The station began in 1959 as WAEF, a "beautiful music" station at 104.3 FM. The station moved to 98.5 in 1964 and increased its power. The station became WLQA in the early 1970s still with "beautiful music". The current call letters were adapted when the station transitioned to the current format. The station has used the identifier "Warm 98" since first adopting the adult contemporary format in late 1980. Immediately prior to that, it was playing "beautiful music" under its previous WLQA callsign. To ease the transition to Warm 98, the station said it would play the same songs as it did before, only now they would be performed by the original artists instead of by "beautiful music" performers. While the "soft rock" format of stations such as "Warm 98" is now very common, it can be said that "Warm 98" was not just one of the first "soft rock" stations in the country, but among the few stations of the genre that has kept this format under the same callsign and identifier for the longest period of time. Its timing worked well out well, as "Warm 98" quickly became popular with women and Baby Boomers at the time when many of them didn't care for trends in popular music in the late 1970s and early 1980s, instead preferring a lighter sound and yearning for the mainstream top 40 hits of the early 1970s. Thus, "Warm 98"'s playlist featuring artists such as The Carpenters, John Denver, Bette Midler, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, and Dan Fogelberg had proven to be a real ratings winner. In recent years, Warm 98 has dropped the soft 70s songs of The Carpenters and John Denver from its playlist, and is more contemporary adhering to the more current and upbeat Adult Contemporary chart, playing songs from popular artists such as Maroon 5, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and Ed Sheeran, as well as songs from the 80s and 90s such as Journey, Sheryl Crow, and Rod Stewart. The station's former frequency of 104.3 on the FM dial is now home to WNLT, a K-LoveContemporary Christian outlet.
Programming
For ten years, ending in February 2010, Warm 98 aired five hours of Smooth Jazz on Saturday nights hosted by midday personality Chris Lynn. The last time a Cincinnati FM station ran the Smooth Jazz format on a full-time basis was WVAE, which ran from 1995 to 1999; however, the format had returned to the AM dial on 1480 WCIN, but the station dropped it in May 2009, leaving the Cincinnati radio market without a smooth jazz outlet. Sunday mornings featured the long-running "Sunday Morning Music Hall" hosted by Cincinnati Ballet Music Director Carmon DeLeone. The show first aired on Easter Sunday in 1991 and ended its 16½ year run on Sunday, January 6, 2008.
