City Syracuse, New York Branding Hot 107.9 First air date 1956 (as WONO) | Broadcast area Central New York Slogan All The Hits | |
Frequency 107.9 MHz (also on HD Radio) | ||
WWHT is an FM Top 40 (CHR) radio station licensed to Syracuse, New York. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts at 107.9 MHz, WWHT airs a Top 40 (CHR) format branded as "Hot 107.9".
History
The station signed on the air as WONO in 1956, with a classical music format. That format and call letter assignment remained in place until 1979, when new owner Roy H. Park broadcasting changed the station's format and call letters. Since that time, 107.9 FM has had several different formats and call signs ranging from Adult Contemporary, rock, country as WRRB, easy listening/classical as WRHP, and lastly Hit Country 108 WHEN-FM.
In 1996, 107.9 FM was sold again, this time to Cox Communications the owners of country format competitor WBBS (B104.7). It was then that it switched to its current format and the WWHT call letters on June 10 of that year. WWHT was one of a group of five stations that was included in a swap between Cox and Jacor Communications in 1999 when Cox exited the Syracuse market altogether. When Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) completed its acquisition of Jacor in April 1999, WWHT passed to the new owner.
Although its music and direction is heavily focused on Rhythmic and Dance hits, it does plays a few mainstream Pop/Rock acts, which they primarily target towards young adults.
In 2010, WWHT increased the Rhythmic content while reducing the non-Rhythmic product, a trend that several Top 40 (CHR) have been adopting, and by January 2011 made the shift to Rhythmic Top 40 altogether. The move to Rhythmic resulted in WWHT being moved from both BDS and Mediabase's Top 40 (CHR) panels to their Rhythmic panels in November 2011. As of October 2012, WWHT returned to Mainstream Top 40, dropping almost all rhythmic-only content, but because most of their programming is voice-tracked, Nielsen BDS did not include the station's playlist in their Top 40/CHR panel. Hot 1079's main competition is WNTQ, the market's other Mainstream Top 40/CHR outlet and for whom WWHT had battled since its 1996 debut.