the NBC Radio Network). At the same time, they moved the format at 103.5 FM to the 97.1 FM frequency which they acquired from NBC, with WQHT becoming "Hot 97." As a result, WYNY, which was running a country music format at the 97.1 frequency prior to the sale, would move to 103.5 FM.

The station, now known as "Country 103.5", had mediocre ratings in their first few months at its new frequency. Even though rumors of a format change were always existent at the station, the country format remained. In 1993, the station would be sold to Broadcast Partners, whom were committed to keeping Country on WYNY. As a country station, Jim Kerr would be the station's morning show host from 1990 to 1993, while their airstaff included Dan Daniel, Randy Davis, Bill Rock, Ray Rossi, Lisa Taylor, Charlie Berger and Susan Browning.

Meanwhile, WQHT began to move away from Dance music and shifted towards hip hop in 1993. By 1994, they played almost no dance music. After they officially changed to an Urban Contemporary format that year, New Yorkers demanded a Dance music station.

In the spring of 1995, Broadcast Partners opted to sell the station to Evergreen Media, and after a lot of speculation about the station's future, Evergreen confirmed in January 1996 that the station would be changing formats. On the final weekend that the station would play country music (which would be from February 2 to February 4, 1996), the entire air staff said goodbye. WYNY ended local programming at 6 p.m. on February 4 with "The Dance" by Garth Brooks, followed by syndicated programming. After airing the syndicated After Midnite with Blair Garner show in the early morning hours of February 5 (which also ended with "The Dance"), the country music format was gone from the station, thus leaving the entire New York City area without a full-time Country station. (Later that year, country would resurface on several suburban stations, one of which would get the WYNY calls, resurfacing in late 1998.) Beginning at 5:30 a.m. on February 5, WYNY began stunting with a simulcast of WRCX Chicago. On February 6, at 6 a.m., the simulcasting switched to Mainstream Urban-formatted KKBT Los Angeles. On February 7, at 6 a.m., the simulcasting switched to Talk-formatted WLUP-FM Chicago. On February 8, at 6 a.m., the simulcasting switched to AC-formatted KIOI San Francisco. On February 9, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., the simulcast switched to Alternative-leaning Top 40 WXKS-FM Boston. At 6 p.m., the simulcasting of sister stations ended.

New York City would not have another full-time country station until January 2013, when Cumulus Media launched Nash FM 94.7.

WKTU (1996–present)

103.5 KTU Logo since February 10, 1996

At 6 p.m. on February 9, 1996, WYNY switched its stunting to a heartbeat sound effect, promoting the launch of a new format coming the following day at Noon. At that time, WKTU was relaunched on 103.5 FM with a dance-based CHR format; WKTU's first song was "Gonna Make You Sweat" by C+C Music Factory.^[7][8] The station instantly skyrocketed to number one in the Arbitron ratings. Drag performer RuPaul co-hosted mornings with Michelle Visage, Lisa Taylor and Freddie Colon around this period, further helping their ratings. Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton and Goumba Johnny made their debut at night and after much success were moved to mornings in 1998. By 2002, the moderate amount of rap played on the station was gone and the station evolved into more of a Rhythmic Hot AC.

On May 31, 2006, WKTU announced that actress/comedian Whoopi Goldberg would become the station's new morning host, and that KTU would serve as the flagship station for her syndicated morning show. Her show, which airs mostly on AC and Rhythmic outlets in the United States, especially those owned by WKTU's now-parent company Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia), began on July 31, 2006. The news of Goldberg being named 'KTU's new morning star, and the departures of popular afternoon drive DJ "Broadway" Bill Lee and late night hostess Jewelz in June 2006, led to talk that KTU might switch formats (some suspected an upbeat female targeted Hot AC-type direction similar to sister station KBIG/Los Angeles) with Goldberg's arrival. KTU management insisted that there were no plans to flip formats, even with Goldberg in mornings. Another surprise move was the reunion of former KTU morning hosts Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton and Goumba Johnny, who hosted afternoons for the station beginning September 5, 2006. Hamilton continues to host his popular syndicated shows the Weekend Top 30 and the Remix Top 30 heard in over 250 cites across America and around the world.

However, on September 9, 2006, after many format flips by Clear Channel of other radio stations throughout the country, 'KTU took on the upbeat Rhythmic AC direction by playing only popular current rhythmic material, as well as increasing the airplay of older rhythmic sounds such as soul, disco and freestyle.

On November 28, 2007, WKTU announced that it had dropped Whoopi's morning show. According to station management, the reason was due to Goldberg's duties on The View, although it may also have to do with the show's ratings.^[9] Her show continued to air in syndication through Premiere Radio Networks until April 18, 2008, when she called it quits. Cubby Bryant, who served as Goldberg's sidekick, left the syndicated show and returned to WKTU in January 2008 to host his own morning show.

Around 2009, WKTU did another tweak in their Rhythmic AC format, dropping the older elements of dance music (disco and freestyle, including Judy Torres' "Freestyle Free For All" Sunday show; Torres has since returned to doing a Sunday afternoon shift at WKTU) and focusing mainly on a current direction, with mainstream dance and rhythmic sounds. It pursued the advertiser-friendly demographic of people who are 25–54 years old. That has helped increase the ratings of the station. In September 2010, the station returned to a Rhythmic Top 40 direction, as WKTU was added to the Mediabase Rhythmic panel joining rival WQHT. On December 15, 2010, Goumba Johnny left WKTU after 15 years, leaving Hamilton solo in afternoons.

On April 4, 2011, WKTU was moved from the Rhythmic CHR panel on Mediabase to CHR (Top 40), reflecting the recent evolution of the station's music to a more rhythmic adult contemporary sound again without the disco titles. At the same time, Nielsen BDS refrained from including WKTU's playlist on its Top 40/CHR panel because of its direction and having sister station WHTZ as a reporter, but the station did contribute to BDS' Dance/Mix Show Airplay panel due to having club music mix shows on the station. On Memorial Day weekend 2014, WKTU started airing Commercial Free Weekends, in order to compete with WBMP, which also started airing Commercial Free Weekends after the station was relaunched as 92.3 AMP Radio. The Commercial Free Weekends era on WKTU lasted until Labor Day weekend 2014. As of August 16, 2014, however, WKTU is now also listed on the BDS Pop panel.^[10] It also has added in some non-Rhythmic titles.

HD2 operation

Like other Clear Channel stations WKTU began Multicasting in the late winter of 2005. On WKTU HD-1, the Rhythmic AC format is heard on the original analog station, while WKTU HD-2 originally played Country Music similar to WYNY. On July 23, 2009, the Country music format was dropped in favor of Pride Radio, a dance station catering to the LGBT community. The Country format has since moved to 106.7 HD-2.^[11]

Former personalities

• Al Bandiero
• RuPaul
• Judy Torres
• Whoopi Goldberg
• Michelle Visage
• Goumba Johnny
• Cindy Vero (now at WHUD)