Originally a service noted for its limited agricultural extension and educational programming as well as Purdue sports broadcasts, it gradually improved its facilities and expanded its output over its first 20 years on air.

[9] Experimentation in radio—then commonly known as "wireless telegraphy"—at Purdue University dated back to at least 1910, but initial attempts to construct a transmitter capable of communicating with other stations had limited success.

A more ambitious effort in 1916, based at the Electrical laboratory, had to be suspended in early 1917, when, with the entry of the United States into World War I, most civilian stations were ordered to shut down.

In 1919, the university was issued a temporary authorization, followed by a "Technical and Training School" license which was originally given the call sign of 9YA,[11] which was changed the next year to 9YB.

[14] In order to conform with the new regulations, the university applied for a broadcasting station license, which was issued on April 5, 1922, with the call letters WBAA, for operation on the 360-meter "entertainment" wavelength.

[19] The earliest reported broadcast as WBAA was made on April 21, 1922, of an Arbor Day message prepared by Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace, that was read over numerous stations across the United States.

These included such discussions as "The Hot School Dinner",[20] "Home Canning of Meats", "Bread from Indiana Flour", and "Elimination of Smoke, Dust, and Fumes in Industrial Processes".

[28] The Federal Radio Commission (FRC), formed in 1927, downgraded the nighttime power of a University of Illinois station, WRM, from 1,000 to 500 watts, and ordered it to share WBAA's frequency.

[32] On the afternoon of March 14, 1929, a fire erupted that destroyed the facilities of WBAA; it was reported to have started when a spark ignited hydrogen gas that was leaking from batteries.

[33] The blaze also caused smoke damage to the Electrical Engineering Building in which WBAA was located; some students had to be rescued from windowsills, where they had fled the advancing fire.

[29] Operations of WBAA resumed at the end of January 1930 after more than 10 months of silence; the facility was prepared to broadcast with 1,000 watts if the opportunity ever presented itself.

[29] The first proposal involved relocating the transmitter to a more central location in the state and establishing a studio in Indianapolis,[44] as well as converting WBAA into a partly commercial operation; this was vetoed by the Purdue board of trustees.

[51] There were adult education courses, coverage of Purdue and West Lafayette High School sporting events, and market reports, broadcast from a station with 16 staff and 35 student staffers.

[55] The late 1960s also saw the station begin to do some of its own news reporting of demonstrations that were taking place on the campus; the times also inspired a series of new programs on race relations and birth control.

[61] Lew Wood later was the news anchor on Today in 1975 and 1976, and actors George Peppard and Karen Black also worked at WBAA while at Purdue.

[66] A 1982 windstorm toppled one of the three towers used at night and twisted another requiring the station to temporarily broadcast with reduced power after sunset;[67] all three masts were replaced.

[40] Thirty years after its first attempt, Purdue filed again in 1989 to build a new radio station on the FM band in West Lafayette, with another channel allocated to the area at the university's request.

[68] The FCC approved the application for WBAA-FM in 1991, with the intention to create a musically oriented FM service and a news- and talk-focused AM station.

[77][78] Purdue officials began approaching the local business community in 1996, seeking financial support to return NPR output to the WBAA stations.

[79] The simultaneous threat of federal cuts to public broadcasting led WBAA to start its first-ever pledge drive that fall.

[83] That year, a $1.5 million expansion of the studios was approved by Purdue's board of trustees in lieu of relocating them to the South Campus where a fine arts center was being built.