The station launched on July 1, 1967, as WDUZ-FM, the sister station to WDUZ, on 98.3 with 3,000 watts and a minimal antenna height of 77', and aired a beautiful music format until January 15, 1990. At that time, the station shifted to a soft adult contemporary format as "Light 98.5 WQLH" (meaning "Quality Light Hits").[2] The format would evolve into a more modern (and more upbeat) hot adult contemporary playlist by the mid-1990s (with the station being rebranded as "98.5 Mix FM"), eventually adopting the "Star 98" branding in December 1999, when the station was purchased by Cumulus Media.[3][4][5]
Cumulus swapped WQLH and four other Green Bay stations to Clear Channel in 2009 in exchange for two Cincinnati radio stations; however, Cumulus continued to operate the stations. In August 2013, Clear Channel reached a deal to sell the five stations back to Cumulus.[6]
