WITR Radio Station slides

The WITR Radio Station was established in 1961 as the first student-run radio station at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). On November 12th of that year, the Board of Trustees for the Institute gave a group of students permission to construct an FM radio station on the campus. The hope was that the station would be able to "tie together" the RIT community of which nearly half of the students commuted to school. In addition to music, the station was to provide local news, a calendar of events, and special community-based programming.

The radio station was housed in the College Union of RIT's old campus. By 1980, the station had about 50 participating students and was preparing to broadcast 24 hours per day. WITR played a variety of music, though the main focus was described as "progressive rock." Perhaps the most notable program done by the station is "Reggae Sounds." Started in 1978 in response to a student survey, the station became the longest continuous running Reggae radio program in North America by 1991.

In 1980, WITR decided to expand its broadcast from 10 watts to 1,000 watts. Money for the project was donated by Paul Miller, a former head of the Gannett Company, not to be confused with Paul A. Miller, a former president of RIT. In 1982 WITR received approval for the conversion from the Federal Communications Commission. The transition was officially completed on November 17, 1982 when each of WITR's deejays took turns "spinning" for 30 minute intervals.

As of 2011, WITR was still in operation. Broadcast on 89.7, the station continues to play a variety of music, as well as broadcast RIT events such as RIT hockey matches.