This Saturday: catch an interview with @kbongmusic on 89.9 @wortfm ! 🎧✨ KBong is a true gem 💎 - on a mission to bring positive, uplifting music to us all. He’ll be bringing the vibes to @majesticmadison on June 6 with @johnnycosmic .
📻TUNE IN to the interview and get to know KBong!
🗓️Saturday May 16
⏱️8pm PT / 10pm CT
🛜wortfm.org
📡89.9FM in Madison
#reggaemusic #kbong #majesticmadison #goodvibemusic #reggae
The WORT Summer Pledge Drive is almost here, beginning on May 30th and running through June 7th.☀
About half of the shifts are filled already, which is great, but there are still plenty that need your help!
Remember:
🔸No prior experience is necessary.
🔸Shifts start as early as 7 AM and go as late as 10 PM to fit anyone’s schedule.
🔸Free snacks and drinks.
🔸Sign up with a friend and enjoy some great live radio!
Just go to our website or copy the following link and paste it into your browser to sign up for a phone-answering shift today: /cgi-bin/longsignup
Thank you for supporting WORT Community Radio!🧡
Queery turned 30!🎉
These testimonies from the May 6 anniversary celebration feature Vicki Kenyon, Mercury Stardust, John Quinlan, Kat Rhapsody, Hale Sinklair, and Laura Paisley Beck.
Check out the live recording of Queery’s 30th anniversary celebration on our website: /queerys-30th-anniversary-show/
Thank you for supporting community radio!🧡
Queery on WORT-FM celebrated 30 YEARS on air on May 6th hosted at Delta Beer Lab!🎉
Queery received a Mayoral Proclamation from Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway declaring that May 6, 2026 is Queery on WORT Day in the City of Madison!! It also received a Certificate of Commendation from Governor Tony Evers for its “iconic radio entertainment, including sharing news of the day and local stories with a focus on uplifting, representing, and engaging LGBTQ communities.”
Hale & Vicki hosted a LIVE REMOTE hour-long show at Delta Beer Lab to celebrate Queery’s 30 years on the air at WORT. You can check out the full show on our website, /queerys-30th-anniversary-show/
They were joined by Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway (recorded) – Governor Tony Evers (recorded) – Congressman Mark Pocan (recorded) – Senator Melissa Ratcliff – singer, Ben Weger – past hosts Bill Kingsbury & John Quinlan – TikTok influencer & local celeb, Mercury Stardust – Delta Beer Lab co-owner, Tim “Pio” Piotrowski – Our Lives Magazine Publisher, Patrick Fairbaugh – OPEN Madison’s Executive Director, Laura Paisley Beck.
This was a night of honoring the past, celebrating the present, and looking out into the future. Guests in attendance enjoyed the free show, snacks and a plethora of door prizes. This sure was fun!
Thank you to @delta.beer , @invisiblestringeventsllc , @badger.popcorn , @chocolateshoppeicecream , @sparetimemadison , @openmadison , @tuckerlegerski@nancy.garnier , Katy, @meowzamusic , Nate, and all of the volunteers who helped pull this together. Will we do this again?!?! Tune in to find out!
Do you have a passion for classical music? Here’s your opportunity to step into the schedule and make your voice heard as part of WORT’s esteemed classical music programming!
The deadline for this application is Monday May 18 at 5pm.
We are looking for a host for the 5-8am Friday Classical program. You would be sharing this time slot with at least one other programmer in a rotating schedule.
Your responsibilities include: hosting regular and substitute air shifts, programming music within your show’s theme/genre; operating station equipment, entering your music playlists, participating in our local music community by sharing announcements and music from local artists; writing stories and blogs for our online outlets; reviewing new releases
WORT is looking for a person with strong knowledge of and passion for classical music, especially composers and performers outside of the mainstream; familiarity with people, events and resources within our listening area; and enthusiasm for joining in our on- and off-air fundraising and outreach activities. Strong communication skills and dependability are crucial. An extensive personal music collection is a plus, but WORT has a great music library available for your use. No previous radio experience is necessary, all training will be provided!
Does this sound like you? Our online application is available here: /wort-is-looking-for-classical-music-hosts/
If you have any questions or concerns, please email [email protected].
Do you want to contribute to the leadership at WORT? There are five open Board of Directors seats that will be filled in the upcoming election at the annual Board of Directors meeting on June 28.
We’re looking for passionate volunteers to give us fresh insight and new energy!
The application deadline is Wednesday, April 29, 2026. To apply, fill out the form on our website: /run-for-the-wort-board-of-directors-2/
What are the duties of a WORT Board Member? Check them out in the link above.
Financial acumen, computer literacy, and a willingness to work within a dynamic group to help shape this great station are all desirable qualifications. People of underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
Some committee hours are required outside of Board meetings. Board meetings are at 6pm on the third Wednesday evening of each month.
