No, you don't have to send a tape. What happened was, I had pre registered to try out. They SAID it wouldn't be till sometime this year. In October, my phone broke down. It wasn't working for 2 weeks. When i got it back up, there was a message for me to audition in Chicago (i think it was like, October 17th) and of course, as my luck goes, it was already PAST that date.
So.....my wife told me i should go to the site and see if there is any other way to try. It had an address where you could send a tape, which i did.
I sent my "Ozaukee Idol" winning performance, as that's really all i had that i could send. I posted it here in the thread somewhere.