When 105.9 FM switched formats to classic rock several months ago many people were understandably upset that south-central Wisconsin was once again without a radio station that played commercial hip hop and R&B. Enter mADTOWN jAMZ (106.7 FM).

Madtown jamz is pretty much a by-the-book urban contemporary format radio station. Expect to hear charting hip hop and R&B songs as well as a few throw-back tracks from years past. I listened on my way home from work last night and heard Chris Brown's Run It followed by Tupac's California Love which segued into one of the new popular tracks featuring Akon.

Sunday Journal with Stu Levitan
WXXM-FM 92.1 The Mic
Conversation and commentary about local politics and the arts
Ten to Noon, Sunday mornings
on Madison's Progressive Talk Radio

February 11, 2007

Mayoral candidate Peter Munoz
Harriet Brown, {Mr. Wrong}
Anthony Arthur, {Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair}

For a long time Dane101 was in the habit of letting y'all know when the newest edition of Mel and Floyd hit the internets. With some help from various therapists, we were able to break that habit, but we are sad to report we have fallen off the wagon. The June 9 "summer replacement show" features a report by Mr. Pants from the Great White North, an evaluation on the importance of the estate tax, passing laws during the "flaming liberal Nixon administration" and eating Presidents - in chocolate form. Errr...and Pants thinks Ann Coulter is hot?

Click here for the June 9 broadcast of Mel & Floyd, the Friday afternoon current events and comedy team broadcast on WORT 89.9 FM. Thanks to Jeremiah for posting on Madison's Indymedia.

As always, more information about previous Mel & Floyd broadcasts, including a link archive and live blogging from last year is available at nichole's auxillary storage: mel & floyd.

Madison's favorite radio show, the Mel and Floyd show (Fridays @ 1:00 pm WORT 89.9 FM) is still going strong after all these years. If you are ever feeling nostalgic and want to listen to some old shows check out Dane101's Mel and Floyd archives link page. We have links to just about every "episode" since September of 2004.

You can also purchase a CD copy of Mel & Floyd by sending an email to WORT News & Public Affairs Facilitator Nathan Moore:

Be sure to include your name and contact info, as well as the date of the broadcast you want a copy of. WORT suggests a donation of $10 per CD. Send or drop off cash or checks to:

We know a lot of Dane101 readers are Hip Hop fans judging from the search terms people use to get here. Why not take your Hip Hop hobby to another level? Local community radio station WORT is looking for a skilled DJ for our new underground Hip Hop show, Saturdays 10pm-midnight. Read below the break for the full press release. Oh, and if you do get the gig, drop us a line at

so we can interview you.

Crowds filled the Barrymore Theatre Tuesday as The Al Franken Show was live, aired locally on The Mic 92.1 and sponsored by The Capital Times and Affordable Computer Help in Madison. The event had a community feel, as local businesses were present in the form of concession from the Willy Street Co-op, Al's new book The Truth (With Jokes) being sold by the Rainbow Bookstore. In addition, attendees could donate food to the needy in Dane county.

Attendees went to one of a series of weekly whistle stops at various local Madison businesses. Food or money donations to Community Action Coalition were accepted in exchange for a ticket to the show. Over 2000 pounds of food and over $3500 dollars was raised through the whistle stops.

Quality community radio stations are few and far between. There are plenty of stations that identify as “community” across the span of the United States, but in many cases the quality is lacking. Many stations lack the enthusiasm, dedication and strong fundraising and volunteer base it takes to be successful and the end result is many community stations slowly allowing National Public Radio programming to creep in and take over the airwaves or worse yet, simply going dark.

Madison’s WORT has the benefit of being in a community that brings together all the things it takes to be a successful community radio station. With a dedicated base of volunteers and community the treasure at 89.9 FM is now celebrating birthday number 30.

This is just a short note to let all of you, our readers, know that Dane101 co-founder Jesse Russell is the featured guest on the December edition of the Douglas and Joe Show on Madison's only all Madison music online radio station - Music Made in Madison! If you have ever wondered what the story behind Dane101 is, check out the show over on Dane101. If you want to know more about Music Made in Madison, be sure to read our interview with founder Joe Johnson from early September and take a moment to listen to this great resource that features everything from rock to jazz to hip hop.

Everyone's favorite big business lobbying organization Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce has launched a campaign to get Governor Jim Doyle to sign several liability reform bills that have passed the legislature including Job Preservation Act (AB 778/SB 402), Product Liability Reform (SB 58) and Expert Witness Reform (SB 70).

To support their campaign they bought air time on several radio stations including local liberal talk radio The Mic 92.1. This campaign may backfire though because when most liberals hear the WMC telling them to do something (in this case: call the Governor's office and tell him to sign the bills) they automatically do the opposite.

Thanks to Sarah who recorded the September 30 edition of WORT's hilarious Mel and Floyd show you can now collect all 5 September episodes. The Dane101 Mel and Floyd archives page has been updated with some older episodes too. Don't forget to tune in to WORT (89.9 FM) tomorrow from 1 PM - 2 PM to hear Mel and Floyd "live". Yes, I realize they record Thursday nights see the quotes around live.

After a sporadic summer, Mel and Floyd is back. Mel and Floyd airs every Friday on WORT. Go get the mp3 here at Madison Indymedia and relive last Friday. Also, don't forget about our Mel and Floyd archives which has a fairly comprehensive list of Mel and Floyd's available online.

Tonight at 7pm at Hawk's Bar on State Street, Madison's progressive talk outlet, the Mic 92.1 WXXM, will celebrate their first anniversary where they will reveal a huge secret. They have been touting it for weeks now, so it must be something bigger than "We're going to have even more people saying 'I'm on the Mic (the mic, the mic the mic)'. As reported earlier on Dane101 here and here, respectively, the Mic experienced a boom around election time and then settled in to a lower rating.

Say hello to Dane county's newest radio station, Wicked Radio - WIKD 90.5 FM. WIKD is a micropower broadcast FM radio station based in Edgerton, WI that is also available world-wide via an internet stream and podcasting.

The programming on Wicked Radio includes talk shows focusing on hacktivism (Liberation Radio), a show called Wicked Radio Live which is a comical tech show, and more with music from various genre's (mostly rock) in between the other shows. Their website also offers a forum for hacktivists, hackers and technology enthusiasts to participate in.

Links:
- website
- podcast
- radio stream

Back in May we had a story about how our local Air America affiliate, WXXM (The Mic) 92.1 was getting better than expected ratings in the Madison market. At that time, WXXM was the 8th most listened to radio station (in the surveyed demographic) in Madison with a 4.4 share.

The Spring '05 rankings have come out and it shows that WXXM lost a lot of ground during the spring ratings period coming in 15th out of 26 radio stations listed in the rankings. Their ratings share dropped from 4.4 to 1.7.

Perhaps once the election anger and frustration wore off people just got sick of the repetitiveness of it all. Perhaps they just aren't funny anymore. Except for the Saturday lineup which includes the local shows Forward Forum and Lee Rayburn, Air America is largely devoid of informative, thought provoking fare which usually draws the liberals in.

We missed a few weeks but we're back with the audio archive of last week's Mel & Floyd. Also, don't forget about our archive which lists all (known) Mel & Floyd recordings available online. If you sign up for an account on Dane101 you can subscribe to the archive post and you will automatically be notified by email when a new Mel & Floyd is posted. As always, thanks to Sarah for recording the show.