Just to share some knowledge at this stressful moment: I also applied UW Madison, I had a phone talk with my POI BEFORE submitting my application when I sent a self-intro email. I was quite surprised. But I haven't heard from them since then.
I asked a friend who is doing his PhD there, and he told me there are indeed some students coming in without funding but once they find jobs on campus, a tuition remission will apply.
Apparently there are different tracks of admission (at least three): Communication Arts, Journalism/Mass Comm and Life Science Comm and the latter two are in one joint PhD program but the admission decisions are made independently. And that's why there are so much confusing different information about interviews and dates of notices.
I am not 100% percent sure about my friend's words but thought worth mentioning to clarify the myth of UW Madison admission a bit.
Btw, am I the only one applying the Life Science Comm track at UW Madison here? Looking forward to meeting some peers!