At the end of 1979, WXKS' AM station dropped disco to adopt an adult standards format, while WXKS-FM slowly evolved into urban contemporary when disco's popularity crashed. By the end of 1981 and into early 1982, the station became a CHR with a heavy Rhythmic R&B/Dance direction under the guidance of White, and in turn became one of the most influential top 40 stations in the nation, in part due to their reputation for breaking songs that did not fit the traditional top 40/CHR model, and given that Boston lacked an urban contemporary FM outlet during this period (since WILD was an AM daytimer), it wasn't afraid to play songs from that genre. The genre would later become the format now known as rhythmic contemporary, which is now the current format of sister station WJMN. By 1988, WXKS-FM began to shift out of the rhythmic direction and evolved into its current successful mainstream top 40/CHR format. On February 9, 1996, sister station WYNY in New York City simulcasted WXKS-FM from 6 AM to 6 PM as part of a week-long stunt of simulcasting sister stations nationwide before flipping formats to rhythmic adult contemporary the following day as WKTU.