WAMU records
Collection
0074-MMC-NPBA
WAMU is a public radio station owned by American University in Washington, D.C. Beginning in 1948 as a low-power, student-run radio station, WAMU was granted a non-commercial broadcast license in 1961 and joined the infant National Educational Radio Network, a predecessor to NPR. In 1971, it became a founding member of National Public Radio.
The WAMU records include material from 1952 to 1992 with the bulk of the materials dating between 1970 to 1990.... Materials in the processed collection include clippings, correspondence, program guides, legal documents, photographs, press releases, advertisements, and reports. Unprocessed materials cover the years 1952-2007 and primarily include program recordings of the Fred Fiske Show, the Diane Rehm Show, the Derek McGinty Show, the Kojo Nnamdi Show, Public Interest, and All Things Considered. Recordings are 7" and 10" audio tapes, DATs, or audio cassettes.
This collection is open to the public. It must be used in the Special Collections reading room. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.
The collection includes processed and minimally processed materials. This means that a portion of materials are in the same state we received them and have not been reviewed for content or condition. The collection may need to be screened prior to use. Please... contact us before visiting the Special Collections reading room to view this collection. A preliminary inventory is available for minimally processed materials under the Inventories/Additional Information section.
Photocopies or digital surrogates may be provided in accordance with Special Collections and University Archives duplication policy.
Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.
Archival materials may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under... federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during our processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.
143 Linear Feet
25 Items (Oversize posters)
1,902 Tape Reels : audio tapes ; 5", 7", and 10"
6,177 Sound Cassettes : DATs
18,671 Sound Cassettes : audio cassettes
1 floppy_disks
English
The WAMU records document over 50 years of American history and culture through the various programs and shows hosted by the WAMU-FM public radio station (now WAMU 88.5). The processed portion of the WAMU archives include material from 1952 to 1992 with the bulk of the materials dating between 1970 to 1990. Materials in this collection include clippings, correspondence, program guides, legal documents, photographs, press releases, advertisements, and reports.
Unprocessed materials cover the years 1952-2007 and primarily include program recordings of the Fred Fiske Show, the Diane Rehm Show, the Derek McGinty Show, the Kojo Nnamdi Show, Public Interest, and All Things Considered. Recordings are 7" and 10" audio tapes, DATs, or audio cassettes.
WAMU 88.5 FM is the leading public radio station for NPR news and information in the greater Washington, DC area. It is member-supported, professionally-staffed, and licensed to American University. Since 1961, WAMU has provided programming to a growing audience that now totals more than 575,900 listeners in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.
Beginning in 1948, students at American University used homemade transmitting facilities to operate a campus radio station, WAMC. In 1950, the station was robbed of every possession, but by the following year, the station was back on the air as WAMU-AM, a 25 watt campus station. In 1953, American University and the Evening Star Newspaper joined to build a television building on campus, and WAMU secured new studios within the building. In 1961, WAMU moved from AM to FM and signed on from the campus of American University at 4 pm on October 23rd, using a 4,000-watt transmitter purchased from WGBH Boston. As the sixth member of the Educational Radio Network -- the predecessor to National Public Radio -- WAMU's founding vision was to "provide attractive, challenging programming that involves our listeners as completely as possible in the learning experience..."
In 1963, WAMU hired its first paid employees -- among them, Susan Stamberg and George Geesey. Armed with equipment secured through donations and scavenges of military surplus stores, WAMU covered some of the biggest events of the 1960s, including John F. Kennedy's assassination, the 1963 March on Washington led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and the 1964 Presidential election.
In 1978 the station moved off the American University campus, and was removed from American University subsidy due to financial constraints and a need for campus space. WAMU formed a new, non profit organization to run the station: Public Radio Services, Inc. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, WAMU made efforts to create a more consistent line up of programming, eliminating classical, rock, and big band programming, and focusing on bluegrass, jazz and news/talk.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, WAMU fundraisers brought increasing funds into the station, and in 1994, WAMU moved in to new, state-of-the-art facilities. In 1997, the station launched its website, wamu.org, and within two years, began streaming all of its programming online.
In the 21st century, WAMU continues its commitment to provide a unique mixture of news, public affairs talk programming, and traditional American music both to the D.C. Metropolitan area, and to the world via the station's website.
The collection consists of eight series.
This collection contains audiovisual materials. Items that cannot be used in the Special Collections reading room or are too fragile for researchers to handle require a digital copy be made prior to use. If you would like to access these materials, please contact us prior to your visit.
This collection contains born-digital materials. If you would like to access these materials, please contact us prior to your visit as items may require specialized software for access.
The WAMU records were donated to the National Public Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland by Laura Forman, Lettie Holman, Karen McManus, John Haas, Richard Paul, and John Tanner in 23 accessions from 1992 to 2014.
This collection was processed in 2007 by Rachel Telford with a focus on the paper records of three of the accessions. Over time, the accessions consisting of audio and visual recordings were combined together by program title and arranged either alphabetically or chronologically. Selected programs were digitized and are available in Digital Collections.
In 2024, a full review of all the accessions was conducted by Irene Lewis and Jasper Nash wherein it was discovered that 14 accessions of 23 were not included in our accession records. They were able to follow a paper trail and reassociate the majority of the materials and update the accession records or create accession records in our current system. Some of the audio and visual recordings are inventoried at the box level while others are inventoried at the item level. Extensive notes are available in the control files.
In 2025, Jennifer Gathings updated the finding aid with information about the unprocessed accessions and attached the available inventories.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives