The 1450 frequency in Atlantic City first hit the airwaves in 1940 with its original call letters of WFPG, which stood for "World's Famous Play Ground." For several decades, WFPG aired a full service format, which included a mixture of adult standards, big band, and easy listening music, from studios on the world famous Steel Pier on the Atlantic City boardwalk.

Towards the late 1970s, when casino gambling arrived in Atlantic City, WFPG became "Win 1450" and changed its call letters to WIIN. In 1985, Rog Tees took over as news director and hired anchors, Jeff Scott, Greg Gaston, Carla Contento Kenny, and Vince Scanlon, along with sports director Jim Wise and sports anchor Greg Toland. When the all-news/talk anchors departed for other positions in larger markets, ratings plummeted. By 1988, the WFPG call letters, which had remained in use on a co-owned FM station, had returned to the AM facility.

For much of the 1990s, syndicated talk programs such as Bob Grant, Mike Gallagher, and Art Bell were mainstays of the station's line-up.

In 1999, WFPG became one of the first affiliates of the Comedy World Radio Network. A year later, Comedy World went out of business and the station resorted to simulcasting WFPG-FM during most hours.

Shortly after entering the new century, WFPG and its sister stations were purchased by the Millennium Radio Group, which also owns New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. In March, 2002, New Jersey 101.5 began using 1450 as its South Jersey shore simulcast facility, with a call letter change from WFPG to WKXW.

In 2003, the New Jersey 101.5 simulcast moved to WXKW at 97.3 and ESPN Radio sports programming took its place. In June 2006, 1450 AM changed its call letters to WENJ to reflect its ESPN Radio branding.

In June 2009, the ESPN format was moved to the more powerful 97.3 WENJ-FM signal and WENJ began to carry ESPN Deportes Radio. This lasted until January 2011, when ESPN Deportes was dropped for a simulcast of WENJ-FM.