improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article may have too many section headers dividing up its content . please help improve the article by merging similar sections and removing unneeded subheaders . may 2015 this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . june 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message wktu city lake success new york broadcast area new york city area branding 103.5 ktu slogan the beat of new york frequency 103.5 mhz fm also on hd radio 103.5 2 fm pride radio hd radio first air date 1940 as w2xwg at 42.6 kc . 1948 103.5 as wnnj format rhythmic hot ac erp 6 000 watts haat 415 meters class b facility id 6595 callsign meaning we kater play on the word cater to you former callsigns w2xwg 1940 1948 at 42.6 ; the call letters used for this station from 1948 to 1988 on 97.1 can be found at wqht wnnj 1948 1949 wpat fm 1949 1958 off the air 1957 1958 wtfm 1958 1982 wapp 1982 1986 wqht 1986 1988 wyny 1988 1996 owner iheartmedia amfm radio licenses l.l.c. sister stations waxq whtz wltw wor wwpr fm webcast listen live website www.ktu.com wktu 103.5 fm branded 103.5 ktu is a rhythmic hot ac formatted radio station licensed to lake success new york united states a suburb of new york city . wktu is owned by iheartmedia and broadcasts from studios in the at & t building in the tribeca district of manhattan ; its transmitter is located on the top of the empire state building . contents 1 history 1.1 wnnj and pre move wpat fm 1.2 wgli fm wtfm 1.3 wapp 1.4 wqht 1.4.1 morning drive 1.4.2 wqht s big impact 1.4.3 hot night concert series 1.4.4 the original saturday night dance party 1.5 wyny 1.6 wktu 1.7 hd2 operation 2 signal 3 beatstock 4 notable personalities 4.1 current personalities 4.2 former personalities 5 references 6 external links history edit the complete history of this station prior to its move to the 103.5 frequency can be found on the wqht article . wnnj and pre move wpat fm edit the 103.5 frequency first went on the air in 1948 as wnnj which then changed its name to wpat fm . fm listenership was very light in those early days of fm broadcasting and in 1950 wpat fm s garrett mountain transmitter was damaged by a tropical storm and never re built . wpat fm was reborn in 1956 on 93.1 a frequency that became available when major armstrong signed off his experimental station . wpat fm was a top rated beautiful music outlet until the end of 1992 then was an adult contemporary station from the beginning of 1993 until january 1996 when it was acquired by spanish broadcasting who changed it to a spanish language format . wgli fm wtfm edit the wtfm logo from 1980 1982 the 103.5 frequency was assigned to babylon as wgli fm . in 1958 the station moved from babylon to lake success and transmitted with 20kw from a 200 foot stick outside the studio building visible from the long island expressway . a short time later the transmitter was relocated to the chrysler building and a major signal boost was accomplished . as wtfm the station used the slogan the international stereo sound of new york and played an instrumental based easy listening format until 1978 when the old wktu on 92.3 fm went from an adult contemporary format to a disco music format . as an easy listening station wtfm was up against two similar stations wrfm and wpat who had higher ratings . so in the fall of 1978 wtfm switched to an adult contemporary format even though ratings would remain low with the new format . wapp edit the wapp apple logo from 1982 1986 in early 1982 doubleday bought the station and that june the station switched to an album oriented rock format similar to wplj and wnew fm down the dial . the station was renamed the apple 103.5 with the call letters wapp . the station went commercial free for the duration of that summer and as a result it became the highest rated radio station in new york city . then when the station added commercials listeners switched back to wplj and wnew fm and so ratings went down . in 1983 when wplj switched to a chr format the station s ratings got a slight boost . in 1983 a then unknown jon bon jovi visited the station and wrote and sung the jingles for the station . he spoke with dj chip hobart who suggested bon jovi let wapp include the song runaway on the station s compilation album of local homegrown talent . bon jovi was reluctant but eventually gave them the song on which bon jovi had used studio musicians to play on runaway which was written in 1980 . wapp worked with wor tv now wwor tv in nearby secaucus nj on a music video show rock 9 videos for a short time in 1984 . as part of a marketing effort wapp fm launched a contest called new york rocks 1983 . local music acts were encouraged to submit demo tapes to this competition . among the tapes submitted to this contest was runaway but didn t win the competition . another act called the frankie carr band won the honors . this competition was repeated in 1984 . as 1984 progressed wapp s ratings were on the upswing . however the station s owners decided to change the station s format to chr that fall . they felt that if co owned stations in washington d.c. and minnesota could do well with the format then this