The forerunner of WXJM was the audio stream played over a few James Madison University campus buildings' public address systems to give interested students some practice with broadcasting. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the "Dining Hall DJ's" advocated for airborne-broadcast capability. Early planners sought a callsign of WJMR for James Madison Radio but were dismayed to learn that the letters were already taken by an existing station in Wisconsin, WJMR-FM. The Board of Visitors of James Madison University filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to construct a new FM radio station in March 1988. This station would broadcast with 260 watts of effective radiated power from an antenna in height above average terrain. The FCC granted the original construction permit for this new station on September 1, 1989, with a scheduled expiration date of March 1, 1991. The station was assigned the callsign "WZJM" by the FCC on October 31, 1989. Just a few weeks later, on November 17, 1989, this was changed to the current "WXJM" callsign. FM radios could pick up the signal, but reception off-campus was seldom possible. In March 1990, the station sought an upgrade to an ERP of 390 watts and an antenna HAAT of. The FCC authorized these changes in July 1990. In October 1990, the station was nearing completion and asked the FCC to allow it to lower its antenna slightly to in HAAT. On October 10, 1990, WXJM applied for its license to cover. After the authorized modifications to the antenna were completed, the FCC granted the station its broadcast license on August 6, 1991. Some of the early student radio announcers banded together in a club called the "Freak Possie". The radio Freaks turned media arts class performance-art projects into pickets and absurdist attention-getting events to get publicity and to advocate for a stronger off-campus broadcast capability. Events included mass weddings to bananas and speeches by fursuit-wearing performers including a Three-Eyed Antlered Pig who mocked the university's official mascot, the Duke Dog. In 2003, WXJM was levied a $3,000 forfeiture by the FCC due to public file documents which were "either filed late or are missing". The FCC declared the matter resolved with a notice of apparent liability in February 2008. WXJM web-streaming started circa 2005. WXJM's original slogan, "Music Your Mother Won't Like", changed circa 2006 to "Electrifying Wilson Hall". In May 2011, WXJM enhanced its overnight broadcast automation capability so that when live announcers are not present, listeners hear Bluegrass music provided by Possum Music Service instead of dead air.
MACRoCk
Every spring since 1997, WXJM helps support the Mid-Atlantic College Radio Conference at various venues in and around Harrisonburg. Some MACRoCks have drawn over 100 bands and over 4,000 concertgoers.
