The station operated from the attic of Lubinsky's home before its studio in Newark opened in 1925.

The station became known as "The Voice of Newark" and presented programmes for immigrants to the New York metropolitan area in Polish, Lithuanian and Italian.

[11] By 1944, the label had begun to release records by leading jazz musicians, such as Ben Webster and Lester Young,[12] and over the next few years its roster of musicians expanded to include Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Erroll Garner, Miles Davis, Paul Williams and Brownie McGhee.

[13] After opening an office in California in 1948, Savoy continued to have success with such musicians as Johnny Otis, Little Esther Phillips, Cannonball Adderley and Big Maybelle, although after the mid-1950s it began to concentrate increasingly on gospel music, including Clara Ward, the Drinkard Singers, Alex Bradford, the Caravans, Dorothy Love Coates and the Original Gospel Harmonettes and James Cleveland.

[13] Lubinsky has been described as "an arrogant bully... the quintessential loudmouth, overweight, cigar-smoking record man with little apparent charm";[9] as "a colorful character... endowed with a shrewd business sense";[15] and as "a rather profane cheapskate who had a low opinion of many of the musicians that he recorded" and who "was best known for his desire to cut expenses at all costs".