The Madison Reading Project Partners with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

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!

“Before he passed away, my daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I’ve ever done. Now I can’t tell you how much that means to me, because I created the library as a tribute to my daddy.”

That’s country star Dolly Parton, who is joining up with the Madison Reading Project to get books into the hands of every child under the age of five in Dane County.

The Madison Reading Project is a nonprofit that began in 2014 and has since delivered over 250,000 books. This new partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library aims to give the project more reach across Dane County, covering some of the costs of logistics and buying and printing books.

Rowan Childs, the Executive Director and Founder of the Madison Reading Project says the extra support makes purchasing and shipping the books much more affordable.

While she could not give me an exact number, Childs says that the Madison Reading Project provides around $2-3 per child per month towards the project, while Imagination Library provides the rest of the money. The Madison Reading Project will also be in charge of local outreach, and signing up local families to the program.

The Madison Reading Project has a wide variety of books available

The project offers a wide range of new books available for kids, from hardcover picture books for infants to fiction and nonfiction books aimed at middle school kids at a higher reading level.

Childs says that there are a variety of ways the project gets the books to kids.

“The way we get (books) out is through all different community partners, so all different school districts, social workers, food banks, after school programs. We also have a little free library program, (and) in the warmer months we are out and about with our big red reading bus going to all sorts of public events. We also have individual requests that we often help with that come into the center, from teachers and parents as well,” Childs says.

Though it sits snow covered for now, the bus gets a lot of use in the summertime.

The Madison Reading Project will continue to do all the programs they already have, but will now include sending books through the mail.

The new partnership looks to get kids under the age of five one free book every month. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library first launched in 1995, and has so far given away over 172 million books to children across the world. Childs says the projects are both excited to be working together.

“We are absolutely working with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program, we feel that our missions align very nicely. From the very beginning it’s been for us to encourage kids to read and to find their love of reading, and Dolly Parton’s mission is very similar to that. So it’s nice to see how these organizations will be able to work together and hopefully be able to run this program for a very long time,” Childs says.

The project provides books to all children from birth until five years old, and parents can even sign up before their child is born. The new program begins today, and Childs says that within the first hour, over 200 families had already signed up for the new program.

But don’t worry, books aren’t running out any time soon. Childs says that there is no deadline to sign up, and that everyone who does sign up will be able to get their monthly books. The program is currently only open to residents of Dane county, and parents can register for the program on The Madison Reading Project’s website.