The station originally signed on the air in 1957 as WKTF and later changed to its current WKCW call sign in 1960.
For most of its history, WKCW or "Big K Radio" was one of the nation's longest-running traditional country music stations. After running the country format from 1960 to 2003 [6] it was sold and switched to a spanish variety format in 2004. [7][8] Over the years, the station went through a number of formats from spanish variety, gospel, news, oldies, adult hits to the current classic hits.
WKCW is heard during daytime hours, "From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Beltway," covering all of Northern Virginia with its whopping 22,000 watt transmitter, among the most powerful in the Washington, DC and Fredericksburg designated market areas (DMA). At night, the station cuts their power down to 60 watts to protect other radio stations operating at 1420 kHz.
