Fifty years ago on April 29, 1975, Bonnie Raitt gave a benefit concert with Mose Allison for WORT at the Capitol City Theatre in downtown Madison. This was a major event in the history of our station. On this very special edition of A Public Affair, WORT Production Coordinator Aaron Scholz is behind the mic to explain why. In addition to a special message from Bonnie Raitt, we hear four interviews with folks who helped coordinate the benefit show, were at the show, or were involved with WORT before we went on the air over six months later. 

In the first interview, Stu Levitan speaks with Glenn Silber about the genesis of the benefit concert. Silber is the director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary about Madison’s political history, The War at Home. In 1975, he was working for a group called People’s Video who were the co-beneficiaries of the Bonnie Raitt benefit concert. Not only was the show a flashpoint in the history of WORT, it also coincided with the fall of Saigon, as Silber explains.

Next we hear from Don Alan, who was the MC for the concert and later WORT’s News Director. He went on to become the Program Director and Station Manager before he left in 1984 to move to San Francisco. Alan says that he got involved with the creation of WORT because radio was an important part of his life. Fifty years on, WORT still depends on the passion of its volunteers and staff to make great radio and serve the community. 

Mike O’Connor also spoke with Scholz about the nuts and bolts of getting WORT off the ground, including the initial start-up cost for the station of $3,200. Bonnie Raitt’s benefit concert raised one-third of this cost. O’Connor went on to help other community radio stations get their start and he co-founded the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.

Our last interview is with Gil Halsted, a retired Wisconsin Public Radio reporter and a regular contributor to a wide variety of programs at WORT including World View, Labor Radio and the Insurgent Radio Kiosk. Halsted tells Scholz about what it was like to attend that legendary Bonnie Raitt and Mose Allison show. 

If you want to share your experience of the Bonnie Raitt benefit concert, please email Aaron Scholz at [email protected]. 

Featured image: poster for the 1975 concert featuring Bonnie Raitt and Mose Allison.

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