WSWI (820 AM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Evansville, Indiana, United States, carrying an alternative rock format known as "95.7 The Spin". Owned by the Board of Trustees of the University of Southern Indiana (USI), the campus radio station has studios and a transmitter site that are both located on the USI campus in Evansville. WSWI operates during the daytime hours only, thus in addition to a standard analog transmission, the station's format is broadcast continuously via a simulcast over the HD2 digital subchannel of WPSR and a relay over low-power analog translator W239CI (95.7 FM), along with being available online.
It was established in 1947 as WIKY, the first station owned by Evansville-based South Central Broadcasting. The WIKY stations were successful, broadcasting mostly easy listening music. However, as music listenership shifted to FM, in 1981 South Central opted to buy a more successful AM station and donated the 820 kHz facility to the university, which relaunched it as a student-run station serving its communications program.
History
WIKY
On July 20, 1946, the South Central Broadcasting Company filed with the Federal Communications Commission to build a new radio station on 820 kHz, with 250 watts of power to operate during daylight hours only. The FCC granted the permit on October 17, Work began in early 1947 to clear a tract of land at Mt. Auburn Road and Bismark Avenue, then outside the city limits. Further, South Central obtained a permit to set up an FM station at the same time.
WIKY began broadcasting on August 3, 1947, with a dedication ceremony, followed by regular programs the next day. It did not have a network affiliation and presented news, sports, music, and local service programs such as the "Lost and Found Column of the Air". The next year, WIKY-FM 104.1 debuted, providing full-time service to accompany the daytime-only radio station.
In the early 1950s, WIKY lobbied vigorously for a VHF television channel to be allocated to Evansville. By October 1951, not only did it have an application awaiting processing, but a TV studio was under construction at the Auburn Heights complex, and president John Englebrecht claimed that it could be on the air in six weeks if it were granted a station. At one point, as many as five applicants sought VHF channel 7, but the hearings turned into a four-way battle. However, after its attorney suffered a mental breakdown, South Central withdrew from contention in February 1954. Many of its hearing exhibits had been ruled inadmissible, and the application had already been called "ill-starred". It instead opted to expand into television elsewhere, buying WTSK-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1954.
WIKY AM and FM simulcast during daylight hours, carrying an easy listening format. However, in 1976, the FCC expanded the FM Non-Duplication Rule to cover stations in smaller markets. By this time, WIKY was also seeing listeners tune in primarily on the FM frequency. As a result, South Central began to chart a new course for the AM outlet, which was rumored to become a country music station to compete with WROZ (1400 AM). Instead, WIKY went to a format that would later be called hot adult contemporary, aimed at an 18–34 age group. By the start of the 1980s, however, the format had been dropped for a slightly more contemporary version of the FM format.
WSWI
In 1981, South Central entered into an agreement to buy WROZ from Fuqua Industries. FCC rules of the time did not permit the ownership of multiple AM or FM stations in the same market; as a result, to acquire WROZ—a station that could broadcast day and night and was a higher-performing country station—WIKY AM had to be divested. An agreement was reached with Indiana State University–Evansville (ISUE), which already had a communications major with 100 students and on-campus studios, to donate the facility to the school; ISUE had attempted for several years to obtain a permit for an FM station but faced difficulties finding a suitable frequency. To prepare to take over the station, the university had to acquire additional tape recorders, a newswire service, and equipment to connect to the transmitter at the WIKY site. South Central also donated some equipment and engineering assistance. John Englebrecht appraised the value of the station being donated at slightly under $300,000.