WSUI
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| City | Iowa City, Iowa |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 910 kHz |
| First air date | June 26, 1922 (originally experimental as 9YA 1915-1922) |
| Format | National Public Radio |
| Power | 5,000 watts (daytime) 4,000 watts (nighttime) |
| Class | B |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°31′26″N 91°30′11″W / 41.52389°N 91.50306°W |
| Callsign meaning | State University of Iowa (legal name for the University of Iowa) |
| Former callsigns | WHAA (1922-1925) |
| Owner | University of Iowa |
| Sister stations | KSUI |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | http://iowapublicradio.org/ |
WSUI (910 AM) is a public radio station in Iowa City, Iowa, in the United States. It is operated by the University of Iowa and a member of Iowa Public Radio's news network. Its signal serves most of eastern Iowa. WSUI is one of two National Public Radio member stations serving eastern Iowa, the other being KUNI in Cedar Falls. It is a sister station to all-classical KSUI.
WSUI got its start prior to the era of broadcast radio, operating a "wireless telegraph" transmitter under the experimental radio call sign 9YA in 1911. It began airing regular voice broadcasts in 1919. It was granted a full license on June 26, 1922 as WHAA, becoming WSUI in 1925. It is the oldest educational station west of the Mississippi River. It was one of several AM stations opened by Midwestern universities in the early days of radio.
The studios were located for many years in the University's Engineering Building. They were relocated to a former supermarket building south of campus in the late 1990s, when expansion of the College of Engineering required WSUI and KSUI to vacate their space in the Engineering Building.
WSUI's original three self-supporting broadcast towers were located just west of Mormon Trek Boulevard on the far west side of the campus. On June 29, 1998, a fierce line of thunderstorms packing winds of nearly 100 miles-per-hour toppled two of the towers. For months afterwards, WSUI's nighttime power output from the single remaining tower was limited to 1250 watts non-directional. Today, the towers are located about 10 miles south of Iowa City. A single tower is used during the day. Due to the transmitter's power and height, as well as Iowa's flat land (with near-perfect soil conductivity), its daytime signal covers almost all of eastern Iowa and part of western Illinois. Power is fed to all three towers in a directional array at night to protect WLS in Chicago at nearby 890 AM, concentrating WSUI's signal northward toward the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas.
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