WTOP News history

On August 2, 1927, WTRC migrated to Mount Vernon Hills, Virginia; a suburb of Washington.

In June 1932, CBS exercised its option to purchase WJSV outright, and moved its operations to Alexandria, Virginia.

On September 21, 1939, WJSV recorded its entire broadcast day for posterity.

On March 29, 1941, with the implementation of NARBA, WJSV moved its broadcast frequency from 1460 to 1500 kHz.

On March 16, 1943, after paying the Tiffin, Ohio police department $60,000 for the rights to the call letters WTOP, the calls were changed to the current WTOP because its new frequency was now at the "top" of the mediumwave AM band.

CBS sold 55 percent majority control of WTOP to The Washington Post in February 1949; this deal was made so CBS could acquire full control of KQW in San Francisco.

As part of the transaction, The Post divested WINX (1340 AM), but retained WINX-FM through a legal maneuver, which was renamed WTOP-FM. The Post took over the remainder of WTOP in December 1954.

The switch to all-news – at first only during the week – came in March 1969.

That station became WHUR in 1971, a commercially run radio station.

The Post sold WTOP to The Outlet Company in June 1978, in reaction to the FCC looking askance at common ownership of newspapers and broadcasting outlets in the same city, believing one company should not have too much control of local media.

In April 1997, Evergreen's newly acquired 94.3 MHz facility in Warrenton, Virginia, began simulcasting the WTOP signal for better coverage in the sprawling Northern Virginia suburbs.

As listeners increasingly indicated a desire for uninterrupted news, this programming dwindled over the years; WTOP completed the transition to 24/7 news when it dropped the Orioles in 1999.

The stations' respective call signs were changed as of January 11, 2006: the former WTOP pair became WTWP (The Washington Post) and WTOP's new primary stations assumed the WTOP calls.

WTOP AM (which was now on 820 in Frederick) changed its calls to WTWT and switched to the Washington Post Radio simulcast on June 28, 2007.

In 2008, WTOP-FM generated $51.75-million in revenue, the sixth-highest total for any radio station in the United States and the only station not based in New York City or Los Angeles to crack the top ten.

In 2009, the station generated $51-million in revenue, good for second among all radio stations in the United States, trailing only KIIS-FM in Los Angeles.

United Media changed the call letters to WBQH and flipped to Regional Mexican. It took back the WTOP call letters on February 1, 2010.

In 2011, WTOP-FM brought their traffic reporting in-house, ending their relationship with Metro Networks.

Sometime in or before June 2013, that LMA was replaced with the predecessor to what is now Radio Sputnik.

Until 2015, the station used all WJLA meteorologists, not just Doug Hill.