wtop fm . for the complete history of the washington d.c. 103.5 mhz facility see wgms defunct . for other stations that use or have used the wtop call sign see wtop disambiguation . for the hubbard owned freeform station that broadcasts on former wtop repeater w282ba see wwfd . wtop radio city washington d.c. broadcast area washington d.c. baltimore maryland northern virginia shenandoah valley virginian piedmont central maryland eastern panhandle of west virginia branding wtop radio general wtop news newscasts slogan washington s top news frequency 103.5 mhz also on hd radio repeater s wtlp 103.9 braddock heights wwwt 107.7 manassas first air date september 25 1926 format analog hd 1 all news hd 2 worldband media hd 3 the gamut erp 44 kws haat 158 meters 518 ft class b callsign meaning originally at 1500 khz which was regarded as at the top of your radio dial former washington s top news affiliations cbs radio news abc news radio wrc tv owner hubbard broadcasting washington dc fcc license sub llc sister stations wbqh wfed wwfd webcast wtop webstream wtop webplayer website wtop online wtop is an all news formatted broadcast radio station licensed to washington d.c. serving its metropolitan area . wtop is owned by hubbard broadcasting . 1 2 3 4 the studios are located in the mclean gardens neighborhood on d.c. s northwest side and the transmitter is located at nearby american university . wtop is one of three all news stations in the washington d.c. metropolitan area the second being sister station am 1500 wfed which is aimed at federal government employees ; the third being 99.1 wdch fm owned by cbs . wtop s primary signal is at 103.5 with simulcasts on wtlp 103.9 fm from braddock heights maryland and wwwt 107.7 fm from manassas virginia . all stations in the wtop network broadcast in monaural to increase their coverage areas . wtop broadcasts in hd . 5 contents 1 history 1.1 1920s born in brooklyn 1.2 1930s cbs o & o 1.3 1940s 1.4 1960s and 70s all news 1.5 1990s 2010s move to fm 2 station profiles 3 programming 3.1 affiliations 4 ratings 5 recurring segments 6 awards 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history wtop s logo in 2000 . the wtop logo before wwwt 107.7 was added to the tri mulcast . the wtop logo after the wwwt signal was added . 1920s born in brooklyn wtop s origins trace back to brooklyn new york as station wtrc operated by the twentieth district republican club going to air september 25 1926 on 1250 kilocycles with a power of 50 watts . the twentieth republican club on august 2 1927 wtrc migrated to mount vernon hills virginia on january 10 1929 the call sign was changed to wjsv reflecting the initials of james s. vance who was publisher of the fellowship forum and a kkk grand wizard in virginia . realizing the expense of running a 10 000 watt radio station vance quickly worked out a deal with the nascent columbia broadcasting system to become the new network s primary station in washington d.c. cbs took over all of wjsv s programming and engineering costs with an option to renew or purchase the station after five years . 1930s cbs o & o in june 1932 cbs finally purchased wjsv and moved it from mount vernon hills to alexandria virginia . after three months off the air wjsv resumed broadcasting on october 20 1932 . arthur godfrey who later hosted a variety program on cbs radio and cbs television hosted a program on wjsv called the sundial on which he honed a laid back conversational style that was unusual on radio at the time . on september 21 1939 wjsv recorded its entire broadcast day for posterity . the famous one day in radio tapes still exist and copies can be found at various old time radio websites . wjsv was also a key training ground for pioneering newsman bob trout in the 1930s before he became a network correspondent . one of his broadcasting mentors was wells ted church who later became a cbs news executive . longtime los angeles area tv newscaster george putnam worked at wjsv in 1938 and continued to work in radio for seven decades until his death in 2008 . frank blair who later became an nbc news correspondent and later was a long time news anchor on the today show during the 1960s and early 1970s worked at wjsv . john daly longtime host of game show what s my line and 1950 s anchor on abc tv news also got his start on wjsv . 1940s in 1940 wjsv s operating power was increased to 50 000 watts with a new transmitter site built in wheaton maryland still in use today . 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 the calls were changed to the current wtop because its new frequency was now at the top of the mediumwave am band . the washington post bought a 55 % share in wtop from cbs in february 1949 and took over the remainder of the station in december 1954 . the wtop callsign was a coincidence under the newspaper s partial ownership as the callsign never stood for washington post . 