After a full year of planning, KWCW began broadcasting for the first time in the first week of Interim, a period in which students could take classes during Winter Break, in preparation for regular programming at the start of spring semester, January, 1971. The station had gone on the air in the weeks prior for testing. Funded by an ASWC grant, KWCW was able to build a state of the art station as one of only a few student run stations in the country. It has been an educational non-profit station since that point. In its first years, programming from the station involved music and local news to greater Whitman students, and Walla Walla and Washington State Penitentiary residents. KWCW also fought for more funding and support for additional coverage, including sporting and live events. At that time, programming was seven days a week from mid-morning to 3 or 4AM with around one-hundred students involved. In 1982, KWCW was able to improve its broadcasting power from 10 to 100 watts. The station was first housed at the Student Union Building, where Maxey Hall now stands, and can now be found upstairs in Reid Campus Center.