WGSO radio was originally an AM daytime station.  In the 1950s it used the call sign WJMR owned by George Mayoral and broadcast from the Jung Hotel. WJMR would become the sister station of WJMR-FM and WJMR-TV (New Orleans second television station in 1953).  In the mid-1950s it was home to "Poppa Stoppa" whose program featured long runs of uninterrupted Rock and Roll music. When WJMR-TV was sold the station call sign was changed to WNNR (Winner Radio). The station briefly became WLTS in the fall of 1984. On June 4, 1985 it became WYAT, broadcasting a syndicated Oldies format with some local DJ's during the day. On December 1, 1993 the station became WGSO.  In 2001, WGSO introduced New Orleans' first Business Talk format.

Suspecting Congressman Willian Jefferson of bribery, the FBI raided his Congressional offices in May 2006, but he was re-elected later that year. On June 4, 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Jefferson on sixteen felony charges related to corruption. Jefferson was defeated by Republican Joseph Cao on December 6, 2008, being the most senior Democrat to lose re-election that year. In 2009, he was tried in Virginia on corruption charges. On August 5, 2009, he was found guilty of eleven of the sixteen corruption counts. Jefferson's lawyers have promised to appeal, a gesture which New Orleans former U.S. attorney Harry Rosenberg told the Times-Picayune may work in Jefferson's favor because the jury failed to convict him on all sixteen of the indictment counts. Jefferson was sentenced to thirteen years on November 13, 2009, the longest sentence yet handed down to a congressman for bribery or any other crime.