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College radio’s history in Milwaukee is long and impressive. During the ‘60s and ‘70s student and community volunteers brought music heard nowhere else in town to WUWM, years before it became an NPR and local news outlet. Similarly, student and community volunteers turned WMSE from a station barely audible beyond the Milwaukee School of Engineering into a music and community powerhouse.
Recently, a fresh generation of UWM students have taken up the mission with Prowl Radio, streaming online and with content to be found on YouTube and Instagram. Friday, Oct. 4, World College Radio Day, provides good reason to check them out.
Prowl Radio began in 2022 with UWM film major Alexis Treadway taking a lead role in forming the student organization that operates the station. Prowl’s current station manager, Grace Pagel, jumped onboard early on. “I always wanted to be part of a college radio station,” she says. Prowl also answered a need for Elizabeth Lintonen, the station’s partner strategy and development director. “I heard whispers about it,” she says, and joined the team in early 2023.
Prowl broadcasts from Cunningham Hall, home to UWM’s nursing school. Landing room for the studio “was no easy feat,” Pagel says. “We had to ask literally every person in charge of a building at UWM. It got to the point of: ‘Do you have a closet?’ After many noes, we found Cunningham Hall.”
Music has been Prowl’s mainstay. The station has sponsored battles of the band held outdoors on Spaights Plaza with local and Midwest acts in competition. “We have 39 DJs this year, way more than last year. Each one is interested in a different genre or type of band,” Lintonen says. Prowl also features “Talk to Me” interview segments with local or touring bands as well as “fun ideas, day-to-day events on campus or man on the street interviews,” Lintonen continues.
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‘Community-Focused Mindset’
Prowl is working on defining the boundaries for on-air discussion, “We’re not heavily political,” Lintonen says. “We won’t run anything graphic or inappropriate. No hate speech! We try to stay safe and welcoming.”
Prowl’s focus is on UWM students but the student group behind the station, numbering more than 50 active members, aspires to reach beyond campus. “Students are the blood of Prowl,” Pagel says, “but we have a community-focused mindset.” Aside from providing DJs and promotion for other student organizations, Prowl is working with 88.9 and a house concert series scheduled for Downer Avenue.
Among Prowl’s off-air activities are plans for an East Side trash pickup. “I live on the Upper East Side, and it can get kinda icky out there,” says Pagel. Lintonen elaborates on the meaning of cleaning the streets of garbage. “Choosing Milwaukee is a big thing,” she says, as opposed to leaving town for college. “We chose the City of Milwaukee and want to be a positive part of the city’s life and community.”
For more, visit prowlradio.com.
