WAMU

WAMU is a public radio station that services the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day on 88.5 FM, online at wamu.org, and on HD Radio at 88.5-HD1 and HD2. It is owned by American University, and its studios are located near the campus in northwest Washington. WAMU's HD2 broadcasts Bluegrass Country, which is also available at bluegrasscountry.org and on-air in northern Virginia at 105.5 FM.

History

WAMU began as a carrier current student radio station on July 28, 1951. Its signal did not make it too far off the AU campus. The station received a commercial FM license in late 1960, and made its first FM broadcast on October 23, 1961. The student radio station is now WVAU, an Internet-only station.

From its inception, WAMU has provided public affairs and educational programming. Beginning in 1961, WAMU was granted a non-commercial broadcast license and joined the National Educational Radio Network, a predecessor to NPR. In 1971 was a founding member of National Public Radio.

Wamu (disambiguation)

Wamu can refer to:

See also

Washington Mutual

Washington Mutual, Inc., abbreviated to WaMu, was a savings bank holding company and the former owner of Washington Mutual Bank, which was the United States' largest savings and loan association until its collapse in 2008.

On Thursday, September 25, 2008, the United States Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) seized Washington Mutual Bank from Washington Mutual, Inc. and placed it into receivership with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The OTS took the action due to the withdrawal of $16.7 billion in deposits during a 9-day bank run (amounting to 9% of the deposits it had held on June 30, 2008). The FDIC sold the banking subsidiaries (minus unsecured debt and equity claims) to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion, which JPMorgan Chase had been planning to acquire as part of a confidential plan internally nicknamed Project West. All WaMu branches were rebranded as Chase branches by the end of 2009. The holding company, Washington Mutual, Inc., was left with $33 billion in assets, and $8 billion debt, after being stripped of its banking subsidiary by the FDIC. The next day, September 26, Washington Mutual, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 voluntary bankruptcy in Delaware, where it is incorporated.