WUMD (college Radio) - History

History

In 1979, WUMD was formed by a group consisting mainly of engineering majors that began borrowing music equipment from the science department in order to play vinyl records in the Recreational and Organizational Center (aka R.O.C.). While the group was recognized on campus as a student organization, it would be sometime before the students would be based in an upper-level room to play music down to all of the rest of the students and be able to take requests. In the mean time, the radio station was an open body of students that would daily hang out together in between taking their courses.

During the early 1980s, WUMD moved to the tower studio in the University Mall, which was located opposite of where the station would be moved again later on for a second time. This additional move would increase radio station expansion to three times the size of its previous size. At one point, some members of the radio station were scrutinized heavily and almost resulted in expulsion by the student activities director for taking equipment and music to their homes for safe keeping in order to prevent WUMD from being forever lost as an entity for the university.

The radio station began holding program guide release parties, which were held in celebration of another semester for student members to input their reviews for concerts and music albums, along with any other material that is music and radio related. The very first recorded guide dates back to 1988 and the idea has been a bi-yearly tradition ever since. Usually, program guide releases parties consist of meeting at a venue in the metro-Detroit area to have a variety of bands play throughout the night.

As of 1992, WUMD would move a third time and could once again be heard in what used to be the University Mall through two large, white sphere-shaped speakers with 4 tweeters on each side, as well as on cable television in the cities of Dearborn (channel 18), Dearborn Heights and Westland (channel 23). More recently, lack of funding has prevented WUMD from cable-broadcasting and the University Mall has been rebuilt and renamed the University Center, which houses all of the central activities around campus.

In 2000, the radio station began broadcasting via internet radio. This allowed WUMD to reach listeners all over the world, most notably in Germany where two listeners known solely as Hanz and Franz have repeatedly made live music requests to DJs using the AIM messaging platform.

In 2004 the sports talk show The Upper Deck was created by Tony Bolton and Mike Morland. In the fall of 2005, Kevin Liddy replaced co-host Tony Bolton (who left for WCBN in Ann Arbor). Over four and a half years, The Upper Deck became the longest running show in station history (2004–2008) and the highest rated show in 2007 and 2008. During that time, the show was unofficially covered by the website letsgowings.com due to its in-depth hockey coverage. Notable interviews included Matt Schwartz of Letsgowings.com and Helene St.James of the Detroit Free Press.

In 2005 a one-hour radio program named The Biscuts and Gravy Morning Show was born. The show was broadcast once a week on Tuesdays from the hours 11 am to 1 pm. The show gained campus wide attention when hosts Michael Grech and John Alford held a phone-in contest promising the winners a Dan Marino prize pack. No such prize pack existed, and thus a minor dispute between the hosts and contest winners occurred. The resolution to this situation was: "The Biscuits and Gravy Sausage Joust" a competition between the hosts and winners in which whomever could eat the most sausage links was victorious. In the end both parties enjoyed a great breakfast, and the show decided to adopt a stricter policy regarding on-air contests.

Today, after moving all of the studio equipment and music collection a total of four times across campus, WUMD continues to be one of the largest student organizations on campus. In 2007, WUMD revived and gave life to broadcasting the campus' sporting events for their teams, collectively known as the Wolves. Sports broadcast include hockey, basketball (both men's and women's), and assorted other events, including volleyball, soccer (both men's and women's), rugby union, lacrosse, and softball. In 2010, General Manager Roger Castillo was named one of the 50 Difference Makers for his efforts as General Manager at WUMD.