Former Breakfast Special Host Chris Ward passes

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.

Once you figure it out, there’s a “Buy It!” link next to each track in online playlists that leads you to a place where you can buy songs and albums, and by doing it that way a small portion of each purchase goes to support WORT.

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, )

Music Assistant: Aaron Scholz – musicass@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!

Chris-Ward-1985 — Chris Ward hosting the Breakfast Special on WORT-FM at Cleveland’s Lunch in Madison, Wisconsin. February 13, 1985. Photo by Brent Nicastro.

WORT has learned that former programmer Chris Ward has passed away. Ward died of a heart attack at the age of 60 in Washington, DC where he lived with his wife, Saaraliisa Ylitalo. Chris Ward was a popular figure on WORT in the early 1980s, hosting the Breakfast Special from 1984-85, a rock program called Tirebiter’s Tunes (after the Firesign Theatre character) as well as numerous episodes of the noontime call-in show “A Public Affair”. His most famous guests included beat poets Gregory Corso and Allen Ginsberg. In 1984 he interviewed feminist presidential candidate Sonia Johnson.

Ward left the Breakfast Special in February 1985 to take a job with the US Information Agency, a division of USAID, and served in Japan, Peru, Costa Rica, South Africa and Haiti. But among Federal employees, he was best known for his successful 6-time appearance on the popular TV game show “Jeopardy!” where, between 1998-1999, he won over $63,000 and two Chevy Camaros.

In this clip from WORT’s “A Public Affair” in December 1983, Ward hosts one of his regular trivia call-in programs:

TAPE: 39 sec outcue: “…..everyone will want to own.”

Chris Ward will be missed by all of his WORT friends and colleagues.

TAPE: 9 sec outcue: “….music for the rest of the afternoon.”

******

Chris’s family writes:

It’s with a heavy heart that we must announce our beloved Chris passed away this Monday, October 19th from a cardiac episode. A Remembrance is being held this Saturday, October 24th at 2:00 PM at Kenmore Middle School, where he taught, at 200 Carlin Springs Road, Arlington. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to be made to Blue Ventures, a Marine Life Conservation Association working to create sustainable fisheries in international communities (http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/SomeoneSpecial/ChrisWard) or checks to be made to Kenmore Middle School’s Library. If you’d like to share photos, songs or memories of Chris, we’ll be printing them out for Saturday’s gathering. Please comment or send them to Seth at sethylitaloward@gmail.com. Please join us to celebrate the beautiful life of Christopher Donald Ward, and thank you all so much for your kind thoughts and prayers.

******

This short bio of Chris was shared at the memorial service on October 24th in Arlington, VA:

Christopher Donald Ward (July 17, 1955 – October 19, 2015) lived a life full of adventure and love. He had many passions; he loved knowledge, irony, and the absurd in all of the arts. We all know his love of reading constantly. But above all else, his family was what he treasured the most. He knew it was a special group.

He was born to Donald B. Ward and Vera Bantz Ward on July 17, 1955, in Evanston, IL. Don was a Congregational minister and Vera was an actress on the TV and stage. He had two older sisters, Mari McCarty (Dan) and Laura Mollet (Mark). He spent his early years in Yankton, SD, where his father was the president of Yankton College, founded by Chris’s great-grandfather, Joseph Ward (1838-1889). Chris was proud of his family heritage and often told people about Joseph Ward’s statue in DC’s Capitol Building. His last home was also just one mile away from Ward Circle, dedicated to his great- great- great- great- grand-uncle, Major General Artemas Ward (1727-1800).

He met his wife, Saaraliisa, in college in Appleton, Wisconsin while attending Lawrence University, before he transferred to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. One of the first homes they made together was in Madison, Wisconsin where he was voted the best DJ in Madison on WORT. He then began his long career in the Foreign Service, traveling the world with his now growing family, his and Saaraliisa’s three beautiful children: Vanessa, Heather, and Seth. They lived in Costa Rica twice, Japan, Peru, and South Africa. After retiring from the Foreign Service in 2008, he chose to teach in Arlington Public Schools, eventually becoming a full-time substitute teacher at Kenmore Middle School. Along the way he also made many good friends, was a five-time Jeopardy! champion (1998), named “the most romantic man” in Madison by the Isthmus newspaper, and bore an uncanny resemblance to Mark Twain.

He was immensely proud of his children’s adventures and accomplishments. Vanessa was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kyrgyzstan, and now lives in DC with her husband Tim and two children, Sonia and Evelyn. Heather is a PhD of Marine Biology, having studied sexual selection of octopuses at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Seth studied art and graphic design at Virginia Commonwealth University, and now lives in Los Angeles with his girlfriend Jess, where he works in the Hollywood film industry.

Chris absorbed the world everyday, and in any way he could. He lived his life fully to the very last minute. With his family he traveled, lived, and loved. His kindness, wit and warmth has left all of us with memories we will cherish always. He was very deeply loved, and will be missed.

******