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This article is about a public radio station. For Washington Mutual bank, see Washington Mutual.

WAMU
City of license	Washington, DC
Broadcast area	Washington, DC
First air date	July 28, 1951
Frequency	88.5 (MHz) 88.5 HD-2 for WTMD Townson University 88.5 HD-3 for Bluegrass
Format	Public radio/NPR
ERP	5500 watts
Callsign meaning	AMerican University
Owner	American University
Website	http://www.wamu.org/

WAMU is a public radio station that services the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. The station broadcasts on 88.5 FM; online at wamu.org; and on HD Radio at 88.5, Channels 1, 2, and 3. WAMU is on-air 24 hours a day. It is licensed to American University and its studios are located near the campus in northwest Washington, D.C. WAMU's HD Channel 2 broadcasts content from WTMD, a AAA station in Towson, Md.; Channel 3 broadcasts WAMU's BluegrassCountry, which is also available at bluegrasscountry.org.

WAMU is a National Public Radio affiliate, carrying content from NPR, American Public Media, Public Radio International and the BBC World Service. In addition, WAMU produces its own interview and bluegrass music shows, including The Diane Rehm Show, Hot Jazz Saturday Night, The Kojo Nnamdi Show, and Bluegrass Overnight.

For more than four decades WAMU has aired rebroadcasts of drama, comedy and variety programs from the "golden age of radio." The Old Time Radio program now known as The Big Broadcast originated in 1964 (as Recollections, hosted by John Hickman). Since 1990, the program has been hosted by Ed Walker, himself a storied Washington broadcaster. In its current Sunday evening incarnation The Big Broadcast features four hours of various programs heard during radio's early days – from roughly the mid-1930s through the 1950s – typically including programs such as The Jack Benny Show, Dragnet, Gunsmoke, The Great Gildersleeve, Lux Radio Theater, and Philco Radio Time with Bing Crosby.

WAMU-AM was a carrier current student radio station with limited range. It was only available on campus. The call letters of this station were changed to WVAU.

WAMU made its first AM broadcast on July 28, 1951, and the first FM broadcast was on October 23, 1961.

In 2004, the prominent Washington journalist Ellen Wadley Roper left WAMU a $250,000 bequest.

As of January 22, 2007 at 8:00 PM, WAMU became Washington, DC's only NPR full-time news station, when WETA, also in Washington, DC, changed to an all classical music format, filling the void of WGMS.

• WAMU