Best remembered for its days as "Musicradio 77 WABC", this station, as WJZ, was the first regular broadcast station in the New York area; it is the oldest radio station on the air in New York. Debuting in October, 1921, WJZ became the flagship station of the NBC Blue Network in 1927 and moved to its present frequency in 1941. The station was sold in 1943 and became part of the American Broadcasting Company in 1945, taking the WABC call letters on May 1, 1953. With the advent of television, the station began rock and roll music programming in 1958, moving fully into its prime "All-American" Musicradio era by 1961. The present talk format was adopted in 1982. Disney/ABC completed its sale of WABC to Citadel Broadcasting on June 12, 2007. Citadel was acquired by Cumulus Media in September, 2011.

  Effective March 2, 2020, WABC was acquired by Red Apple Media, owned by John Catsimatidis.