On August 7, 1965, 94.5 signed on as WTTM-FM. It was owned by the Scott Broadcasting Company, Inc. of New Jersey and was the adjunct to WTTM. On February 1, 1969, WTTM-FM became WCHR, a religious station; in 1974, it was approved to increase its effective radiated power to 50,000 watts. The Scott family sold WTTM and WCHR in 1996 for $20 million to Nassau Broadcasting Partners. The sale prompted immediate speculation that a format change was in the offing for WCHR. That November, WCHR's religious programming began being simulcast on 920 AM. On February 27, 1998, the 94.5 frequency began stunting with construction sound effects. On March 2, 1998, at 5:00 p.m., 94.5 relaunched as "New Jersey's Oldies Station", with new WNJO call letters. The station's format of primary 1960s oldies was selected so as to avoid cannibalizing Nassau's other Trenton station, WPST. The first request on the new WNJO was made by Governor Christine Whitman, who attended the launch. WNJO was a ratings winner, but facing competition from WKXW which was moving in a 1970s direction, and inspired by the revenue success of a similar flip at Nassau's station in Allentown, Pennsylvania, WNJO became classic hits "The Hawk" on December 1, 2001 and adopted WTHK call letters on August 1, 2002. WPST's contemporary hit radio format moved from 97.5 to 94.5 on February 14, 2005; at the same time, WTHK's programming moved to 97.5, which had been approved to move its community of license to Burlington, New Jersey, closer to Philadelphia. The new WPST at 94.5 cut into the audience for Philadelphia's hot adult contemporary 95.7 WMWX, which became adult hits two months later and the following year switched its call letters to WBEN-FM. The station, along with nine other Nassau stations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, was purchased at bankruptcy auction by NB Broadcasting in May 2012. NB Broadcasting is controlled by Nassau's creditors — Goldman Sachs, Pluss Enterprises, and P.E. Capital. In November, NB Broadcasting filed a motion to assign its rights to the stations to Connoisseur Media. The sale to Connoisseur Media, at a price of $38.7 million, was consummated on May 29, 2013. On March 22, 2018, it was announced that the station had been sold by Connoisseur Media to Townsquare Media for a deal totaling $17 million. The acquisition was finalized on July 2, 2018.
Translators
Signal note
WPST is short-spaced to two other Class B stations: WNSHNew York's Country 94.7 and WDAC. WPST and WNSH operate on first adjacent channels and the cities they are licensed to serve are only about 47 miles apart. The minimum distance between two Class B stations operating on first adjacent channels according to current FCC rules is 105 miles. WPST and WDAC operate on the same channel and the cities they are licensed to serve are only about 83 miles apart. The minimum distance between two Class B stations operating on the same channel according to current FCC rules is 150 miles.