station could as well . this would not be the case as the station could not compete with wplj or z 100 and their ratings fell . not even a change back to a rock format in the summer of 1985 would be able to turn the station s ratings around . wqht edit in 1986 emmis broadcasting bought wapp from doubleday . on august 13 1986 wapp began stunting with a classic rock format as classic 103 . on august 15 1986 at 6 pm the rolling stones it s all over now and a bomb noise rang out marking the end of wapp . the station then flipped to a chr dance format as hot 103 with new call letters wqht . the first song on hot was r.s.v.p. by five star . nobody in the radio industry expected it but the new format that would be labeled rhythmic chr was taking shape . wqht was the second such station with the format months after emmis launched it on kpwr in los angeles earlier that year . wqht s first program director was joel salkowitz . steve ellis formerly of wapp was music director . don kelly was the consultant for both wqht and kpwr in those early months . wqht played a different variety of music than what was on the new york radio dial at that time . there was no chr dance station in the market since wktu left the air a year earlier . wqht came on the air with a new and improved dance oriented format which radio trade magazines of the day called a hybrid format . the station mixed in top 40 hits with dance and club music of the day . the station was also known for playing hotmixes or extended versions of certain songs . the hotmixes were either just the extended versions available commercially on 12 singles or mixes that were created by local club djs such as little louie vega . they also aired regular versions of the songs that had longer intros than that of their competitors . noel used wqht s version of his single silent morning for the song s music video as evidenced in the video s credits . with the debut of wqht some record labels such as atco and elektra reportedly started to see a spike in 12 single sales in the new york metro as was reported by billboard magazine . wqht s imaging sounded similar to that of sister station kpwr as chuck riley and eric edwards became the official voices of the station . riley mainly voiced bumpers and sweepers while edwards mostly voiced promos and specialty liners . these two were also the voices for other emmis stations at the time such as kpwr wlol and wava . a month after the station s launch wqht began adding an airstaff . some of the first djs or hot jocks to join wqht were deborah rath from kpwr al bandiero from wktu big john monds from wusl in philadelphia sonny joe fox from kmel in san francisco fast freddie colon and niecie colon from wbls as well as vanessa scott rufus hurt and mitch phillips who were hold overs from wapp . broadway bill lee from denver s kpke joined the station around christmas 1986 . rick allen also joined as production director as well being the voice of wqht s electronic prizedroid robojock . allen and tm communications would customize kpwr s k power jingle package for wqht under the name of the hot streak and would be utilized on other stations . allen would go on to fame as the person who created the famous from the top of the world trade center legal id also voiced by chuck riley . because of the success of allen s production many radio production directors were impressed by his work and released some of the production elements and music beds used for wqht into syndication under the brand name continuous climax . by 1987 wqht was making a name for itself by playing freestyle in regular rotation . artists such as noel safire the cover girls and tka were made famous because they were played in heavy rotation right next to mainstream top 40 artists such as expos debbie gibson and taylor dayne . freestyle and club music from other cities such as miami who had and continues to have an active dance and club scene wasn t ignored either . company b and tiger moon who were famous in the florida club scene were played on wqht as well . in fact hot 103 pioneered custom station versions of songs where the artists would change lyrics and sing about the station . because of wqht s success with the genre whtz copied the station s success by adding a few freestyle titles as well as urban contemporary stations wbls and wrks who were playing long versions of the records they played as well . that same year wqht added a local weekly countdown show called new york s hot tracks hosted by bill lee which counted down the top 10 selling 12 singles of the week . the show started on sunday nights then moved to friday nights at 6 00pm and then later at 5 00pm . it featured short interview clips and aired sonovox numbers produced by rick allen identifying the chart position . hot tracks was produced for a time by pd joel salkowitz and researched by angie martinez who would later become an afternoon host after the station flipped to hip hop and r & b in 1992 . the show would later be hosted by jeff thomas and was cancelled in 1993 . in july 1987 wqht wanted to devote some airtime to older dance music at the urging of al bandiero . management agreed and thus began the disco classics showcase which