No, WSUM isn’t UW–Madison’s first student station — nor its second, either. It’s actually the third, and it wasn’t even originally a radio station, technically. Stay tuned, and we’ll give you the full story. The UW launched one of the oldest radio stations in the country when it created 9XM in 1917 — not the first radio broadcast, mind, but it claims to be the first station because it was the first broadcaster to give regularly scheduled programming. In 1922, the station’s call letters changed to WHA. Engineering student Charlet Bartlett ’52 was frustrated with WHA because it stopped broadcasting at sundown, so he decided to pirate the station’s frequency, 970 AM. Bartlett, who had a crystal radio set, began airing classical music at night, calling his “station” WMHA — which stood for Wisconsin Men’s Hall Association (and sounded a lot like WHA). His idea proved popular, and WMHA lived on after he graduated. In 1960, WMHA moved to Schlichter Hall and changed its name to WLHA (Wisconsin Lakeshore Halls Association). It wasn’t exactly radio initially — instead, most students listened to its programming over power lines and phone lines. But later WLHA acquired the right to use the frequency 640 AM, and so WLHA was the second student station. It lasted until 1993. After WLHA’s final signoff, there was a student-shaped hole in the Madison radio market until 1997, when WSUM began operations as an internet-only station. Five years later, WSUM finally joined the airwaves at 91.7 FM, making it UW–Madison’s third student radio station.

Support future generations of Badgers with a gift to the WAA Scholarship Fund.