[2] In 1955 the FCC awarded a new permit for 102.7 FM to a group called Fidelity Radio Corporation, based in West Paterson, New Jersey.

[3] The station was later granted the call sign WHFI,[4] and a year later the community of license was moved back to Newark from West Paterson.

WNEW-FM's early programming also included an automated middle-of-the-road format, followed quickly by a period (July 4, 1966, to September 1967) playing pop music with an unusual twist in its day...an all-female air staff.

[9] The lineup of disc jockeys during this stunt included actress and TV personality Peggy Cass, Alison Steele (who stayed on to become the "Night Bird" on the progressive rock format), Rita Sands (later with WCBS Newsradio 880), Margaret Draper, Ann Clements, Arlene Kieta, Pam McKissick, and Nell Bassett.

The all-female disc jockey lineup endured for a little more than a year, switching in September 1967 to a mixed-gender staff, before a major change the following month.

The station's disc jockeys would broadcast in ways that bore out their personalities: Other well-known disc jockeys who worked at the station included Dennis Elsas, Carol Miller, Pete Larkin, brothers Dan Neer and Richard Neer, Dan Carlisle, Jim Monaghan, Pam Merly, Thom Morrera, Meg Griffin and John Zacherle.

John Lennon once stopped by to guest-DJ along with Dennis Elsas and appeared on-air several other times during his friend Scott Muni's afternoon slot.

The pitch by creative director George Meredith to station manager Mel Karmazin: "You can't tell them what you want to say, which is 'Disco Sucks,' but you can tell them that 'Rock Lives.'"

Among the All-Stars were DJs Thom Morrera, Jim Monaghan, Richard Neer, Dan Neer and Pat Dawson, along with Crawdaddy editor Peter Knobler at shortstop, music business regulars Bobby Diebold, Jack Hopke, Ed Vitale, Matt Birkbeck, Ralph Cuccurullo and John "Boots" Boulos in the outfield, and Michael "Chopper" Boulos at second base.

The station became a kind of therapy center for the rock community, playing Lennon's music for 24 hours straight and opening up its lines for calls from grieving listeners.

When long-time competitor WPLJ switched away from rock in 1983, WNEW-FM picked up some of its most popular DJs, such as Carol Miller, and years later, Pat St. John, who would take over the morning show and programming duties.

Opie and Anthony immediately got attention from the station by interrupting their annual "Evolution of Rock and Roll" event by refusing to play the music, or destroying the CDs.

[22] On September 12, 1999, sole remaining long-time jock Richard Neer signed off his Sunday morning show by playing Bruce Springsteen's dirge-like "Racing in the Street", and identifying the station one last time, changing the slogan to "Where Rock Lived".

The day after, on September 13, in the run-up to 3 pm, the rock format ended with an all-request midday show by Ralph Tortora (which featured a phone call from Billy Joel, who talked about the impact WNEW had on his life), which concluded with "Thank You" by Led Zeppelin, "Better Things" by The Kinks and "The End" by The Beatles, followed by the famous final chord of their song "A Day in the Life".

Opie and Anthony signed on the talk format by saying that WNEW did not die that day or that week, but that "it died years ago", saying that WNEW's death had been "the longest funeral ever", and inaugurated "FM Talk" by holding an on-air funeral for the old rock format, complete with a coffin, hearse, and a fat lady singing "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye".

[26][27][28][29] The new format consisted of shock jocks, including Opie and Anthony, Don and Mike, The Radio Chick, Ron and Fez and Tom Leykis.

By 2002, WNEW added brokered programming on weekends and stopped playing music altogether, with the exception of Eddie Trunk's Friday and Saturday night hard rock-oriented shows, as well as Vin Scelsa's Idiot's Delight.

On September 11, 2001, Opie and Anthony did their show live from the WLIR studios because of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, which caused city officials to block all roads going into Manhattan.

[30][31][32] A harbinger for the "hot talk" format's end came in August 2002, when Opie and Anthony were fired for encouraging a stunt involving two people allegedly engaging in sexual intercourse in a vestibule within St. Patrick's Cathedral.

A few months earlier, the FCC had fined Infinity $21,000 for three "patently offensive" Opie and Anthony broadcasts, including one referring to incest.

For the next three months, the station stunted with CHR music, using a limited playlist of approximately 50 songs from artists like Pink, Eminem, Bowling for Soup, and Avril Lavigne, as well as nightly simulcasts of CBS's Late Show with David Letterman.

[38][39] Sounders during that period teased listeners about how "a new station" would soon be coming to the 102.7 frequency, and it arrived at 8 p.m. on April 10, when WNEW became "Blink 102.7" and adopted an unusual "Entertainment AC" format, launching with "Rock Your Body" by Justin Timberlake.

; on-air personalities during this period included the morning team of Chris Booker and Lynda Lopez (who were also dating during this time), game show host Todd Newton and afternoons with Tim Virgin and Alison Stewart.

Other personalities included Rick Stacy, Michael Maze and reporters Matt Wolfe and Lisa Chase, providing hourly entertainment updates.

On September 12, the station fired most of the staff, rebranded as "102.7 Blink FM: Music Women Love", and adopted a more mainstream adult contemporary format, with ratings going up slightly.

In December 2006, the station began increasing the amount of Christmas music, and at the same time, Michelle Visage was let go and Joe Causi was relegated to his Sunday night Studio 54 classic Disco program.

As of December 22, 2006, Paco Lopez, Efren Sifuentes, Carol Ford and Yvonne Velázquez had also been released in anticipation of an expected format change.

[45] Program director Rick Martini remained in charge of programming the new format, targeted to a younger (age 25–44) female audience, with claims of a playlist "without the kid stuff or tired, old and boring music like the lite station" (though the former is no longer mentioned), an obvious shot at competitor WLTW (in response, the station briefly dropped its Lite FM moniker and was referred to on-air as simply "106.7" during that time).

[54][55] On the afternoon of July 13, 2018, WNEW began running jockless and airing liners between songs taking swipes at WLTW and promoting something "NEW" to come the following Monday, July 16; at 6 a.m. that day, WNEW-FM relaunched as "The All NEW 102.7", with "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" by Adele as the first song played under the "NEW" brand, with the intention of taking direct aim at WLTW.

[citation needed] In April 2003, WNEW-FM launched the "Blink" format, describing itself as "The first FM station in New York to broadcast in high definition radio.