WXCI 91.7 FM

A student-operated noncommercial educational radio station licensed to Danbury, Connecticut, WXCI is owned and operated by Western Connecticut State University. The station broadcasts at 3,000 watts on 91.7 FM with a stereo transmitter located on WCSU's Westside Campus, while its studios are situated on the Midtown campus. The signal reaches audiences in Connecticut and across portions of New York, and the station also streams its programming online. The station traces its origins to an AM carrier-current and public address operation within dormitories and the student center, known then as WSCT and founded by Bob Wilson in 1968. The current FM license was obtained from the FCC on February 28, 1973, with the inaugural broadcast airing at 12:30 pm that day. At launch, the station transmitted at just 10 watts; power was increased to 760 watts in 1978. The call sign was changed to WXCI at the time of the FM transition. By 1982, WXCI had established itself as one of the first FM stations in the United States to adopt an alternative rock format, a genre still uncommon in American radio at the time. In its early years the station provided significant airplay to artists including REM, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, U2, Culture Club, Duran Duran, and Black Flag, contributing to the wider popularization of new wave and alternative rock. The station continues to operate in this tradition, regularly adding new music to its rotation and maintaining an active online presence through playlists and programming documentation.