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WSUM is staffed almost entirely by volunteers. DJs and talk show hosts complete both on-air and off-air work. WSUM is not looking for trainees for the singular purpose of doing a show on the radio. We expect our trainees to become a part of the larger organization and contribute to the station community as a whole.

Participation at WSUM is open to any qualified volunteer but special efforts should be made to accommodate registered student volunteers. Community members can be trained at the discretion of the program director in consultation with the general manager. We are looking for people who are serious about being part of our radio experience. 

All UW-Madison students are welcome. WSUM is your campus community radio station. It operates at 91.7 FM and is licensed to the University of Wisconsin. Your station manager, program director and other
executives in charge of programming and other aspects of the station are students.

We are in our tenth year as one of the best free-form stations in the country. Our goal is to be an alternative source of entertainment to the major stations in Madison. We’re looking for DJs interested in wonderful under-played music and for talk show hosts looking to inform the Madison community on pertinent issues. With your time and commitment, we will establish and maintain our position as the best free-form radio station in the U.S.

To Qualify for Training:

1) Write a concise but illuminating statement of interest (why I want to be a part of WSUM) and send it to prog@wsum.wisc.edu;

2) In that email, include your availability in the evenings, Sunday through Thursday. Please be as flexible as you can be in setting your availability schedule. We will only be scheduling you for one hour per week but need options to make sure we have room for everyone.

3) Come to the station between 8 and 10 any weeknight for a tour. Ask for the ‘traffic director.’ Make sure that the traffic director records your name.

4) Attend the first training meeting at the start of the semester

Here is the Spring, 2012 training schedule:

Thursday, February 2, 7-9PM (Room 4008 Vilas Hall) – Large group training session with important introductory training information.  This meeting is mandatory – for this session only, no makeups are possible – please remember that this is our non-negotiable policy.  If you miss the meeting, you cannot join our staff until the summer at the earliest.  At this meeting, you will be assigned to a lab time.

Weekly training session take place between February 6th and March 4th. One weekly meeting between will be assigned to you. You cannot miss a week. It is preferable that you attend the same lab each week (these meetings are on-site at WSUM’s studios) – You will be assigned to attend 1 one-hour session per week to be trained as a DJ or other on-air person (e.g., news, sports, talk host). This will mostly deal with technical skills and internal policies that will prepare you to be on the air on WSUM. You must attend each session or make arrangements ahead of time to re-schedule in another lab.

Mar 5-23 – You will ‘shadow’ an existing show and work on making an air-check tape (a sample show to be reviewed by our program director).  We will have staff available to help you through this process of creating your own show proposal.

Sunday Mar 25th 7-9PM OR Thursday Mar 29th 7-9PM (your choice), TBD – Final large group training session, including a test, collection of your aircheck file and show proposal , as well as your certification as a WSUM training graduate.

This is experience is both fun and challenging.  It is a serious commitment of time and effort, so please only respond if this sounds like something you would be willing to devote your passion and your time to.  We understand that there are many other things on campus and in your social life that you could be involved in.  We have big plans and would love to have you involved, but we need you to jump in with both feet and not just put a toe in the water.  

We look forward to hearing from you, thank you for taking the time to consider WSUM as your home for creating media information and entertainment.

Key Information:

Large Group sessions: these are TBD. You will be advised of the actual location closer to the date.

Directions to the station: By now, you have probably found the Student Activities Center on East Campus Mall (sometimes known as University Square). It is between University and Johnson; Lake and Park. Take the elevator to the fourth floor. WSUM is next to the elevators.

Walk in or ring the bell – we look forward to meeting you

Sawyer Hildebrandt
Program Director
WSUM-FM 91.7
University of Wisconsin-Madison
333 East Campus Mall #4100
Madison, WI 53715
608-262-1864 (no sales calls, please)
prog@wsum.wisc.edu
http://wsum.wisc.edu

Dave Black
General Manager
WSUM-FM 91.7
University of Wisconsin-Madison
333 East Campus Mall #4100
Madison, WI 53715
608-262-9542 (no sales calls, please)
gm@wsum.wisc.edu
http://wsum.wisc.edu