WHFS (historic) - 1980s and 1990s

1980s and 1990s

In early 1983 Jacob Einstein sold the station to the owners of WTOP (AM) for $2 million which Einstein then used to purchase WNAV AM and WLOM FM Annapolis, Maryland. Eventually, WNAV-AM was sold and passed through several owners (including being resold to Einstein in the mid 1990s) until WNAV-AM was ultimately sold to Pat Sajak, the game-show host, in 1998. Einstein took the 'HFS call letters with him and WLOM-FM 99.1 became WHFS (FM) in Autumn 1983 with much higher power than the 102.3 facility. Eventually Einstein's group sold WHFS. When the station switched formats, it was located at the Infinity Broadcasting Center in Lanham, Maryland. The 102.3 frequency is now occupied by an Urban AC station in Washington, using the call letters WMMJ and nicknamed "Majic 102.3".

A daily topical humor "news" show, "The Daily Feed", aired for much of the 1980s on WHFS. It featured the sarcastic "Max Nobny" exchanging wit with straightman and nominal narrator, the Baltimore-accented "Frank Benlin", discussing current issues and using classic passion plays such as Star Trek parodies (during the Gulf shipping crisis of the mid-1990s when the U.S. reflagged Middle Eastern tankers) as a comedy vehicle. During Washington Mayor Marion Barry's drug case, a faux-Washington, D.C. tourism promo by the Feed referred to the mayor for life, adding that he "is featured on a totally hidden federal video program."

Sunday broadcasts featured paid foreign language/culture specialty shows in the morning. In the afternoon in the 1980s, Tom Terrell would host Sunday Reggae Splashdown.

Since 1990, WHFS has hosted an event called the HFStival, an annual (sometimes semi-annual) day-long (sometimes two-day-long) outdoor concert. The concert, often held at Washington's RFK Stadium, features a variety of local and national acts; for example, the 2004 lineup included The Cure, Jay-Z, Modest Mouse, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Cypress Hill. Robert Benjamin, Bob Waugh and Bill Glasser took the HFStival from a small yearly concert at Lake Fairfax in Reston, Virginia, to a large festival in Washington DC that was headlined by major acts and was surrounded by culturally significant booths, games, food, and rides, as well as an outdoor second stage.

In the mid-1990s, Liberty Broadcasting published a quarterly magazine titled "WHFS Press" that was mailed to listeners and available in local music outlets.