Can you create a wav file with more than two channels?

I personally prefer Apple computers, the OS X operating system, and AIFF audio files. However, I also live in the real world where I routinely have to interface with the 90% of the computer market that is PC based running Windows and using WAVE files. Many industries are entirely PC/Windows/WAVE, for example the planetariums (or planetaria if you prefer) that I produce work for. All of the festivals that I submit work to require wav files for the audio. My local clients require wav files. One of the common forms of distribution of 5.1 audio is a bundled wav file with 6 channels arranged L/R/C/LFE/Ls/Rs. I'm developing a commercial application and if I want to sell more copies it needs to be able write both AIFF and WAVE format files that can be read by applications other than the one that wrote it.

There is also the small matter of the Max software which claims to be able to write WAVE files with more than two channels and can't. I would think that anyone concerned with the health and longevity of the Max environment would welcome someone bringing this problem to light and would encourage cycling74 to fix it. From my research in the forum it seems that this has been a problem for years and no one has fixed it or even owned up to it being a problem. Then again I know enough to know that I might be wrong. I might have missed something. I might be doing something wrong and I've asked for help. I'm still waiting for someone from cycling74 to say "yeah, we know this is an issue and we're working on it" or "here's how you do it". Otherwise I've wasted a stinking lot of time working on something I'm not going to be able to finish.

But thanks for asking.