To protect other stations on 1130 AM, a clear channel frequency, it reduces power at night to 10,000 watts and uses a directional antenna at all times.

WISN airs a mix of local hosts and syndicated conservative talk shows from Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia.

The weekend mainly features paid brokered programming, including local shows on money, health, the outdoors, real estate and home improvement.

On July 22, 1922, a broadcasting license was issued jointly to the Milwaukee School of Engineering and the daily evening newspaper, The Wisconsin News, which was owned by the Hearst Corporation.

Although its license called for "unlimited" time at a power of 500 watts, the fact that the three other Milwaukee stations: WAAK (Gimbel Brothers department store), WCAY (Kesselman O'Driscol Music Co.) and WHAD (Marquette University), were also licensed for the 360 meter band, meant that WIAO had to share time with them.

[8] On December 31, the school announced that it had purchased all of the equipment of WCBD in Zion, Illinois (one of the first religious stations for the city's Christ Community Church, which also preached "flat earth" information).

The purchase included a new, more powerful (500-watt) transmitter and twin towers, which were mounted atop the school's Oneida (now Wells) Street building.

[10] At that time, The Wisconsin News took over programming the station full-time, while the School of Engineering took care of technical operations.

The Journal Co. had programmed Marquette University's station, WHAD (which was unrelated to the current-day Delafield-licensed Wisconsin Public Radio outlet), since January 1925.

It couldn't come to a satisfactory agreement with them on where to take the station, and at the suggestion of a Federal Radio Commissioner, decided to purchase another.

The agreement specified that the newspaper was to "operate the station and furnish all financial support while its ownership and technical supervision was to remain in the hands of the school."

With the issuance of its General Order 40 on August 30, 1928, the FRC assigned WISN a new wavelength of 267 meters (1120 kHz)[17] at 250 watts of power.

WHAD had objected to the time-share arrangement with WISN, but its request to shift to 900 kHz was denied by the FRC on October 22.

Hearst also owned the morning newspaper, The Milwaukee Sentinel, and the WISN station offices and studios were relocated to its building on Michigan Street.

The transmitter and tower were relocated to the top of the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Co.'s Public Service Building, and the newspaper took over operational responsibility for WISN.

On November 12, 1931, a hearing was held to decide the matter, and as a result, in licenses issued to the two stations effective on February 19, 1932, specified definite hours for the operation of each.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) shifted WISN to 1150 kHz in 1941 as a part of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA Havana Treaty).

San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications bought WISN radio, along with sister station WLTQ-FM the next year.

The station was the home of Marquette University Golden Eagles men's basketball broadcasts from 1971 to 2006 before opting not to renew its contract.

WRNW continues as a tenant on the WISN-TV tower, the only remaining link of the television station to its former radio sisters.

On August 21, 2024, WISN employee Weber used his platform on X to describe Gus Walz, a minor child with special needs and son of vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, as a "blubbering little bitch" because of his emotional response to his father's nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

[31] The comment generated a significant negative public reaction for WISN, which responded by suspending Weber for two weeks.