WORT 89.9 FM Volunteer-Powered Listener-Sponsored Community Radio WORT Music Hosts Confess Their First We asked WORT music hosts if they remember the first piece of music they bought. Yes, they do! How well do you know WORT music hosts? See if you can match the host to their first music purchased. Answers on page 6. 1) Rockin John McDonald, A) Annie Musical Soundtrack, cassette I Like It Like That B) The Beatles: Meet the Beatles, LP 2) Dave Watts, Blues Cruise C) Bill Doggett: Honky Tonk, 45 3) Bill, The Walkin’ Doctor, D) Bill Haley and His Comets: Friday on My Mind Shake, Rattle and Roll, 45 Guide 4) Harry Rag, Friday on My Mind E) Buffalo Springfield: Buffalo 5) Vinyl Ritchie, Springfield, LP ’ Vinyl Resting Place F) Clark Sisters: You Brought the 6) Cooper Talbot, Sunshine, LP Her Infinite Variety G) CW McCall: Convoy, 45 7) Bad Sister Heidi, H) Desmond Dekker & the Aces: Psychoacoustics Israelites, 45 8) Rich Samuels, Anything Goes I) Elvis Presley: Hound Dog/Don’t be 9) Bill Clark, Blues Cruise Cruel, 45 10) Bonnie Kalmbach, J) Frank Teschemacher, Chicago–Style Two for the Blues Clarinetist, LP 11) PC Allen, One Fine Morning K) Harry Belafonte: Belafonte at 12) Heather Gerbyshak, Carnegie Hall, LP Other Voices L) The Jackson Five: I Want You 13) Paul Novak, On the Horizon Back, 45 14) Rev D, Best of Gospel M) Mason Jennings: Mason Jennings, 15) Martin Alvarado, LP Global Revolutions N) Michael Jackson: Thriller, LP 16) Ena Foshay, A Musical Offering O) Partridge Family: I Think I Love 17) Ford Blackwell, You, 45 On the Horizon P) Rossini: William Tell Overture 18) Alan Muirhead, Q) Soda Stereo: Nada Personal, LP Musica Antiqua R) The Ventures: Go Go, LP Listeners 19) FRP, Tropical Riddims S) White Lion: White Lion, LP RADIO PILOT Vol. 24 No. 2 Summer 2017 Summer 2017 | WORT 89.9 FM (608) 256-2001 | page 1 WORT 89.9 FM 118 S. Bedford Street • Madison, WI 53703 phone (608) 256-2001 | facsimile (608) 256-3704 | web page www.wortfm.org WORT Board of Directors Mission Statement President.......David Devereaux-Weber At-Large Members ........Jerry Chernow Vice President .............. Stuart Levitan Gil Halsted WORT-FM is a non-commercial, Katherine Hoveland listener-sponsored, member-controlled Treasurer ................... Marty Kehrein Stephen Lord community radio station broadcasting Secretary ........................ Jane Richard Paul Novak Lincoln Tice to south central Wisconsin. WORT Staff Representative .........Doug Holtz volunteers and staff shall provide quality programming and services to Community Advisory Board a broad spectrum of the community through: Pam Alsum Dawn Egan Grant Samuelsen Victoria Straughn Pam Dempsey Adelaide Fiske Michael Simons • promotion of communication, education, entertainment, and understanding by providing a Paid Staff forum for both the discussion of Music Program Business & Events public issues, and the expansion of Director ..................... Sybil Augustine Development Director .....Doug Holtz musical and cultural experience; News & Public Assistant News Affairs Director .............. Molly Stentz Director ..................... Nina Kravinsky • facilitation of community Listener Sponsor Development Music Assistant/ expression and provision of Director .......................Susan Sheldon Promos Coordinator ......Aaron Scholz community access to the airwaves Volunteer & Outreach Interim IT/Engineering for the purpose of sharing music, Director ....................... Glenn Mitroff Technician ............Nathan McQuillen culture, news and information; Bookkeeper ..................Jerry Chernow Talk Producer ................Sarah Hopefl • challenge of the cultural and Assistant Bookkeeper ...... Dan Lippett Development intellectual assumptions of our Assistants ............... Kristin Sorrentino listeners through unique and Karen Leamy diverse programming; Board Meetings: • orientation towards the audience Monthly board meetings are usually held on the third Wednesday of every month at with concern for those under- 7 pm at the WORT studios and are open to the public. represented by other media. WORT shall be committed to THE RADIO PILOT IS THE NEWSLETTER FOR radio programming with a human WORT LISTENER SPONSOR MEMBERS AND IS PUBLISHED BY: perspective, respecting all peoples and their environments. Back Porch Radio Broadcasting, Inc. 118 S. Bedford Street, Madison, WI 53703 (608) 256-2001 WEB wortfm.org Layout Artist: Carol Bracewell • Production Coordinator: Susan Sheldon facebook.com/WORTFM Editor: Nancy Mae Print circulation 3,500 • Published August 2017 instagram.com/wortfm WORT’s mailing list is confidential and is never sold or loaned to anyone. @WORTradio @WORTnews Back Porch Radio Broadcasting, Incorporated WORT 89.9FM/HD WORT is a 501(c)(3) organization. Your contributions are tax-deductible. page 2 | WORT 89.9 FM (608) 256-2001 | Summer 2017 Partners in WORT History: The Soap Opera From the day WORT popped some champagne