In the Word of Charles Walker, before the Party

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!

Your Saturday Night at Smokey’s Joint hosts will have the funkin’ honor of introducing the Charles Walker Band at this year’s 19th annual WORT Block Party. The CWB set begins at 4:15pm at 200 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Madison. Complete information on this community event can be found here. Charles and I tried to make an on-air phoner fly, but schedules being what they are – a Saturday night is built for funk, so the Band is playing out between now and then, so we took to the email waves to give it to you straight from the artist’s on mind.

MrG: If folks have never heard of or seen the Charles Walker Band.. what can they expect to treat their eyes and ears to on Sunday?

CW: If you haven’t seen us before, we are a 7 piece funk band from Milwaukee. We are high energy and lots of fun to both watch and listen to.

MrG: What makes coming to Madison a happenin’ spot for the Charles Walker Band?

CW: I went to high school in Portage, so Madison was always the big city to me. Madison has a great scene for music because of the people that live there as well as all those UW students.

MrG: How has Community Radio been a part of your life?

CW: Community radio, and specifically WORT has always been a great ally of ours. Community radio is there to help the unsigned bands to get their name out there. Community radio actively seeks up and coming musicians to help spread the word and for that I am so very thankful and appreciative.

MrG: What type of impact did a person/musicmaker like Prince have on you /the band?

CW: We were on tour when Prince passed away. Hearing that was like someone saying that gravity stopped working. It just didn’t make sense. Prince doesn’t die. And yet, he did. Prince influences everything we do. When we are writing, when we rehearse, his name comes up. Last week, we were working on a rearrangement, and I couldn’t get the solo section to sound right. The guitarist in the band said, “Well if Prince was soloing on it…” and talked about his approach. Prince knew how to write music catchy enough to be accessible to the common listener and sophisticated enough to make a musician stop and say, “Whoa”. Whatever instrument he touched seemed to sing.

MrG: If people want to have a get off yo’ ass good time, do you think Sunday at the WORT BLOCK PARTY is the right place to go?

CW: I tell people this every time they are thinking about coming to a show. If you don’t have a good time and have fun, I will give you your money back. In this case since it’s free, I will come out and mow your lawn if you don’t have a good time!

I am predicting that many lawns in the Madison area will be staying tall after the Block Party. A Big Smokey’s Joint thank you to Charles for taking the time to add some of himself to our community through these brief statements and we will let the funk do the talking. See you there.

Funkin’ yours,
MisterG