On December 1, 1975 WORT Was Born
Laissez le bon temps rouler!
1975 was the year of Mood Rings and Pet Rocks. The Song of the Year was Captain and Tenille’s Love Will Keep Us Together, the Album of the Year was Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years.
We sat in movie theaters watching One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jaws, Nashville, and Dog Day Afternoon.
George Carlin hosted the first episode of NBC’s Saturday Night (renamed Saturday Night Live in 1977) on October 11. The Vietnam War officially ended on April 30, and Egypt re-opened the Suez Canal after 8 long years.
A gallon of gas cost 44 cents and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the year at 868.
And, if you lived within a couple of miles of a tiny studio on Winnebago St in Madison and were scanning your radio dial, you heard the sound of champagne bottles being popped at 8 PM, December 1, celebrating the newly-born WORT.
Since then our community has grown to embrace, first, a 50 mile terrestrial radius, and later the world via our website wortfm.org.
None of this was possible without you. You’ve ridden shotgun on our long strange trip together. We are so grateful.
Thanks to your support, the listener-sponsored, volunteer-driven, non-profit community radio experiment continues on 89.9 FM and wortfm.org.
Thank you for your generous donation. Thank you for believing that such a hare-brained idea could be successful.
To become an Evergreen donor and support the station with monthly donations, click here.
Please see the How to Help tab at the top of the page for other ways to support WORT, including car donations, stock donations, and distributions from your IRA.
WORT’s Legal Name: Back Porch Radio Broadcasting Inc
Federal Identification Number: 23-7328965
Official Address: 118 South Bedford Street, Madison WI, 53703
