1986, at 6 p.m., The Rolling Stones' "It's All Over Now" and a bomb noise rang out, marking the end of WAPP. The station then flipped to a CHR/Dance/Urban Contemporary format as Hot 103, New York's Hottest Mix with new call letters WQHT. The first song on "Hot" was "R.S.V.P." by Five Star. No one in the radio industry expected it, but the new format that would be labeled "Rhythmic CHR" was taking shape. WQHT was the second such station with the format, months after Emmis launched it on KPWR in Los Angeles earlier that year. WQHT's first Program Director was Joel Salkowitz. Steve Ellis, formerly of WAPP, was Music Director. Don Kelly was the consultant for both WQHT and KPWR in those early months. WQHT played a different variety of music than what was on the New York radio dial at that time. There was no CHR/Dance station in the market since WKTU left the air a year earlier. WQHT came on the air with a new and improved dance-oriented format, which radio trade magazines of the day called a hybrid format. The station mixed in top 40 hits with dance and club music of the day. The station was also known for playing "hotmixes" or extended versions of certain songs. The "hotmixes" were either just the extended versions available commercially on 12" singles, or mixes that were created by local club DJs, such as "Little" Louie Vega. They also aired regular versions of the songs that had longer intros than that of their competitors. Noel used WQHT's version of his single "Silent Morning" for the song's music video, as evidenced in the video's credits. With the debut of WQHT, some record labels such as Atco and Elektra reportedly started to see a spike in 12" single sales in the New York metropolitan area, as was reported by Billboard. WQHT's imaging sounded similar to that of sister station KPWR, as WNAP alums Chuck Riley and Eric Edwards became the official voices of the station. While Chuck mainly voiced bumpers and sweepers, Eric on the other hand mostly voiced promos and specialty liners. These two were also the voices for other Emmis stations at the time such as KPWR, WLOL in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, and WAVA in Washington, D.C. A month after the station's launch, WQHT began adding an airstaff. Some of the first Hot 103 DJs to join WQHT were,