WSUM FM 91.7

A non-commercial student-run radio station licensed to Madison, Wisconsin, affiliated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The station broadcasts a diverse mix of music styles alongside talk programming, serving both the campus community and the broader Madison area. Studios and offices are located at 333 East Campus Mall, with the transmitter on County Highway A in Belleville, a community in Montrose south of the city. The University of Wisconsin–Madison has a historic connection to American broadcasting, having established WHA 970 AM as one of the earliest radio stations in the country. To complement that professionally staffed station, the university sought a student-operated outlet focused on training and campus service. A predecessor student station bearing the call sign WLHA operated from 1952 until it went off the air in 1993. Efforts to revive student radio began in 1995, led in part by Dr. James Hoyt, former chair of the School of Journalism, and graduate student Dave Black. The station launched as an internet-only service in 1997 and received FCC approval for a terrestrial transmitter in the town of Montrose. That approval came after a legal dispute with local residents, and over-the-air broadcasting began at 2:22 p.m. on February 22, 2002. The station has since grown to 24/7 programming and a membership exceeding 250 volunteers.