Thank you for supporting community radio!🧡
Queery is one of the nation’s longest running LGBTQIA+ themed radio shows, and we’re celebrating 30 years on WORT FM 89.9 Madison in 2026!
Come join us for a LIVE REMOTE SHOW on May 6th at Delta Beer Lab!! THIS is gonna be fun!!
🚪at 6:00
(Please donate if you can)
🪑by 6:45
📻 from 7:00 - 8:00
🎙️🎸🍻🎉
Join us for music, conversation, door prizes and FUN!
Stay tuned for more info!
We’re taking over the Access Hour on Monday, April 27th! That’s in a little over a week from today 🗓️
Listen in to our live show on 89.9 FM or via the WORT Livestream on their website! We’ll be answering some questions, talking about songwriting and playing some music on the air 📻 #publicradio #wisconsin #livemusic #indieband #acoustic
On April 15, 1930, Richard Davis was born. He passed away in 2023 at the age of ninety-three. Today on Journeys into Jazz, host Chuck France celebrates UW-Madison Professor Richard Davis, with his music and with interview clips as he reminisces about how it all started, about Captain Walter Dyett, and other mentors. One highlight is Nancy Ciezki’s interview with Sarah Vaughan and Richard.
Tune in to WORT this afternoon between 2 and 5 p.m. for this special tribute to one of the legendary double bassists and music educators.
At 6 p.m., check out the premiere of String Theory: The Richard Davis Method. It’s streaming online on the Richard Davis Foundation website at this link: /watch?v=4TtveQAB_4w
Also, on Journeys into Jazz this afternoon: “Cooking with Jazz” with local author Kap Mueller; and a “Name That Tune” segment which is a “jazz vocalist blindfold test” with Twin Cities singer/songwriter Leslie Vincent. See if you can name all six songs that Chuck plays briefly for Leslie. Identifying the jazz vocalist is even tougher. @leslievincentmusic is bringing her band to the North Street Cabaret on April 30.
Photo of Richard Davis with Sarah Vaughan courtesy of Richard Davis archives.
On April 2, Hejira (world music radio show) host Jeff Spitzer-Resnick, interviewed Anna Shternshis about the research she did and the process by which she helped to create the new album, Yiddish Glory: The Silenced Songs of World War II.
Shternshis is a professor of Soviet Jewish history and culture at the University of Toronto with a special interest in the relationship between music and violence.
“This project is a result of my research on what kind of music was created by amateur authors, women, children, and people just caught in the midst of really targeted violence against them, how they made sense of it what mattered to them, why they created music responding to starvation, massive death, and things like that,” Shternshis said.
The songs date between 1941 and 1947, and were recorded by scholars between 1944 and 1947.
“These songs were recorded right after people were liberated, but a lot of them also survived from people who did not live to see their liberation,” Shternshis said. “Sometimes it’s voices of people who would be killed a week or two after they created the piece. In that sense, the album is called ‘Silenced Songs of World War II’ because so many of them were silenced first by the war itself, then by Stalin’s government that suppressed Jewish creativity and Jewish lives even after the war, but also by the archive. The songs just refused to be silenced. They just came out no matter what.”
You can listen to the full interview on our website and in our audio archives for Hejira on April 2: /bringing-music-of-the-dead-and-forgotten-to-life/
Two circuit court branches, 1 and 8, will be on Dane County ballots tomorrow, April 7th.
Branch 8’s incumbent Judge Stephanie Hilton, appointed by Governor Evers in 2025 to fill a vacancy, is running unopposed this spring.
Initially a three-way contest, the race for Branch 1 was narrowed down to two candidates when Nathan Wagner earned less than 12 percent of the vote in the February primary. Incumbent Judge Ben Jones and challenger Huma Ahsan, who received 53 percent and 35 percent of the vote respectively, will face off on April 7th.
Read about the political platforms of Ben Jones and Huma Ahsan and listen to their interviews with WORT reporter Faye Parks on our website:
/2026-spring-election-guide-meet-the-candidates/
The polls are open tomorrow from 7am to 8pm. Use the WORT 2026 Spring Election Guide to meet the candidates and prepare to vote!
WORT’s 2026 Spring Election Guide is a one-stop shop available for you to meet your candidates running for the April 7th election!
This guide includes comprehensive coverage of candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Dane County Circuit Court, Madison Common Council, Madison School Board, and the Dane County Board of Supervisors.
The election guide contains summaries of each candidate’s political platform. WORT’s News and Talk team offered interviews to every candidate and aired these interviews on our evening news broadcasts. The election guide includes links to exclusive WORT interviews with most candidates. For some of the lesser known candidates, this may be the only interview you will hear from them.
Check out the WORT Election Guide for comprehensive coverage of all of your candidates so that you can form your own opinions and prepare for the April 7th election.
🔗 /2026-spring-election-guide-meet-the-candidates/
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