For years 1330 was WEVD, named after the Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs. The Socialists purchased radio station WSOM/1220, transmitting from Woodhaven in the New York City borough of Queens in August 1927 as a means of reaching a mass audience with socialist ideas. Owing to the party's financial difficulties station was taken over by the publishing association of the left wing Yiddish-language daily newspaper the The Jewish Daily Forward in 1932.

In 1952, The Forward purchased FM station 97.9, renaming it WEVD-FM (now WSKQ-FM). The AM station shared its frequency with another station, also licensed to New York City, WPOW (formerly called WBBR, no relation to the current station with those call letters on 1130). In 1981 The Forward sold 1330 to Salem Communications, now know as the Salem Media Group, a large owner of religious radio stations. Salem renamed the station WNYM and made it a Christian formatted station from 6 AM to 4:30 PM while running foreign language religious shows after 4:30 PM.

In 1983 Salem leased the entire broadcast day except from 6 AM to 9 AM to Radio Vision. The station at that time shifted to its current Spanish Religious format. In 1989 Salem bought 570 WMCA and sold WNYM to Radio Vision. The Spanish religious format was expanded to broadcast all day, every day, and the station call sign was changed to WWRV to reflect the station's new identity.