The creation of "Hot Hits" was Mike Joseph's method of combating the "more music, less personality" approach that was becoming prevalent on Top 40 radio at the time, as well as the splintering of Top 40 into urban-leaning, adult contemporary-leaning and album rock-leaning camps, and what Joseph perceived as neglecting the needs of younger listeners aged 12 to 24 to focus solely on older adults.
In December 1955, he moved on to Flint, Michigan, to transition old-line NBC Radio affiliate WTAC into one of the nation's first Top 40 stations and a stunning success.
From Flint, Joseph moved on to program WMAX in Grand Rapids and WKBW in Buffalo (which he later described as his first prototype of the Hot Hits format), and then in 1960, he helped transform WABC in New York City from a struggling, cash-strapped block-programmed outlet into one of the dominant Top 40 stations in North America.
In June of that year, WMVM's calls were changed to WZUU, and Joseph installed a tight Top 40 playlist of 30 current songs (with no recurrents or gold) which he dubbed "Super Hits."
Classical music fans were irate, but the move paid off for WTIC-FM, as the station was top five-rated in the Hartford market by the end of that year.
Although WTIC-FM dumped the 96 Tics name, the Fusion jingles, and the Mike Joseph formatics in the spring of 1979, it continued as a Top 40 station until tweaking its sound to Hot Adult Contemporary in 1994.
In response to dropping ratings, WFBL management hired Joseph in the spring of 1979 to help turn around the station's already-in-place "Hit Radio 14" Top 40 format).
With legendary personalities such as Christy Springfield, Terry "The Motormouth" Young, Scott Walker, Rich Hawkins, Bob Garrett, with Todd Parker and Billy Burke.
Within a year of WCAU-FM debuting "98 Now," "Hot Hits" had moved west to Chicago's WBBM-FM, where the original staff included Steve Davis, Joe Dawson, Gary Spears, Dave Robbins, Bob Lewis, Frank Foster and Tony Taylor; and Detroit's WHYT (now WDVD), which both coincidentally were both on the 96.3 FM frequency and used the on-air name "96 Now."
The format's success also inspired imitators, such as the Rick Peters-derived "Hit Radio" approach utilized at a number of CBS-owned FM stations, including WHTT (formerly WEEI-FM) Boston, KHTR St. Louis, and KKHR Los Angeles, in the mid-1980s.
The "Hot Hits" concept not just grew in the United States, but it expanded to its neighboring country of Canada as well on Saskatoon's CKOM beginning in 1985.
By the end of 1983, both WBBM-FM in Chicago and WHYT in Detroit had allowed their contracts with Joseph to expire and had dropped the "Hot Hits" formatics while continuing to stay with the Top 40 sound and breaking in non-current music.