Dave Magnum has been inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Hall of Fame. The ceremony took place June 18th in Lake Geneva at the association’s 75th anniversary convention. A video and acceptance speech is archived at
www.wisconsinbroadcastingmuseum.org/hall-of-fame/dave-magnum/.
Magnum’s first time on the air was in 1976 at age 13 on WNNO-FM in Wisconsin Dells helping raise funds for Camp Wawbeek through a radiothon. At 15, WNNO hired him as a deejay. At 19, he was on WIBA-FM in Madison. Radio jobs then took him to Kansas and Texas. Dave met his future wife, Lynn, in 1987 when he became Program Director of a Michigan station where she worked in the office. In 1989, the newlyweds moved to Albuquerque, where Dave joined Drake-Chenault as a Regional Manager.
The couple returned to Wisconsin in 1991 to build their first radio station from scratch, a construction permit licensed to Tomah they called WBOG to locally brand with the area’s cranberry bogs. In 1994, they consolidated two more stations in the La Crosse market.
In 1998 Magnum acquired his hometown stations licensed to Wisconsin Dells, WDLS- AM and WNNO-FM plus WIBU-AM in Poynette.
The couple’s plan was to build an all-Wisconsin group with the goal of overlapping I- 90/94 signals from La Crosse through Madison to Milwaukee.
Lynn Magnum died of breast cancer in 2002, at age 33.
In 2007 Magnum Media added area stations WNFM-FM, WRDB-FM and WBOO-FM in Reedsburg-Baraboo. In 2011, Portage stations WPDR-AM and WDDC-FM.
Over the years, Magnum acquired stations in Green Bay, La Crosse and the Milwaukee suburbs.
In 2020, it added Whitewater 106.5 WKCH-FM “Classic Kountry Hits” which is rebroadcast on 94.7-FM Beloit, Fort Atkinson-Janesville-Madison adult contemporary 107.3 WSJY-FM, Fort Atkinson 940 WFAW-AM which is now a rock station also carried on 101.1-FM Janesville and 96.1-FM Watertown, and built Janesville-Stoughton- Madison signals 95.9 & 99.5 WBKY-FM.
Magnum’s sons, Reid and Ty, plus Reid’s wife, Chelsey, are taking the group into its second generation. As of 2026, Magnum has owned 27 AM and FM stations, 25 FM translators, and three LP-TV stations, across Wisconsin.
