WKDN was first licensed, as WLBA, to the Philadelphia School of Wireless Telegraphy (J. C. Van Horn) on December 17, 1926, originally as a 50-watt station on 1270 kHz.

[4] The William Penn company also acquired its time-sharing partner on 1500 kHz, WALK in Willow Grove,[5] which was shut down.

In its early years, WPEN was known for Italian-language programming, and was co-owned with another major Italian-oriented station, WOV in New York City.

(On May 25, 1928, the Federal Radio Commission's General Order 32 had notified 164 stations, including WRAX, that "From an examination of your application for future license it does not find that public interest, convenience, or necessity would be served by granting it.

[8] In March 1941, WPEN moved to 950 kHz, as part of the frequency shifts due to the implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement.

The music at that time consisted of artists such Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Mills Brothers, Tommy Dorsey, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Pat Boone, Tony Bennett, and many others.

Before the Steve Allison show, radio personality Art Raymond ("The Man in the Black Sombrero") hosted a live Latin music dance program from the Ranch Room.

WPEN opted, though, to remain a non-rock station but played some of the softer songs by artists like The Platters, Elvis Presley, Everly Brothers, Brenda Lee, and others.

By the mid-1960s, WPEN was also playing softer songs by The Beatles, The Association, The 5th Dimension, Tom Jones, The Mamas & the Papas, The Righteous Brothers, and others.

Some WIP personalities were lured to WPEN, including Tom Brown, and an extensive promotional campaign was launched with the station billing itself as "The New 95."

When the deal closed in January 1975, Greater Media immediately took the stations off the air for some badly needed engineering upgrades.

In the spring, WPEN returned to the air as "95PEN" with an oldies format under program director Julian Breen and later, Peter Mokover.

Over the years, many radio legends joined "The 950 Family," like Ken Garland, Joe Niagara, Bill "Wee Willie" Webber, Dick Clayton, Jerry Stevens, Joe Harnett, Bill Wright, Sr, Tom Moran, Andy Hopkins, Andy Kortman and Kim Martin.

Joe Grady and Ed Hurst also returned to host a new version of the original "950 Club" on weekday afternoons.

The station's "Adult Standards/Nostalgia" format was an original concept of Julian Breen, and later programmed by Joe Taylor, Paul Mitchell, Dean Tyler, Stan Martin, Charlie Mills and Bob Craig.

While the station did not ever strictly play standards and featured some soft rock mixed in during much of the day, they changed focus in 2001.

On September 1, 2004, due to declining advertising, WPEN dropped Adult Standards abruptly in favor of returning to oldies, playing only music from 1954 to 1965.

Artists featured on WPEN included Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley, Billy Stewart, Bill Haley, Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson, Marvelettes, Everly Brothers, Jerry Butler, Beach Boys, The Four Seasons, Jackie Wilson, Bobby Vee, and others.

By November 2004, WPEN began to add more late 1960s music by the Beatles, Four Tops, The 5th Dimension, Young Rascals, The Hollies, along with many one hit wonders.

On March 2, 2007, a blogger reported the possibility that the station could change their slogan to "Sports Radio 950", after discovering the registrations of the domains mysportsradio950.com and sportsradio950online.com.

106.9 was Family Radio's previous Philadelphia station, which they had been forced to sell earlier in the year, after spending $100 million and taking out large loans to promote their discredited rapture prediction.