This year WSUM will be celebrating its 13th anniversary as UW-Madison's award-winning free-form radio station and we are looking for new hosts to carry on our traditions and keep the quality of our programming high. If you are interested in helping WSUM in its mission of alternative radio programming (read: not found anywhere else on the dial), our Spring Training sessions are for you. Both UW students and members of the Madison community are welcome to train.

On February 5th, we will be holding an open info session for anyone who is interested in going through training. The meeting will take place in 180 Science Hall from 7 -9 PM. This session is MANDATORYfor all interested parties. If you miss this session, you will not be able to go through training in the spring semester, so be sure to attend if you are interested.

To qualify for training, all applicants must complete the following:

• Write a concise but illuminating statement of interest (why I want to be a part of WSUM) and send it to [email protected];
• In that email, include your availability between 6 and 11PM on Sundays through Thursdays in the spring semester. Please be as flexible as you can be in setting your availability schedule; you will only be scheduled for one hour per week.
• Come to the station at 8, 8:30, 9, or 9:30 any weeknight OR 6,6:30, 7 or 7:30 on any Saturday night between now and February 6th for a tour.   Ask for the ‘traffic director.'  Tours are given on the half-hour.  Make sure that the traffic director records your name.  If you miss this calendar window, please make an appointment for a tour by emailing [email protected]

After attending the initial meeting and fulfilling the above requirements, training will continue as follows:

• February 8^th through March 5th – You will be assigned to attend 1 one-hour sessions on these dates to be trained as a DJ or other on-air personality. This will deal with technical skills and internal policies to 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.
• March 6^th through Thursday, March 27th – 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.
• Thursday, March 26th 7-9PM OR Sunday, March 29th – Final large group training session, including a test, the collection of air-check tapes and program proposals, as well as your certification as a WSUM training graduate.

It is both fun and challenging to be an on-air host. It takes time and effort to prepare a show and make sure it goes smoothly while live in the studio. The same is true of training. Thus, we are only looking for those individuals who are dedicated and will take this opportunity seriously.

This is a chance to have your voice go out to the people of Madison through the radio and across the globe through our website. Some of our most dedicated hosts have even become Madison institutions, garnering loyal listeners and even winning local media awards. We hope you have the passion to get involved and make WSUM even better.

For more information see our Training Page.

WSUM is located on the 4th floor of the Student Activity Center, 333 East Campus Mall. If you want to come say hi and see the station, just come over and ring the doorbell.