The station has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 17,500 watts, broadcasting from a tower at 242 metres (794 ft) in height above average terrain (HAAT).

The transmitter site is on Chesapeake Street NW off Wisconsin Avenue in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.[3] With a good radio, WASH coverage extends from Baltimore to Fredericksburg, Virginia.

[7] In May 1940, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had announced the establishment, effective January 1, 1941, of an FM band operating on 40 channels spanning 42–50 MHz.

A construction permit was granted the following September, and initially assigned the call letters WSDC, which were changed to WASH two months later, prior to the station beginning operations.

[15] Metromedia also owned successful radio stations across the U.S., including WNEW and WNEW-FM in New York City, WIP and WMMR in Philadelphia and KLAC and KMET in Los Angeles.

Disc jockeys played the adult hits of the day, from Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand to The Carpenters and Dionne Warwick, chatting between the songs and airing hourly news updates.

Due to having little success against Washington's established Top 40 stations in WPGC-FM and WRQX, WASH returned to a full service adult contemporary format.

Until late 2013, the station played disco music and related dance and pop songs (mostly 1970s hits) in a program known as "Jammin' Saturday Night" from 7 p.m. to midnight.