State-of-the-Art Station

Dominic Dorais-Burt x’25 DJ’s his radio show Songs I’ll Show My Children on WSUM, featuring two friends as guests. Bryce Richter

It’s unusual for a large university not to have a student radio station, but for several years, that was the case for UW–Madison until WSUM 91.7 FM began broadcasting in 2002. The station’s predecessor, WLHA, broadcast through the res halls’ power lines rather than from a tower. The station took various forms from 1952 until 1993, when it switched from AM to FM and ran afoul of the FCC for using too much power.

After years of effort, WSUM acquired a tower in the town of Montrose, Wisconsin, and began broadcasting with full power. In contrast to WLHA, which could initially only be heard in some Lakeshore dorms, WSUM’s 5,500-watt signal extends outside of Madison nearly as far north as the Wisconsin Dells.

More than 200 student volunteers are involved with the award-winning station, which has 17 paid student staff and two full-time employees. WSUM has an internet station and an FM live station and broadcasts podcasts, talk shows, sports, and news as well as music.

In 2008, the station moved into its current 3,000-square-foot location, on the fourth floor of the Student Activity Center on East Campus Mall. Before that, it made do with standard office space in the Towers on State Street above Urban Outfitters — a step up from its brief home in a graduate student’s office in Vilas Hall.

The current space was specially designed to be a radio station, with soundproofing on the walls and six studios, including one each for broadcasting, podcasts, and training and three for editing. “The space we’re in was designed specifically for WSUM, and WSUM students at the time had a hand in planning the layout,” says Kelsey Brannan ’14, director of student radio.

The spacious area pays tribute to WLHA with historical photos, newspaper articles, and memorabilia covering nearly every inch of the walls, along with a profusion of concert posters.

“What we have is pretty phenomenal — it’s state of the art,” says station manager Anna Thompson x’25, adding that they have “the Cadillac of turntables.”

Thompson has been involved with the radio station since her freshman year and says it helped her find community on a large campus. “It’s a great gig,” she says. “I’ve loved it very much. Even if no one was listening, I’d still do it.”

Published in the Winter 2024 issue