In an effort to reestablish the tradition of student radio at Penn State, WDFM went on the air on December 6, 1953 as a result of the Senior Gift of the Class of 1951.

At some point, the station lost its ability to transmit over the radio dial and was forced to accept being heard infrequently on Penn State University's House and Food Services (HFS) Channel 21 on the on-campus cable television system.

A small group, led by Jeff Ecker, asked the university to provide funding to begin a brand-new student-run radio station in the tradition of WDFM prior to its professionalization.

The new station would seek to serve the listening community by providing alternative and cultural programming not found in local commercial radio.

Incidentally, "WKPS" was the fictitious student radio station featured in the 1990 film Pump Up The Volume, starring Christian Slater.

The exact terms of this verbal contract are contested—when Vicky Triponey became the Vice President of Student Affairs, the University claimed Asbury only promised three years.

In order to secure more professional oversight for the station, LION 90.7fm attempted the following year to create a mutually beneficial partnership with Penn State's College of Communications.

The University agreed to create such a relationship, and the office of Student Affairs and the College of Communications each offered to pay half of the salary for a faculty adviser, which the new station had lacked since its inception.

[8] Jeff Brown, the faculty adviser, quickly moved to promote the agenda of the College of Communications - to create an exclusively co-curricular experience - without regard to the station's stated goals or charter as an extracurricular club in Student Affairs.

[9] The rocky relationship continued and reached a boiling point when the College wired its student news studio into the station's sound board without proper communication or permission, leading to an incident known locally as "The LION Riot".

Though she allegedly cited WKPS's flagship talk show Radio Free Penn State as the cause,[12] she denied that its administratively-critical tack led to her decision.

The station managed to stay afloat, and with charitable contributions from listeners and alumni and help from UPAC, The Lion 90.7FM maintained its position in the Penn State Community.

In late 2005, student General Manager Brandon W. Peach assumed the responsibility for putting the station back on the right financial track.

In 2006, the Alumni Interest Group renewed the station's FCC License, held by the Penn State Board of Trustees for another eight-year term.

Live webcasts, added to the station's website the previous year, were launched for student and community audience of both State College residents and distant alumni.

The webcasts continue to be popular, nearly reaching their listener capacity limit each time The LION 90.7fm broadcasts a Penn State football game.

During his tenure the name of the group changed to the Penn State Media Association, while its mission expanded beyond traditional broadcasting[17] to foster "relationships across the Penn State community for the purpose of connecting students, alumni, professors, and friends passionate about creating and promoting a more robust cultural environment through media."