The history of this station can be traced back to 1928, when the FCC assigned the 1400kc frequency to be shared among five existing Brooklyn-based stations: WSGH, WSDA, WLTH, WCGU, and WBBC. By 1941, the four remaining stations, WVFW (formerly WSGH), WLTH, WARD (formerly WCGU), and WBBC merged to form WBYN, which started operating at 1430kc. WBYN, "Brooklyn`s Own Station", was sold to the Newark Evening News in 1946 and the call letters were changed to WNJR in 1947.

DJ Alan Freed`s first NY area show was heard on WNJR, and the station went on to play rhythm & blues and soul music from the early 50's through the early 90's. Under owner Multicultural Radio, the station switched from a multi-ethnic format to an Adult Standards format on 3/22/99, and the call letters were changed to WNSW on 6/11/99.  The Adult Standards format was replaced by Chinese language programming on March 1, 2001.  On March 1, 2002, the Chinese language programming on WNSW moved to WZRC 1480 AM, while the Korean language programming heard on WZRC moved to WNSW. The Korean programming was replaced by Spanish Contemporary Christian programming in May, 2007, and in January, 2011, the station adopted the "Voice of Russia" format.

  In April, 2014, Multicultural Radio agreed to sell WNSW to Starboard Media Foundation, a not-for-profit Catholic radio network. The sale was completed on August 27, 2014, and Starboard`s "Relevant Radio" programming debuted on August 28, 2014.