The station was assigned the call signWCKD on April 1, 1989. On July 8, 1989, the station changed its call sign to WCKP;[2] it signed on September 30, 1989.[3] The call letters were changed on August 31, 1992, to WTHQ, on May 17, 2002, to WIBL, on May 29, 2003, to WJZO, on December 13, 2005, to WXTF, on March 21, 2006, to WLPP, and on April 16, 2007, to WKRD-FM.[2] Originally on 101.3 MHz, in 1996 WTHQ swapped frequencies with WMJM and moved to 101.7.[4]
The station license was transferred to Aloha Station Trust LLC at the completion of the privatization of Clear Channel Communications, a forerunner of iHeartMedia, Inc., which owns seven stations in Louisville, including WHAS and WAMZ. The Aloha Station Trust temporarily operated the stations that Clear Channel was required to divest as a condition of the privatization transaction.
As a result of a sale from Aloha Station Trust LLC to Southern Belle LLC, on January 12, 2012, the station again changed its call sign, this time to WVKY.