NYC Radio: CBS Radio Returns WNEW-FM Calls To 102.7

The iconic call letters were enconsed in New York until changed to WWFS to match the branding of its new AC formatted station "Fresh 102.7" in January 2007.

For a time, WNEW-FM calls were parked on then-CBS-owned 106.3 in Jupiter FL until 2011 when they were moved to 99.1 FM Bowie MD (Washington DC-Baltimore) for the launching of  "All News 99.1".

CBS Radio threw-in the towel on all news in December 2015 for an All-Business format via a brokered arrangement with Bloomberg Radio.  The calls there have now been changed to WDCH-FM allowing the WNEW-FM to be returned to its original home on 102.7  in NYC.  FreshFM's AC format continues.

The 102.7 FM frequency was first assigned in the mid-1940s as WNJR-FM from Newark, New Jersey. Intended to be a simulcasting sister to WNJR (1430 AM, now WNSW), the FM station never made it to the air despite being granted several extensions of its construction permit. WNJR gave up and turned in the FM license to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1953.

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.  The station was later granted the call sign WHFI,  and a year later the community of license was moved back to Newark from West Paterson. Once again, the owners failed to put the station on the air.

In November 1957, the WHFI construction permit was purchased by the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation, which already owned WABD (later WNEW-TV) and earlier in the year bought WNEW radio.

In January 1958, WHFI was renamed WNEW-FM and DuMont completed its build-out, moving the license to New York City. The station finally came on the air on August 25, 1958, partially simulcasting then-WNEW 1130 AM, with a separate popular music format. DuMont Broadcasting, meanwhile, would change its corporate name twice within the next three years before settling on Metromedia in 1961.

On October 30, 1967, WNEW-FM adopted a progressive rock radio format, one that it became famous for and that influenced the rock listenership as well as the rock industry.