Licensed to Haverhill, Massachusetts, United States, the station is owned by Jose Villafañe's Costa Media Boston LLC.

Plans for the station that would become WCCM began during World War II in the offices of The Haverhill Gazette, a daily newspaper serving what was, in the middle of the century, a shoe-manufacturing center 30 miles (48 km) north of Boston.

The Gazette, as early as 1944, planned an FM radio station, but had to wait for the end of wartime controls on new construction.

[4] John T. Russ announced on April 14, 1945, in the newspaper that "The Gazette long ago recognized the need of a Haverhill radio station and has long been in agreement with your premise that a newspaper is the logical proprietor of a broadcasting service, especially because the dissemination of news is the primary task of both press and radio.

What concerns you directly, your lives and businesses, your community betterment will always get first priority on the WHAV airwaves.In its application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), The Gazette sought authority to construct a 300-foot (91 m) tower on Ayer's Hill, the highest point of land in Haverhill.

[4] The Gazette ultimately bought the Silver Hill site at auction and the FCC conditionally granted the license December 10, 1945.

"[8] The following month it was announced that impressive art deco studios would be constructed in downtown Haverhill, while a transmitting building would be built on Silver Hill.

Al Taylor, recruited from WCAU in Philadelphia, and a former newspaperman who had interviewed Adolf Hitler, would become the first program director, and Herbert W. Brown became chief engineer.

[9] With transmission facilities completed, the inaugural broadcast of the AM station was set to take place March 16, 1947, from temporary studios downtown.

In an interview during the early 1980s, Goodwin admitted he toured other stations, including WEEI (590 AM) in Boston to determine how best to design the studios.

[10] WHAV AM and FM joined the Continental Network, whose key station was WASH-FM in Washington, D.C., in time for President Harry S. Truman's inauguration.

[11] Vaughn Monroe made an appearance on the stations during the grand opening of the new studio building to promote what would be a big band format, said Jackie Natalino, former music librarian, during a 1978 interview.

Tom Bergeron, who would go on to host Hollywood Squares, America's Funniest Home Videos, and Dancing With The Stars, got his start on WHAV in the mid-1970s.

[b] By August 1993, WHAV shifted its music format from adult contemporary to oldies, while retaining its talk programming.

[17] WHAV was turned over to Eastern Media of Methuen, Massachusetts, in March 1995;[18] this made it a sister station to WNNW (1110 AM) in Salem, New Hampshire.

[19] WHAV would air Spanish-language programs[19] and dub itself "Radio Impacto"; the subsequent sale of the station from Northeast Broadcasting to Costa Communications would be challenged by Haverhill city officials, claiming that, as the only WHAV staffer to speak Spanish worked on Sundays, its programming was not being monitored.

[20] The Costa Communications stations were transferred to Costa-Eagle Radio Ventures Ltd.[21] when the owners of the Eagle-Tribune bought a 49 percent stake in the company and returned to broadcasting (the newspaper previously owned WLAW and WLAW-FM).

[26] The station has aired Spanish-language broadcasts of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox from 2014 to 2019 and since 2022, with Uri Berenguer as the play-by-play announcer.