Tucked away on the last page of the March 30, 1954 issue of The Daily Cardinal, students received their first formal announcement about student radio at the university. Most people who read the history of student radio in Madison think it began on March 29, 1952, but according to Daily Cardinal archives, it was actually two years later.
\WMHA 'Newest Station in the Nation' went on the air last night at 6:30 when Bob Brandel, WMHA general manager, threw the switch that sent the first official words over the air waves,"" the Cardinal reported.
It began as a small station in the basement of Gilman Hall, and was produced exclusively for dormitory residents. Its audience rarely surpassed a few hundred.
Almost 48 years later, student radio is being reborn at 2:22 p.m. today when WSUM, 91.7 FM goes on the air.
Although it would be impossible to fully capture the essence of the history of student radio on campus, here is an annotated glimpse at what other students have read throughout the decades in The Daily Cardinal about the hardships, accomplishments and ultimate success of student radio at UW-Madison.
""Since its beginning in 1954 the station has cost $1,822 to build and maintain, and $483 is budgeted for this year's operation. Except for a new transmitter, all WMHA equipment was designed and constructed by engineering students living in the dorms. ... 'Everybody listens in, even if only to keep track of how often we flub up,' chief engineer Steven Bomba commented.""
""The station, WLHA, sends its signal through telephone wires, and dormitory power lines act as broadcast antennas. The station's broadcasts can be heard over an ordinary radio, but only while inside or very close to one of the dormitories.
Each of the nearly 60 WLHA announcers averages one two-hour show weekly. With 25 studio engineers, eight technical engineers and nine executives, the entirely student-run station fills a broadcast week that averages 110 hours.""
""'Hi, Al Zussman along with Bob Gad bringin' you Badger hockey from the Dane County Coliseum.' Two freshman fans in Section H5 pretending to be radio announcers, right? With a rolled up program for a microphone.
No, Zussman and Gad aren't freshmen or even a vaudeville comedy team. They are honest-to-God [WLHA] broadcasters sitting in press row doing an actual play-by-play of Wisconsin hockey.
The reason you may have never heard them is that they work for WLHA, a dormitory radio station that reaches only Lakeshore, Elizabeth Waters, and Chadbourne dorms. On any given night, their audience rarely gets above 1,000.""
""The Students for Progressive Radio are currently trying to raise the estimated $30,000 they will need to set up a low-powered station that will carry over the campus, and possibly, all of Madison. The station will provide a badly-needed alternative to mainstream radio. ... Student radio stations are currently the main source of progressive radio in several cities. ... If a little school like MSOE can have a student radio station, why not UW-Madison?""
""The FCC revealed that when the station went from AM to FM in 1983, the station manager failed to obtain the proper licensing from the FCC. Instead, the manager searched the radio for an open frequency and just began broadcasting. ... The only available frequency is 91.7 FM out of Oregon, Wis., some 20 miles away, so WLHA would have to beam their signal into Oregon.""
""The town of Montrose failed again in its four-year quest to stop the construction of a WSUM student radio tower when a Dane County judge refused, Friday, to issue an injunction stopping UW-Madison from going ahead with the project.
UW-Madison Special Assistant to the Chancellor Lamarr Billups said last month that the tower should be finished 'before the bad weather comes.'\