1960s and 70s all news after its signature personality arthur godfrey left wtop in 1948 to concentrate on his television and midday network radio shows the station gradually faded in popularity as it faced competition from the washington star s wmal with the morning team of harden and weaver and nbc owned wrc which featured future today show personality willard scott . in the 1960s after a series of failed music formats wtop phased out its music programming for a combination of newscasts and phone in talk shows ; eventually the call in shows were dropped in favor of an all news format . among those working for wtop during this time were sam donaldson later on abc tv ; jim bohannon who took larry king s place on his all night radio network talk show after king went to cnn ; and including ralph begleiter and jamie macintyre both of whom went to cnn . wtop studios were apparently a critical link in emergency broadcast system activation scenarios during the cold war era . 6 the post sold wtop to the outlet company company in june 1978 in reaction to the fcc looking askance at common ownership of newspapers and broadcasting outets in the same city believing one company should not have too much control of local media . one month later wtop tv was swapped with the detroit news s wwj tv and became wdvm tv . the station is today wusa tv owned by gannett . the original fm frequency for wtop fm was 96.3 mhz but that frequency was donated to howard university . that station became whur in 1971 a commercially run radio station . 1990s 2010s move to fm outlet re organized and sold wtop to chase broadcasting in 1989 who in turn sold it to evergreen media which eventually became chancellor broadcasting in november 1992 . 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 . shortly afterward on october 10 1997 bonneville international corporation purchased wtop . on april 1 1998 94.3 was swapped for a stronger signal at 107.7 also licensed to warrenton . the 94.3 facility now relays the air feed for sports station wtem . then in december 2000 wtop gained another simulcast in frederick maryland with wxtr at 820 khz establishing the wtop radio network a name it used until 2006 . 7 in 2005 the station began providing podcasts of selected broadcast programs and in 2006 wtop began broadcasting in digital hd radio utilizing ibiquity digital corp. s iboc in band on channel technology . on january 4 2006 bonneville international announced that wtop would move to a new primary frequency of 103.5 fm then held by classical station wgms which would move to 103.9 and 104.1 fm . wtop s longtime facility at 1500 am as well as both fm translators 107.7 in warrenton and low powered 104.3 in leesburg would be reassigned to the new washington post radio for a march 30 2006 launch date . fittingly this new partnership also signaled the post s return to the radio scene on the very same dial spot wtop once held . the station has been dominant in the 25 54 demographics since moving to fm . 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 . hd radio digital subchannels of the 103.5 carrier originally had broadcast bonneville international s ichannel music format which features unsigned independent rock bands on the hd2 channel and the hd3 channel aired continuous traffic and weather updates . later ichannel was dropped for an lma of the hd2 to a group that currently airs programming aimed at the south asian community in the washington area . currently wtop fm s hd3 channel is carrying a wide ranging pop music channel called the gamut . in 2006 wtop dropped its long standing association with the weather channel and began airing weather reports exclusively from wjla tv all day long . previously wtop had used weather reports from wjla chief meteorologist doug hill during morning and evening rush hours and the weather channel all other times . until 2015 the station used all wjla meteorologists not just doug hill . wjla s live super doppler 7 has been featured in weather reports as necessary . in 2015 wtop began airing weather reports and using meteorologists exclusively from wrc tv all day long . in 2007 the wtop radio configuration was realigned once again . wtlp fm formerly wgys at 103.9 picked up the wtop simulcast on april 6 2007 after the adult hits george 104 simulcast with wxgg now wprs fm since sold to radio one was broken up and adopted the wtlp calls on july 5 2007 . also in 2007 wtop began broadcasting on wjla s weather now digital sub channel which is carried on cable systems well beyond wtop s broadcast area though this was ended in late july 2009 . in may 2007 wtop sold the naming rights to its glass enclosed nerve center its nickname for its studio to area business ledo pizza . 8 that sponsorship concluded at the end of 2007 . other sponsorship continues with sportscasts being fed by ledo pizza . 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 . on september 20 2007 the 1500 107.7 820 multicast changed format over to a general talk format as talk radio 3wt under the wwwt wwwt fm wwwb call letters which was cancelled on august 11 2008 . wwwt and wwwb took over the federal news radio format and for the 1500 khz facility the wfed calls 9 while wwwt fm went back to simulcasting wtop fm . the former wfed took over the wtop callsign on the am dial and became a simulcast of wtop with preemptions for sporting events . on june 13 2009 the 1050 am frequency changed to a separate news talk format operated by air america radio as wzaa . on january 26 2010 following the shutdown of air america radio wzaa returned to the wtop simulcast . it took back the wtop call letters on february 1 2010 . wtop am left the simulcast on