WKDU 91.7 FMWKDU 91.7 FM

WKDU began in 1958 as a carrier-current station called WMAX, audible only inside Drexel's dormitories, and it reached the Philadelphia FM band on 17 July 1971. For its first two decades it shared 91.7 with a technical institute's station and went dark for hours every day; only in February 1990 could it broadcast around the clock. Power climbed from ten watts to a hundred and ten, then to the 800 watts it runs from a dormitory roof, with the studio in a basement on Chestnut Street.

Students run all of it, and the only rule imposed on a DJ is that a third of what they play has to be a new release. The Black Experience has been on the air since 1971; the Reggae Marathon has run every Memorial Day weekend since 1984; the Electronic Music Marathon raises money for Philadelphia charities. A single day can move from gospel to skanking reggae to deep house.