University of Illinois Press

Hugh Slotten, author of the recent book Radio’s Hidden Voice: The Origins of Public Broadcasting in the United States, was interviewed by Jennifer Waits for the Radio Survivor site.

Jennifer: There’s a great deal of conflicting information about who can rightfully claim to be the “first” college radio station in the U.S. In your opinion, which station was the first?

Hugh: It depends on the criteria you use to figure this out.  They didn’t give “broadcast” station licenses until after WWI.  There clearly were experiments going on as early as the late 1890s with radio or wireless at universities (wireless telegraphy). . . . The University of Wisconsin was one of the first university stations to broadcast voice transmissions.  It also continued to operate during WWI (the other ones were forced to shut down).  I think that is why it claims to be the earliest continuously operated broadcast station.  But you see that it depends on the specific criteria you use.