WVSS (90.7 FM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed to

Menomonie, Wisconsin Menomonie () is a city in and the county seat of Dunn County in the western part of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The city's population was 16,843 as of the 2020 census. Named for the original inhabitants of the area, the Menominee, the city fo ...

. The station is part of

Wisconsin Public Radio Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) is a network of 34 public radio stations in the state of Wisconsin. WPR's network is divided into two distinct analog services, the ''Ideas Network'' and the ''NPR News & Music Network,'' as well as the ''All Classi ...

(WPR) and airs WPR's "

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

News & Music Network", consisting of

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

and news and talk programming, as well as local news from WPR's regional studio in Eau Claire. Prior to being a Wisconsin Public Radio transmitter, WVSS was a station programmed by students at the

University of Wisconsin–Stout The University of Wisconsin–Stout (UW–Stout or Stout) is a public university in Menomonie, Wisconsin. A member of the University of Wisconsin System, it enrolls more than 9,600 students. The school was founded in 1891 and named in honor of it ...

in Menomonie. Student programming moved off the FM frequency in 1988, and it broadcast classical music programming for two years until joining WPR in 1990.

History

On April 1, 1968, Stout State University was awarded a construction permit to build a new radio station on 89.5 MHz, to broadcast with 10 watts; a committee had been researching the idea of a station as early as 1966. WVSS began broadcasting in 1970, initially operating for seven hours a day; this soon expanded, and the station broadcast from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. by 1980. The studios were located in what had been the boys' locker room in the basement of the former Central Elementary School, which the university had previously purchased to convert into a communications center. Broadcasts were upgraded to stereo in 1975; the first broadcasts over the summer took place in 1980, to come into compliance with new

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) regulations. In 1988, student programming from UW–Stout moved to a cable system as "C-Rock", in part so that the students could produce programming without meeting FCC rules and also to allow for the student operation to be supported by local advertisers. The general manager, Arthur "Ace" Matthews, implemented an automated schedule of classical music programming. This had originally been put in place to help the station meet FCC minimum operating hour requirements; Matthews spent about $6,000 of his own money on a collection of some 540 classical music CDs. The station then went silent for seven months in 1990 to replace its antenna and returned with WPR programming that November. The changes came at a time when WPR was restructuring into two program services—the NPR News & Classical (now News & Music) service used by WVSS and the Wisconsin Ideas Network—but only had one transmitter to cover western Wisconsin. In 1994, WPR proposed to co-site the WVSS transmitter with WHWC at a site near

Wheeler Wheeler may refer to: Places United States * Wheeler, Alabama, an unincorporated community * Wheeler, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Wheeler, California, an unincorporated community * Wheeler, Illinois, a village * Wheeler, Indiana, a ...

. The site change was mutually exclusive with an application by Wisconsin Voice of Christian Youth—owner of

WVCY-FM WVCY-FM (107.7 FM) is a radio station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Owned by VCY America, WVCY-FM is the flagship affiliate of their Milwaukee-based Christian radio network. The station also has multiple translators within the state of Wiscon ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

—for a radio station in Eau Claire, which was ultimately the one approved in December 1995. The News & Music service is now heard in Eau Claire on WUEC.

Programming

The NPR News & Music Network, heard on WVSS, offers the national ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 AM ...

'' and ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

'' programs from NPR, as well as ''

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to 6 ...

'' and ''

Marketplace A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...

'', and classical music during the day and at night.

References

External links

Wisconsin Public Radio
* {{coord, 44.9155, N, 92.0763, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title University of Wisconsin–Stout VSS Wisconsin Public Radio Classical music radio stations in the United States NPR member stations Radio stations established in 1970 1970 establishments in Wisconsin