18 Facts About WAMU

WAMU has been the primary National Public Radio member station for Washington since 2007.

WAMU began as an AM carrier-current student radio station, signing on July 28,1951 on, before shifting to in March 1952 and in November 1952.

In late 1960, the university received a non-commercial FM broadcasting license, and WAMU made its first FM broadcast on October 23,1961, on using a 4,000-watt second-hand transmitter acquired from WGBH in Boston.

From its inception as a student-run station, WAMU provided public affairs and educational programming.

In 1967, WAMU-FM began programming bluegrass music which, in its heyday on the main channel, included the Lee Michael Demsey Show and the Ray Davis Show and weekends included Stained Glass Bluegrass and West Virginia Public Radio's Mountain Stage.

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On May 7,2004, WAMU-FM began digital broadcasting using the HD Radio standard and launched the Americana-music station Bluegrass Country on its HD2 subchannel.

The station operated for several years an HD3 service, WAMU-3, broadcasting a mix of talk and music programming, including simulcast programming from Towson University's WTMD.

In 2013, WAMU moved to a new studio facility at 4401 Connecticut Ave.

The WAMU antenna serves WTOP, WPFW, and WETA; the tower hosts auxiliary antennas for WPGC and WMMJ.

Amid listener protests, WAMU management stated at that time that music was increasingly becoming out of place on the station's schedule, and cited listener surveys showing a desire for more news programming on weekends; after this change, a delayed broadcast of Live from Here was the only remaining music program on WAMU's schedule.

Bluegrass has a long history on WAMU, which included regular bluegrass programming on its main channel from 1967 to 2007.

In 2001, WAMU launched Bluegrass Country as an internet stream, and in 2007 it launched Bluegrass Country on WAMU-HD2 as an all-bluegrass HD Radio digital subchannel.

In July 2016, WAMU announced it would shut down Bluegrass Country for financial reasons that December 31, unless it could find a buyer for the station and access to its HD2 channel.

WAMU included access to its HD2 subchannel for at least two years.

From summer 2010 to June 2021, WAMU operated a 50,000 watt Class B Eastern Shore relay service on WRAU licensed to Ocean City, Maryland, with its transmission facilities in Whaleyville.

In February 2020, WAMU reached an agreement with Delaware Public Media for the sale of WRAU; however, the broadcasters unwound the deal in October 2020, citing economic changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2021, WAMU announced the sale of the station to Atlantic Gateway Communications, owner of Takoma Park, Maryland-based WGTS.

From 2014 to 2017, WAMU operated a second repeater, the 8,000 watt Class B1 WYAU on licensed to Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia, serving the Fredericksburg area.