Despite several changes in name, call numbers and broadcast format, WSUM, UW-Madison’s student radio station, is set to celebrate one year of on-air broadcasting with a “Birthday Bash” this weekend.
UW-Madison has had its share of radio stations since the 1950s, but funding challenges as well as name- and ownership-changes made it difficult to sustain anything permanent. WSUM changed all that when it commenced broadcasting over the Internet, via a netcast, in the late 1990s.
The station was able to keep its popularity at high enough levels to officially go “on the air,” and its broadcast became official at 2:22 p.m. Feb. 22, 2002.
WSUM will celebrate its one-year anniversary at Luther’s Blues this Saturday. The event will feature local bands as well as DJs and WSUM personalities.
More inside: for more of WSUM’s history and details about the birthday celebration, turn to ArtsEtc., p. 10B.
