[2] WFED's weekday programming consists primarily of original news and talk content for federal government employees, the Senior Executive Service, and contractors.

[5][6] The station was first licensed on September 25, 1926, as WTRC, to the Twentieth Assembly District Regular Republican Club, Inc., 62 Woodbine Street in Brooklyn.

In the fall of 1928, the call sign was changed to WJSV,[10] the initials of the Fellowship Forum publisher, James S. Vance, who was controversial due to ties he and his newspaper had to the Ku Klux Klan.

On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of a major national reallocation by the FRC's General Order 40, WTFF was assigned to a "high-powered regional" frequency of 1460 kHz, with a power of 10,000 watts.

[14] CBS also moved the transmitter site to Potomac Yards in Alexandria to boost power and improve the coverage pattern.

[14] In 1936, with the elimination of the jurisdictional quotas that had been imposed by the Davis Amendment, the station's studios were moved from Alexandria to the Earle Building in Washington.

The WJSV broadcast day recordings still exist and copies can be found at the Internet Archive and various old time radio websites.

In addition, at this time the highest AM band frequency in the U.S. was 1500 kHz, so the new call sign reflected the station's position near "the top of the dial" on radio receivers.

[19] As part of the transaction, The Post divested WINX (1340 AM), but retained WINX-FM, which was renamed WTOP-FM, through a legal maneuver.

After its signature personality Arthur Godfrey left WTOP in 1948 to concentrate on his television and midday network radio shows, the station gradually faded in popularity as it faced competition from The Washington Star's WMAL with the morning team of Harden and Weaver, and NBC-owned WRC which featured future Today Show personality Willard Scott.

WTOP studios were apparently a critical link in Emergency Broadcast System activation scenarios during the Cold War era.

[22] In 1971 the Post donated the original WTOP-FM at 96.3 MHz to Howard University, to "stimulate the intellectual and cultural life of the whole community and to train more people for the communications industry".

WTOP's longtime facility at 1500 AM, as well as both FM translators (107.7 in Warrenton and low-powered 104.3 in Leesburg), would be reassigned to the new "Washington Post Radio" for a March 30, 2006, launch date.

On March 30, 2006, WTOP transitioned entirely to FM, with 1500 AM (previously the main frequency) and 107.7 becoming "Washington Post Radio" under the calls WTWP and WTWP-FM, respectively.

The historic WTOP call sign was transferred for a year to a station on 820 AM in Frederick, Maryland, which switched to a Washington Post Radio simulcast on June 28, 2007.

Syndicated talkers Neal Boortz, Bill O'Reilly, Randi Rhodes and Phil Hendrie were initially added to the lineup, as was a simulcast of sister station KSL's Nightside with Michael Castner overnight program.

[1][verification needed] WWWT was one of the few talk stations in America, at least in major markets, in which the lineup was nearly equally divided among liberal and conservative hosts.

On August 11, 2008, Bonneville announced the discontinuation of 3WT, and the transfer of the Federal News Radio programming and WFED call letters to AM 1500.

The programming concept has changed little to this day, except that the Associated Press' All News Radio service originally filled in during the overnight hours, as a complement to WTOP.

[28] WFED was dropped as the flagship of the Washington Nationals Radio Network in favor of WJFK-FM in 2011, but remains as an affiliate station.

WFED temporarily returned as the Capitals' flagship in the 2016-17 season when the team and WJFK-FM owner CBS Radio could not extend their agreement.

Although he apologized a few days later, on February 2, 2007, Stimson resigned his position with the Pentagon, saying he believed the flap would prevent him from effectively doing his job.