In 1953  WINS became one of the first stations in the United States to play rock and roll music full time. 
In the fall of 1954, Alan Freed was hired as a disc jockey on WINS. 
In 1958, Murray "the K" Kaufman joined as the all-night DJ, naming his show the Swingin' Soiree.[
Noted sports broadcaster Les Keiter served as sports director for a period in the 1950s. Keiter is perhaps best remembered for his recreations of San Francisco (formerly New York) Giants baseball games, which WINS carried in 1958 to keep disconnected Giant fans in touch with their team. The Giants had moved west along with the Brooklyn Dodgers the previous year.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the transistor radio became popular, especially with young people who could carry radios with them everywhere, rock and roll solidified as a genre, thanks in large measure to what became known as Top 40 radio. In New York, four stations battled in the category: WMCA (570 AM), WMGM (1050 AM), WABC (770 AM), and WINS. While WMCA was only 5,000 watts, it was at the bottom end of the dial, which gave it better coverage than might be expected for its power; the other three were all 50,000 watts, but only WABC was both non-directional and a clear channel station. Of those three, WINS was the most directional (aimed straight at New York's inner boroughs), with a weaker signal than the others toward the New Jersey suburbs (primarily to protect 50,000 watt CFRB in Toronto, Canada, which is also on 1010) and the Jersey Shore.
In 1962, WMGM adopted a beautiful music format under its previous call letters, WHN, while WINS was purchased by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
 On April 18, 1965, around 8:00 pm, WINS bowed out of Top 40 competition with the song "Out in the Streets", by The Shangri-Las.
WMCA enjoyed some early success after WINS and WMGM left the Top 40 format, but WABC became the dominant Top 40 station in New York City by 1965.

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