and which we agreed, though our sales were hardly much started broadcasting in 1975, listeners have stopped more than that on some days. by the station to contribute money. In the very early Folks from WORT’s early days say the station owes days on Winnebago Street, people literally opened a huge debt of gratitude to The Soap Opera. How our door and threw money into the tiny room when did you help a struggling community radio station DJs asked for donations. become another community icon? One of the earliest Madison businesses to support The primary way we helped was that our store WORT was The Soap Opera, the brainchild of became the pick-up point for the t-shirts and Chuck Beckwith and Chuck Bauer. WORT asked sweatshirts that WORT gave to donors. Over many Chuck Bauer about those early years. months, and during several marathons each year, WORT listener-sponsors would stop by with their The Soap Opera opened on State Street in 1972. “ticket” to receive a shirt. We made a lot of friends What motivated you to start the business? that way and we saved the tickets to add to our We were too independent to cut our hair, could catalog mailing list, which linked your donor base to not imagine working for anyone else, and were our customer base, and very likely continues today. too young to feel any fear. After graduation we Win-win. sold our handmade crafts on the street. Later we saw a fledgling soap shop in California. That, Now that you have sold The Soap Opera, you have the time to pursue other passions. What are you combined with my growing up in Europe, where tiny working on? perfumeries were common, allowed us to think we Healthy exercise, timely naps, enjoyment of the might add some personal care products to our crafts. arts in Madison, and art—we are both visual The body care items—all-natural, biodegradable, and artists (www.ctbauer.com). We are also restoring an herb-based—took off, and the crafts soon faded away. 82-acre rural New Glarus property to pre-settlement Many local businesses that opened in Madison in conditions (a fire-dependent ecosystem) as a “Noah’s the 70s chose to locate in the many popular malls. Ark” for at-risk species of all kinds, hopefully far into What attracted you to State Street? the future (www.rareearthfarm.org). State Street foot traffic was abundant; we knew traffic would be our oxygen for selling anything in inexpensive units. We also knew State Street building stock permitted very small start-up operations. We never considered any other neighborhood. In fact, in graduate school (M.A., UW, Madison, 1970 Fine Arts) I had done a paper on the sad, disappointing aesthetics of malls. WORT’s first broadcast was December 1, 1975. When did The Soap Opera first get involved with WORT? Pretty soon after. We likely sent in a $10 donation, as we frequently did if something came along with The Soap Opera. Photo: Adam Fagen. Summer 2017 | WORT 89.9 FM (608) 256-2001 | page 3 Hey, WORT! What happened to Lady P and her Saturday morning our intentional signal stand out from the background show, The Dusties Storm? (Several listeners have asked.) noise. This is called pre-emphasis. During the past decade, Lady P faced many medical Pre-emphasis occurs when the signal we send to issues that she worked hard to overcome so she could the transmitter is put through a filter that boosts return to her show. higher frequencies far above where they would Unfortunately, this year normally be, akin to turning up the high frequency Lady P was confronted faders on a graphic equalizer. The signal we with new challenges and broadcast would sound overly loud and tinny if you she can no longer bring listened to it directly, but you never hear the direct you the show she loves. We broadcast signal—your FM receiver has a filter wish Lady P the best and that de-emphasizes this signal again, bringing these frequencies down to a level where they sound normal, we know you are as grateful but which, in the process, also turns down the high as we are for the 20 years frequency noise she devoted to bringing us Lady P in the WORT studios. (static) to the point great R&B every Saturday where it’s mostly morning. inaudible. Because We also appreciate the fine job our crew of rotating pre-emphasis is music hosts has done bringing you different standard, your interpretations of R&B every Saturday. We have a receiver can run new, permanent host who will start this fall on the every FM station’s show we’ve renamed Soul Expressions. Stay tuned! audio through the same filter with predictable results. What happened? There was a week at the end of July when my WORT reception was pretty scratchy and I had WORT’s pre-emphasis is provided by a sophisticated, to turn my audio way, way up. but aging, digital audio processor called an Orban We received many versions of this question, so OptiMod, which cleans up our audio and makes it we turned to Nathan McQuillen, our Interim ready for broadcast.