The origins of this station date to 1940, when a construction permit for station W2XWF was issued to William G.H. Finch for the 42.18 MHz frequency. The call letters W55NY were adopted in 1941 and the call letters WFGG were later adopted. By 1946, the station was broadcasting with the call letters WGHF on 99.7, moving to 101.9 in 1947. On November 17, 1955, the call letters were changed to WBFM and the station featured Muzak.  WBFM was sold to the Daily News in November, 1963, and on October 11, 1964, it became WPIX, a station which featured a wide variety of popular music formats over the years, including Adult Top 40, Disco, New Wave Rock, AOR, and AC.

   The call letters WQCD were adopted on 8/15/88, by which time a Smooth Jazz format was already in place. The station was sold to Emmis Communications in 1997. After nearly twenty years as a Smooth Jazz station, WQCD adopted the WRXP call letters and a Rock format on February 5, 2008.  In June, 2011, owner Emmis agreed to sell WRXP to Merlin Media LLC, comprised of private equity firm GTCR (controlling owner), 25% owner Emmis, and programmer Randy Michaels (1% owner). The final day of the WRXP Rock format was July 14, 2011. On July 15, 2011, Merlin began running the station under a LMA, featuring an interim Rock AC format. The call letters were changed to WEMP on July 21, 2011. An all-news format was introduced on August 11, 2011 as "FM News 101.9". The sale of the station to Merlin Media Licence, LLC was finalized on September 1, 2011.

   Merlin Media returned 101.9 to an Alternative Rock format on July 17, 2012, and the call letters were changed back to WRXP from WEMP on July 25, 2012. On October 8, 2012, it was announced that WRXP was being sold to CBS Radio, and on November 2, 2012, the call letters were changed to WFAN-FM and a simulcast of sports talk WFAN began. The sale to CBS Radio was completed in December, 2012.

   CBS Radio merged into Entercom Communications, effective November 17, 2017.