Ben Granby on helping during crises and providing aid to refugees

WORT Music Playlists

What was that song I heard? Who was the artist, what is the album title, where can I get it? Where can I find the entire playlist for a show?

Click on the Playlists button to bring up a calendar where you can choose any date to find the playlists for that day. If you can’t find the right playlist or the song you’re looking for, your best bet is to call the station the next time that program’s on and ask the host yourself. If that’s not possible we may be able to help you, but please have as much information as possible at hand when you contact us, such as: approximate day and time the music was played, what type or genre of music it was, who hosted the show and any other information you remember about the selection and we’ll do our best to track it down.

Contact Information

Music Director: Sybil Augustine – musicdirector@wortfm.org (for music submissions, charts and tracking, promotional exchanges for music events and following up on volunteer applications or other requests. Please include specifics in your subject line, such as “Hiphop Music Submission” etc, )

Digital Production Director: Aaron Scholz – aaron@wortfm.org (for record donations and sales, promos recording volunteers, etc.)

Music Calendars: Submit your events online here or send by email to calendar@wortfm.org

How do I get my music played on WORT?

We accept submissions in most genres and styles of music, focusing on noncommercial, out-of-the-mainstream, independent releases (check out our playlists and music charts for more information.) It may take up to a few weeks for us to review and process your submission so we appreciate your patience, and feel free to contact us to follow up. Please send your music, indicating any tracks with language that needs to be aired after 10 pm and including a one-sheet description and any biographical and tour information, to WORT Music Director, 118 S. Bedford St, Madison, WI 53703 and/or to musicdirector@wortfm.org.

We do accept digital files on .wav or mp3, but currently we still prefer CDs to digital submissions because it’s the quickest way to get it into the hands of our programmers and onto the airwaves, though we have a growing digital library. Digital submissions should be .wav or other lossless files, or high quality mp3s [128-320 kbps.]

You can follow up or “track” your submissions by email, or call 608-256-2001 on Wednesdays between 1-4 pm CST to ask if we received it, has it been reviewed, has it been added to our library, and what kind of airplay it’s getting—e.g. light, medium, heavy or charting. Thanks and we look forward to hearing your music!

Millions have fled Ukraine in the last month, and President Biden announced today that the US will take in 100,000 of the displaced. To discuss how to help refugees and how to vet aid organizations is long-time refugee aid worker Ben Granby.

Since 2007 Ben Granby has been directly involved on the ground in various internationally recognized refugee aid efforts throughout the Middle East. Ben has overseen short and long term assistance projects for refugees and internally displaced persons, and has worked to assure that donated funds and material aid reach those for whom it is attended.

Ben recommends the following UN Agencies working in Ukraine now:

UN Central Relief Fund – A pooled fund to target immediate and reporting shortfalls aid needs

UNICEF – Mainly for children, protection, education and water/sanitation works. They have vastly more experience in managing small, individual donations

UNHCR – UNHRC can fill most gaps for refugees anywhere from shelter, basic livelihoods health subsidies, lost assets, much more

UN World Food Program – Basic food parcels, can be modified to buy local factory goods but just for kcal daily needs. WFP also had long term voucher or e-card monthly cash to buy specific food items from contracted shops – to flat out monthly cash for any shops, all of this is pretty new – yet helps restore some dignity

Red Cross International – They are a good choice for smaller donations, but they have huge international non-discretionary funds to send anywhere immediately.

As Ben and Allen talk about during the show, looking into organizations before donating is important. Here are Ben’s tools for looking at 3rd party evaluations/scoring:

Global:

NGO Advisor – for emergency and longer term actors in economic development

Devineo – publishes The Global Humanitarian Assistance Report which u publications, They can ran with a close eye to be most comprehensive – (e.g. how to evaluate oupi cmniting issues of working in the pandemic setting

ANLAP – focuses on evaluating NGOs and finances

CORE – standards for INGOs to agree upon, receive certification (usually shown on websites)

USA:

Charity Navigator – provides a general review of what American NGO in the past and and recent work

Charity watch – it ranks charities, non-profits financial efficiency, accountability, governance, and fundraising.

Consumer reports has annual ranks as well

Europe:

OnGood – has listings of many European non-profit actors. You can narrow your search, and even has a donation support tool, may help in knowing who can take donations and follow up

If you choose to donate to a relief agency, Ben suggests looking up in news to know of publicized corruption concerns, yet corruption is usually kept quiet. If you have questions not answered online you can contact UNHCR partners for feedback.

Ben Granby can be reached at bdgranby@gmail.com for further questions.

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