Eventually, the FM came to be considered the primary signal, and WGAY would often finish at number one in the Persons 12+ Arbitron radio ratings for the Washington, D.C. area during the 1970s and 1980s.

[2] On September 1, 1995, at 8 am, WGAY re-branded as "Star 99.5", shifted towards hot AC, and announced plans to change its call sign.

[6] Listeners did not accept the more up-tempo music, and the station switched back to branding themselves under the WGAY calls, though with a soft rock format, on June 24, 1996.

[7][8] WGAY switched from the still ratings successful format permanently by the late 1990s, although not because its listeners were too few, but because demographically, they were getting too old and therefore less desirable for radio advertisers.

At 2 pm on April 13, 1999, "Evergreen" by Barbra Streisand was faded out with a liner touting a change, bringing the end to WGAY.

[12] At the time, the only CHR station in the market was the relatively popular WWZZ (104.1 FM), which was hampered by a transmitter located in Waldorf, Maryland, southeast of Washington, that had difficulty covering the entire market; at WIHT's launch, some of its on-air material repeatedly jabbed WWZZ for its "continuous, annoying static".

[13] WWZZ moved toward a modern AC direction in late 2001, before being driven out of the format entirely by a series of frequency swaps just five years later.

The station's main competitors were Audacy's combination of urban-leaning Rhythmic Contemporary WPGC-FM 95.5 and for years adult Top 40 WIAD ("94.7 Fresh FM", now classic hits "94.7 The Drive"), and Cumulus Media's adult top 40 WRQX ("Mix 107.3", now K-Love station WLVW).

He replaced the existing show The Hot Morning Mess with Mark Kaye, Kris Gamble and producer Ron Ross, who exited the station on November 1, 2006.

[16] During this time period, Melanie Glazener joined the show as a fourth co-host operating remotely out of Tampa, Florida.

After 3+1⁄2 weeks of being off air and many speculations on multiple media sites, Program Director Tommy Chuck confirmed that Danni had left the show.