Today's 480 Minutes show will feature new songs by Art Brut (London, England, @Art_Brut_), The Gotobeds (Pittsburgh, PA, @The_Gotobeds), Haybaby (Brooklyn, NY, @ohihaybaby), Silversun Pickups (Los Angeles, CA, @sspu), and Wild Wing (Los Angeles, CA, @wildfuckingwing).
What, no political rant today? Well, you see, I received a complaint from a listener informing me that not all listeners share my political opinions. Man oh Manischewitz, I had no idea! From now on I'm going to keep my thoughts and opinions to myself (that was sarcasm -- I have received such e-mails for many years).
Most "I don't want to hear it" e-mails do not offer the author's political opinions, nor even mention which particular opinions of mine offended them enough to contact me for the first time. First contact from listeners who do not share my views is never the more typical, "I love the station and listen to it all day at work and sometimes all weekend and thanks for renewing my thirst for music discovery and helping me to find some of my new favorite bands and reminding me of some I'd forgotten." Those seem to only come from everyone else.
This particular listener was notably civil, opening with, "Good evening Ted," and sharing that he likes the station and discovering new music. I appreciate that.
He continued, "I find your comments about our current president and your personal political viewpoints very off-putting. Not all your listeners share the same opinion. It's bad form on your part, not very professional. It would be great if you could keep it about music!"
Not very professional? Have you heard me try to pronounce French?!
I replied explaining that I disagreed with his assessment that it was "bad form" to share my thoughts on the platform that I've spent 16 years building all the way from scratch in 2003 to today's full-on gaping wound. I also tried to open a dialogue about what we disagreed on, because these days people only want to hear opinions that fit their worldview, whether or not those opinions are based in fact and evidence and thereby defensible. I didn't go into quite this detail, but discarding verifiable facts and instead accepting the words of a life-long con man is no way to run a railroad and has lead us to this devastatingly embarrassing moment where nearly 90% of Republican voters support a president who lies about everything from "migrant infestations" and who actually pays for tariffs to inconsequential, to easily provable things like what he claims he didn't say despite recorded evidence, to things we can read in the Mueller Report (if only we could tear ourselves away from Duck Dynasty reruns) to well documented realities like the impossible to miss large-scale protests during his visit(s) to the UK.
I closed by thanking the author/listener for getting in touch and saying that it would suck if 30 seconds to 2 minutes of an opposing political view per 8-hour live-hosted effort was too off-putting for him to continue to listen, and wished him luck finding another outlet that he enjoys and turns him on to new music. I'm still hoping to hear back.
480 Minutes is live-hosted from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time and is followed by 2 hours of uninterrupted music. The show is then rebroadcast in it's entirety beginning at 7 p.m., then again on Saturday at 5 a.m. and 3 p.m., and one final time on Sunday at 1 a.m., followed by a rebroadcast of this week's Fuzzy Road radio show at 11 a.m. and then a couple of old 480 Minutes episodes from this week in past years, making for hosted shows all weekend long.
Tune in! (somafm.com/bagel, plus SomaFM channels are available on many set top boxes and home audio systems as well as virtual assistants by voice command).
Check out bagelconcertfinder.com to find cool live music in your area. You pick the town, the radius, and the results will help you find fun things to do while supporting up and coming independent bands.
Contact the DJ during the live-hosted show hours:
e-mail: ted(at)somafm.com
Twitter: @bagelradio
facebook.com/bagelradio/ (comments only, no FB messenger, sorry)
chat with other listeners: https://internet-radio-slack.herokuapp.com
Videos
480 Minutes / Year 15 - Episode 20/651
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