WLIB is an urban contemporary gospel

Urban contemporary gospel

Traditional black gospel is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music...

 AM radio station

Radio station

Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

 located in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. WLIB is owned by Inner City Broadcasting Corporation

Inner City Broadcasting Corporation

The Inner City Broadcasting Corporation is an American media company based in New York City. ICBC is notable for being one of the first broadcasting companies wholly owned by black people...

 along with sister station WBLS

WBLS

WBLS is an urban adult contemporary FM radio station in New York City, operating on 107.5 MHz. WBLS is owned by Inner City Broadcasting Corporation along with sister station WLIB...

 (107.5 FM). The two stations share studios in Midtown Manhattan

Midtown Manhattan

Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...

, and WLIB's transmitter is located in Lyndhurst, New Jersey

Lyndhurst, New Jersey

Lyndhurst is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 20,554.Lyndhurst was originally formed as Union Township on February 19, 1852 from portions of Harrison Township...

.
When WLIB first went on the air the station's target audience was upper middle-class and wealthy New Yorkers, as evidenced by its format of classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 and popular standards which competed with WQXR

WQXR-FM

WQXR-FM is an American classical radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. It is the most-listened-to classical-music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000...

. The station was purchased by New York Post

New York Post

The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

 publisher Dorothy Schiff

Dorothy Schiff

Dorothy Schiff was an owner and then publisher of the New York Post for nearly 40 years. She was a granddaughter of financier Jacob H. Schiff...

 in 1944, and regularly ran news updates from the Posts newsroom at various times during the day.

In 1949 WLIB was purchased by the New Broadcasting Company.