WDEL broadcasts at 5,000 watts using a directional antenna, with its transmitter, studios and offices located on Shipley Road in Wilmington.

On weekends, WDEL-AM-FM airs shows devoted to money, sports, real estate, home repair, gardening and religion, including some paid brokered programming.

WDEL was first licensed in July 1922 to the Wilmington Electrical Specialty Company, and was initially issued the sequentially assigned call sign WHAV.

[7] During the Golden Age of Radio, WDEL was an NBC Red Network affiliate, carrying its dramas, comedies, sports, news, game shows, soap operas and big band broadcasts.

With the demise of old time network radio in the 1950s, WDEL adopted a full-service format, combining news, sports and middle of the road music.

The station aired a local call-in and information show in the morning, plus various nationally syndicated programs during the day including Dr. Laura, Rush Limbaugh, Mitch Albom and Sean Hannity.

As a result, WDEL adopted a weekday schedule of mostly live and local news and talk, only running syndicated programming in the evening and on weekends.

In 2015, Delmarva Broadcasting acquired 101.7 WJKS, licensed to Canton, New Jersey, but with a signal that covers parts of Northern Delaware, including sections of Wilmington.

On April 1, WJKS flipped from urban adult contemporary music to a simulcast of 1150 WDEL, giving the station's listeners the option to hear it on AM or FM.

In 2011, WDEL won a prestigious Marconi Award from the National Association of Broadcasters for "Medium Market Station of the Year."