Chris Lay Archives - WORT 89.9 FM

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!

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.

A few Tone Madison podcast highlights from 2018

December 20, 2018 by Tone Madison

This will be our last Tone Madison podcast episode of 2018, and to wrap things up, we’re listening back to some of the moments that made the year memorable. We produced 40 episodes of the podcast this year. That represents hundreds of hours of work by a whole group of dedicated and curious people. It […]

A story we can’t get ogre

November 29, 2018 by Tone Madison

Back in September, I let myself get talked into covering something that was never supposed to happen and that I didn’t really want to do. I’m talking about Shrekfest, which began life as an online gag, but, long story short, turned into a real event, celebrating all things Shrek. I went to the fifth annual […]

A night with robotic anthropologists

August 30, 2018 by Tone Madison

Back at the end of May, we reported from a one-night art event called Awkward Nocturnes, at which artist Claire Wilson and an audience of tinfoil-hatted thrill-seekers enjoyed a “performance” from a clattery ensemble of crude robots. On this week’s podcast, we revisit that story with a reading from Chris Lay. Give the story a listen […]

A Tone Madison audio extra: The torment of pedal pub season

April 24, 2018 by Tone Madison

The high for today is a balmy 68 degrees (so close!), which means winter is finally fully on its way the hell out the door. The other side of that coin, though, is the return of pedal pubs, scourge of Madison’s moderately respectable drinking establishments. One of the most popular pieces we’ve ever run on Tone […]

Johnny Walsh presses on

April 19, 2018 by Tone Madison

Back in 2010, a guy named Johnny Walsh started to perform at open-mics in Madison, at places like the Argus and the Comedy Club on State. Over time Walsh became a familiar presence in the local stand-up comedy world. He’s got an avuncular and unflappable stage presence, and his material is a testament to how much a […]

A Tone Madison audio extra: A Rocky Rococo eulogy from 2016

April 16, 2018 by Tone Madison

One of the classics of Tone Madison‘s short existence so far would have to be Ben Munson’s February 2016 piece about the man who portrayed Rocky Rococo, the suspiciously Leon Redbone-esque mascot for a Wisconsin chain of pizzerias. Munson, who used to work at a Rocky Rococo location in La Crosse, set out to interview […]

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