[4] The station increased power from 16-watts to 360 watts in 1960,[5] and the introduction of permanent paid staff began a move towards reflecting and serving a larger community.

Significantly, several Antioch College students and other volunteers took it upon themselves to be involved with an incipient community and public radio movement in the United States.

The station had carried live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts, ad hoc networks set up by anti-Vietnam War activists, and a few recorded syndicated programs.

[8] As at other community radio stations in the United States, NPR affiliation was viewed with suspicion by some insiders, but the attendant money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting led to a permanent staff and a local fundraising mandate.

The eventual popularity of NPR's news and information programming was not foreseen at the time and there were discussions about how the newly energized medium of noncommercial radio would best serve the community.

Tom and Jim Duffee and other local bluegrass musicians introduced the genre on WYSO around 1970, and it was embraced by management at the time as a link with the larger Southwest Ohio community.

[30] Meanwhile, Antioch students have revived the low-watt, FCC-licensed radio station on campus — called Anti-Watt — which can be heard on 101.5 FM or streamed online.

[33] The new location, expected to be operational by January 2024,[34] comes after expansion of WYSO’s staff, including a tripling of its reporting personnel in the prior 18 months.

[36] In early 2021 the station began a push to strengthen the music programming at WYSO, to fill the hole created locally with the termination of 89.7 WNKU's signal in 2017.

[40] In December 2008, WYSO announced that Neenah Ellis, a public radio producer and host would be the station's next general manager.