WKTU is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios at 125 West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan; its transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.

[2] In March 1960, Friendly Frost Inc. (a Long Island-based appliance store chain) acquired WGLI Inc. from Reuman and his partners.

[3] In November 1961, Friendly Frost moved the station from Babylon to Lake Success, and the call sign was changed to WTFM.

As WTFM, the station used the slogan "The International Stereo Sound of New York," and played an instrumental-based easy listening format.

He spoke with DJ Chip Hobart, who suggested Bon Jovi let WAPP include the song "Runaway" on the station's compilation album of local homegrown talent.

On August 15, 1986, at 6 pm, The Rolling Stones' "It's All Over Now" and a bomb noise rang out, marking the end of WAPP.

WQHT was the second such station with the format, months after Emmis launched it on KPWR in Los Angeles earlier that year.

The "hotmixes" were either just the extended versions available commercially on 12" singles, or mixes that were created by local club DJs, such as "Little" Louie Vega.

Some of the first Hot 103 DJs to join WQHT were, Deborah Rath-Howell from KPWR in Los Angeles, Al Bandiero from WKTU, Johnny "Big John" Monds from WUSL in Philadelphia, Sonny Joe Fox from KMEL in San Francisco, Frederick "Fast Freddie" Colon and Niecie Colon from WBLS, as well as Vanessa Scott, Rufus Hurt, and Mitchell Phillips, who were hold overs from WAPP.

Rick Allen also joined as Production Director, in addition to being the voice of WQHT's electronic prizedroid Robojock, and TM Communications customized KPWR's "K-Power!"

It featured short interview clips and aired sonovox numbers produced by Rick Allen identifying the chart position.

"Hot Tracks" was produced, for a time, by PD Joel Salkowitz and researched by Angie Martinez, who would later become an afternoon host after the station flipped to Hip-Hop and R&B in 1992.

From the time the station signed on the air, it presented a music intensive morning show with only two stopsets of commercials an hour.

The show was groundbreaking as it presented the countdown in long music sweeps as opposed to the traditional 2-songs in a row followed by a commercial break.

In April 1987, WQHT debuted The Original Saturday Night Dance Party, live from 4D NightClub in Manhattan from 10p.m.–2a.m., with no commercials and limited interruption.

As time went on, WQHT was wired into two dozen different clubs around the area, including The Palladium, The Copacabana, Foxes, Emerald City, The Tunnel, Chicago, Limelight, 1018, The L.I.

Other notable club DJs such as Glenn Friscia, DJ Animal, Roman Ricardo, Freddie Bastone and Mojo Nicosia were on the turntables for The Saturday Night Dance Party.

As a result, WYNY, which was running a country music format at the 97.1 frequency prior to the sale, would move to 103.5 FM.

The format did well initially in Los Angeles, but ratings tanked quickly, so consideration for the change was ended by the spring of 1990.

Beginning at 6 a.m. on February 5, WYNY began stunting by simulcasting sister stations across the country, the first being Rock-formatted WRCX Chicago.

[16][17] At 6 pm on February 9, 1996, WYNY switched its stunting to a heartbeat sound effect, promoting the launch of a new format coming the following day at noon.

[21][22][23] Drag performer RuPaul co-hosted mornings with Michelle Visage, Lisa Taylor and Freddie Colon around this period, further helping their ratings.

Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton and Goumba Johnny made their debut at night, and after much success, were moved to mornings in January 1998.

Her show, which aired mostly on AC and Rhythmic outlets in the United States, especially those owned by WKTU's now-parent company Clear Channel Communications, began on July 31, 2006.

The news of Goldberg being named 'KTU's new morning star, and the departures of popular afternoon drive DJ "Broadway" Bill Lee and late night hostess Jewelz in June 2006, led to talk that KTU might switch formats (some suspected an upbeat female targeted hot AC-type direction similar to sister station KBIG/Los Angeles) with Goldberg's arrival.

Around 2009, WKTU did another tweak in their rhythmic AC format, dropping the older elements of dance music (disco and freestyle, including Judy Torres' "Freestyle Free For All" Sunday show; Torres has since returned to doing a Sunday afternoon shift at WKTU) and focusing mainly on a current direction, with mainstream dance and rhythmic music.

WKTU-HD1 duplicates the analog signal's Rhythmic AC format, while WKTU-HD2 originally broadcast country music similar to WYNY.

The original KTU Beatstock concert, which took place in 1997, was an all-day event held at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York.

For 2011, WKTU had decided to no longer sponsor the event; however, Beatstock continued for the year on Long Island at the Brookhaven Amphitheater on August 20.

(That event was featured in The Real Housewives of New Jersey, episode 4.12 (July 15, 2012),[28] as two of the cast members - Melissa Gorga[29] and Teresa Giudice's daughter, Gia - performed there.