WKPS
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| City | University Park, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | State College, Pennsylvania |
| Branding | The LION 90.7fm |
| Slogan | "The Soundtrack to Penn State" |
| Frequency | 90.7 MHz |
| First air date | October 31, 1995 |
| Format | College Radio |
| ERP | 100 watts |
| HAAT | 14 meters |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 65471 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°47′58.00″N 77°52′11.00″W / 40.7994444°N 77.8697222°W |
| Callsign meaning | WK Penn State |
| Owner | Pennsylvania State University |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | thelion.fm |
WKPS (known as "The LION 90.7fm") is a college radio station owned by Penn State University. The station runs on a full-time, multi-format schedule featuring a wide variety of programming. "The LION 90.7fm" transmits to a potential audience of over 125,000 from its studio in the Hetzel Union Building (HUB)-Robeson Center. The station also has a live webcast, which is capable of streaming live to hundreds of listeners. WKPS is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with the primary goal being to serve the campus and local community and secondary goals being the training, education and instruction of students in broadcast radio and station management. The station is run entirely by Penn State undergraduates, and maintains its tradition of public service by allowing student broadcasters from any academic major and community broadcasters local to the area. It also retains its programmatic independence by remaining unaffiliated with any academic college.
WPSC, Penn State's original student station, emerged from the Senior Gift of the Class of 1912. Initially an experimental shortwave installation, it represented “the first licensed club in the nation" and possessed "one of the first experimental licenses" granted by the government. By 1921 WPSC was broadcasting on the AM dial at 500 watts and was one of the earliest college radio stations in the nation. Due to a combination of the Great Depression and increasing costs of regulatory compliance, the station ceased operations in 1932. Today, the WPSC call letters are assigned to William Paterson University.
In an effort to reestablish the tradition of student radio at Penn State, WDFM went on the air on December 6, 1953 as a result of the Senior Gift of the Class of 1951. Headquarters in 304 Sparks on the University Park campus, WDFM served its student audience for more than three decades. It changed its call letters to WPSU-FM in 1985. From the 1980s onward, student programming was progressively cut back. Later in the decade, more NPR programming was added to the schedule. By 1992, WPSU had become a full-fledged NPR affiliate with very few student ties and very little student programming. Despite the fact that the "new" radio station's mission and goals were dissimlar to those of early WDFM, the university allowed WPSU to exist in spite of its changes.
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