WOR signed on February 22, 1922, with the help of engineers Orville Orvis and Jack Poppele, who powered up a DeForest transmitter on the 6th floor of Bamberger's Department Store at 131 Market St. in Newark and played Al Jolson's record of "April Showers."  Louis Bamberger, original owner of the station, had wanted the station to be called WLB, but those call letters had already been assigned, so the station received a re-issued ship's call, WOR.  The ship, by the way, was the S.S. California, owned by Orient Lines.  WOR started off on 360 meters (833 on our present AM band) - the only frequency available in the early days of radio - licensed to Newark, NJ.  WOR initially shared time with two other stations: WDT and WJY.  Jessie E. Koewing became station manager, one of the first women to hold such a position.  WOR was the only station to broadcast on Christmas Day 1922, and thus was the first sound heard by those who found a crystal set under the tree that year.

In June 1923, WOR moved to 740, sharing time with WJY, and in December 1924, WOR added a studio in Manhattan, on the 9th floor of Chickering Hall at 27 W. 57th St.  Morning exercise sessions - New York's first wake-up show - originated from there, conducted by publisher and physical culturist Bernarr MacFadden.  The control operator at Chickering was an English-born engineer named John B. Gambling, who was soon given announcing duties as well.  When MacFadden called in sick one morning, Gambling took over the whole program.  He later turned it into the "Sun Up Society," "Musical Clock," and later "Rambling With Gambling" and established a dynasty of Gamblings who would awaken WOR listeners for the rest of the 20th century.  Some celebrities like Paul Whiteman, Harry Houdini and Charlie Chaplin came to the WOR microphones, whose appearances were arranged by Alfred "Hollywood" McCosker.

In 1926, McCosker became WOR's managing director.  In July 1926, WJY shut down, giving WOR full use of the 740 frequency.  Later that year, the station moved its New York studio to 1440 Broadway, two blocks from Times Square.  In June 17, 1927, WOR moved to 710 AM.  In the fall of 1927, WOR moved its Newark studio to 147 Market St.  WOR was the first New York station to carry programming of the Columbia Broadcasting System, originating CBS's premiere broadcast on September 18, 1927.  It alternated with the Atlantic Broadcasting Company's WABC as the CBS outlet in New York, and after William S. Paley became head of the struggling network in 1928, he offered to buy either of the local affiliates as the New York flagship.  Bamberger was willing to sell WOR to Paley, but WABC was cheaper, and in September 1929, WOR and CBS parted.  In 1929, Bamberger's was bought by R.H. Macy & Co., with WOR in the package.  Even though the Newark studios were enlarged and the corporate name changed to Bamberger Broadcasting Service, some Jerseyites protested that WOR had become a New York station.  McCosker replied, "Although most of our programs go on the air from the Broadway site, Newark is WOR's home."

In 1931, when a new trade magazine called Broadcasting appeared, the cover of its first edition was a full-page ad from WOR.  In 1934, during an era when newspapers were able to restrict access to news by radio stations, WOR helped to form the Transradio wire service and aired five 15-minute newscasts a day.  Newspapers wanted to retaliate by dropping free daily program listings, but the popularity of WOR and the potential loss of print advertising from Macy's and Bamberger's neutralized the threat and opened the way for wider news coverage.  During the 1930's, WOR featured children's programs, such as "Sky Pictures By Mr. Radiobug" and "Chandu, The Magician," where in the autumn of 1932, had WOR's biggest mail pull - drawing 8000 letters a week.  The biggest children's personality on WOR was "Uncle Don" aka Don Carney, the stage name of Howard Rice.  Uncle Don was such a wholesome and beloved figure that people were shocked to learn that during one of his broadcasts, thinking the microphone was off, muttered something like, "That ought to hold the little bastards for another day."  Whether this incident really occurred has been a matter of dispute since the day it happened, or didn't happen.

In the autumn of 1934, WOR formed the Mutual Broadcasting System.  Additional studios were built at the New Amsterdam Theatre and the converted Guild and Longacre Theatres in the Times Square district.  Several best-known dramatic programs originated from WOR's studios, including "The Shadow", "Nick Carter, Private Detective" and "True Detective Mysteries."  On March 4, 1935, WOR officially upgraded their power to 50,000 watts - with the help of President Roosevelt.  In 1938, WOR tried to push into the future when it began facsimile transmission, utilizing overnight hours to experimentally deliver a morning newspaper and other printed matter by radio.  The effort never met with public favor, though it can be seen as a forerunner to today's online services.  Most of WOR's daytime schedule consisted of families, including Ed and Pegeen Fitzgerald, Dorothy Kilgallen and Dick Kollmar, and Alfred and Dora McCann.  The Fitzgerald's show had a run of 44 years and later Patricia McCann took over her parent's program in 1975.  WOR's local programming was often the testing ground for shows that would turn into network features.  "Can You Top This", a gagfest created by Roger Bower, became a national favorite in 1942.  In the 1940's, low-budget quiz and audience-participation shows were regularly featured such as "Twenty Questions", "True Or False", "Quick As A Flash" and even impromptu quiz sessions from in front of WOR's studios at 1440 Broadway.  Twice each day from 1937 to 1952, "The Answer Man" (Albert Mitchell) responded to listener's questions about literally anything.  On February 1, 1941, WOR officially changed its city of license from Newark NJ to New York.  In December 1952, the Bamberger Broadcasting Service transferred WOR to General TeleRadio, a subsidiary of the General Tire and Rubber Company, and when General Tire acquired RKO, the corporate name became RKO-General.  In 1956, WOR created "Music From Studio X".  It was simply continuous pop music, but it originated from a special high-fidelity studio and each clean new record was touched by a needle only one time.  The host was John A. Gambling (whose father was still doing the morning show).  On March 17, 1958, WOR broadcast the first stereophonic recording heard on New York radio.  The Audio Fidelity discs were heard during John Scott's news and information program, "Radio New York" and the other channel as part of the "Ted Steele Show" on WOR-TV, Channel 9.  This was 5½ years after the start of WQXR's AM/FM "binaural" service, but 3 years before FM multiplex stereo.

In 1959, WOR left the Mutual network to again become an independent station.  Its strong local personality did not leave it unsure of its future.  Under the leadership of news director Dave Driscoll, the station's news coverage was among the city's most solid, announced by some of radio's best voices including, Henry Gladstone, John Scott, Prescott Robinson and Harry Hennessey.  WOR continued to focus on local talk persoanlites, including Arlene Francis, nutritional guru Carlton Fredericks, financial advisor Bernard Meltzer, husband and wife team Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenberg, Jean Shepherd and "Long John" Nebel, who specialized in the offbeat and the occult (he left for WNBC in 1964 and later went to WMCA.

In the late 1960's, WOR featured hourly 15 minute newscasts and a 2 hour news block from 6 to 8pm - the city's most extensive news coverage in the days before the start of all-news radio.  There was an attempt to rekindle daytime radio drama in the 1970's, and it became the home of comedy team, Bob & Ray.  In the mid-1980's, WOR's quest for a younger (and more male) audience resulted in the retirement of some of the station's most durable personalities.  John A. Gambling stayed at WOR, and his son, John R., officially took over The WOR Morning Show on December 15, 1990.  "Rambling With Gambling" was responsible for over 40 percent of the station's income.  However, in the late 1990's, the Gambling empire finally came to an end, when WOR revamped their schedule.  In 1987, the FCC forced RKO-General to divest itself of its stations.  WOR was sold to Buckley Broadcasting.  In October 2002, WOR became the first AM station in New York to utilize its IBOC (In Band-On Channel) digital signal.