WUOM (91.7 FM) in Ann Arbor is the flagship station of Michigan Public, broadcasting with a 93,000 watt transmitter from a 237 meters (778 ft) tower near Pinckney.

The FCC granted a license for WUOM (for University of Michigan) at 91.7 in the brand new FM band; the station went on the air on July 5, 1948.

Classical music made up a large chunk of the station's broadcast day until the late 1990s, when, faced with declining ratings and listener pledges, Michigan Radio changed its daytime programming to news and talk.

It broadcasts with 17,500 watts from a HAAT of 149 meters (489 ft) up on a tower near Goodrich, near the intersection of Kipp and Washburn roads.

For almost 40 years, WVGR blanketed West Michigan with a powerful 108,000-watt signal from an arm on local NBC affiliate WOOD-TV's tower.

[4] WLNZ (89.7 FM), licensed to Lansing Community College (LCC), is the network's newest affiliate, serving the state's capital city.

[5] Starting in the 1920s, the University of Michigan Extension Service Bureau of Broadcasting produced programs for other radio stations; for instance, in November 1944, the Bureau of Broadcasting produced "Stump the Professor" for WJR in Detroit and "The Balkan States: Places and Nations in the News" for WKAR in East Lansing.

In the early 1940s, the university applied for a new radio station, but was turned down by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as there were no available frequencies on the AM band at the time.

Around this time, U of M began working on plans for a statewide network of four FM stations to be located in Ann Arbor, Mount Pleasant, Manistique and Houghton.

)[6] The FCC granted a license for WUOM (for University of Michigan) at 91.7 in the brand new FM band; the station went on the air in 1948, broadcasting from studios in Angell Hall on the UM campus.

Michigan Radio remained in those studios until August 23, 2003, when it moved off campus to the Argus Building on Ann Arbor's Old West Side.

The university toyed with the idea of opening a TV outlet in the early 1950s: WUOM-TV was assigned a construction permit for Channel 26 in 1953, but never made it to the air.

The programs listed in the 1949 guide include "From the Classrooms," "Songs of France," "Tell Me, Professor," "Especially for Women," "Around the Town," "Record Rarities," "Hymns of Freedom," "Angell Hall Playhouse," and "Tea-Time Tunes."

Classical music host Peter Greenquist's "Morning Show" of classical music and news is much of the heart of the Ann Arbor community, and sportscaster Tom Hemingway could be heard across the city on football Saturdays, often telling stories about the history of the game that only such local "townies" would be able to remember.

[9] He was immediately confronted with Michigan Radio's failing format, a $265,000 deficit, low staff morale, and the imminent threat of losing the stations' federal funding.

Given a one-year deadline by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to turn around the stations' dismal audience and revenue figures, he decided that only radical change could save the organization.

[15] As one of the first successful news/talk public radio stations on FM, Michigan Radio may have helped influence similarly transitions to that format by stations including WUNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, WBUR-FM in Boston, WAMU in Washington, DC, KPCC in Pasadena, California, WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and WBEZ in Chicago.

In addition, Michigan Public broadcasts the BBC World Service as distributed by APM during the late night and early morning hours.

In 2012, the station created its daily, locally produced talk show, Stateside, which covers a wide range of Michigan news and policy issues — as well as culture and lifestyle stories.

In 2018, reporters Kate Wells and Lindsey Smith produced "Believed," a podcast on the Larry Nassar case which went on to win a Peabody Award.