The commencement of WSUM’s on-air broadcasting marks the first time in six years of radio work and four years in radio at UW that Josh Ferguson, promotions director and DJ at UW Madison’s student radio station, has ever been on the air.

Ferguson’s history in radio began when he was a high school student and first discovered a local station that played the kind of music that appealed to teenagers.

“I thought radio was cool,” Ferguson said.

His radio career at the university started with a position as a DJ. Ferguson later became the jazz director and started his own mixed-music show. Now Ferguson is a senior at UW-Madison, and he has tackled the position of promotions director, which he says is giving him valuable marketing experience.

As a PR representative for the station, Ferguson performs a variety of services such as contacting newspapers, contracting designers to make posters and coordinating the radio’s involvement with bands that come to town.

Ferguson hopes to plan monthly social events that will serve as fundraisers for the station and also as a way for listeners to become more involved with WSUM than simply tuning their radios to 91.7 FM.

Since on-air broadcasting became a reality at WSUM, Ferguson said his job has become more exciting. He said members of the radio crew are enthusiastic and brimming with ideas, bands are requesting airtime and everyone is ready to see the culmination of all their hard work.

“Finally, the radio is involved in campus events,” Ferguson said, echoing the sentiments of many of his colleagues — the radio station is at last being taken seriously.

Despite his new position in promotions, Ferguson continues to DJ a mixed show, which runs Sunday nights from 7 to 11 p.m. He described the genre of music as electronic.

“[It covers] everything from bleeps and noise to house music,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson said he has many plans for his show, such as running hour-long syndicated shows from all over the world, which no other station in the city offers. He also hopes to obtain play lists from other local DJs, and invite them to the show to discuss their musical preferences and views on the music world.

“We want to play things people didn’t know they wanted to hear,” Ferguson said. “We want to appeal to everyone from big pants, raver kids to the normal college student.”

Ferguson said he is ecstatic the station is going on the air.

“My initial thought is pure excitement,” he said. “There’s an electricity in the air.”

Yosef Teklemariam, a fellow DJ at WSUM and UW senior, said he was confident Ferguson would be successful.

“He is an open-minded individual with a good vision in promotions and marketing,” Teklemariam said. “He is going to do well.”