Well, it's here: 10 years ago today BAGeL Radio started streaming. It began with a library of maybe 1/100th of my CD collection...to about 3 listeners...all thanks to the cajoling of my friend Tim who said, "You need to get back into something music-related. How about internet radio?" I looked into it, stumbled across SomaFM, fell in love with Indie Pop Rocks!, and thought, "If people like that station, they might like what I would play." More realistically I thought, "If nothing else, at least I'll be able to listen to my music collection while I'm at work!"
Six months later I had ripped CDs up to the letter "L," so by late summer listeners could hear artists from !!! to the Lemonheads. I wasn't all that concerned -- as far as I knew there were maybe a couple of dozen listeners, mainly friends to whom I'd sent a link, and their friends. It wasn't until discovering in December that people in over 100 countries and 150 US cities had tuned in that it dawned on me that my lark was morphing into a real thing...and that I'd better get serious about ripping the remaining 2500 CDs on the shelves!
There were few live broadcasts back in those early days. They were erratic and unplanned and generally pretty awful (ask Tim!), but I had a lot of fun doing them, and was thrilled to get real-time feedback via e-mail, Instant Messaging, and Internet Relay Chat. Besides those random hosted events, BAGeL Radio mainly consisted of playlists that I would daydream about throughout the day at work, then cobble together in iTunes when I got home.
In July of 2004 my friend Jonathan suggested I pick a regular weekly time to be on the air, and the BAGeL Radio Friday Live Broadcast was born. It took me a little over 2 years to figure out that "The BAGeL Radio Friday Live Broadcast" was a bit of a mouthful, which is when the show became known as 480 Minutes (named after the MTV program on which they played cool videos, and seeing as my show was 8 hours long).
In 2006 BAGeL Radio went from me to we as a second live hosted show was added to the schedule. Tuesdays with Cory, and later The Spacerock Continuum, and At Home With DJUnfitForWork. In 2007 BAGeL Radio was added to the iTunes Radio Tuner and listenership tripled overnight.
In 2011 our internet radio pioneer heroes at SomaFM invited us to join their esteemed ranks, and we jumped at the chance, and now, on February 1st, 2013...BAGeL Radio turns 10 years old!
As you've likley heard on the air, or on Facebook, or by reading these missives, we're hosting a show tonight at Bottom of the Hill to celebrate this milestone. The show will feature three excellent bands Mister Loveless, CHURCHES, and Birdmonster, balloons, and cupcakes. Yes, cupcakes! Tickets are on sale here, or you can get yours at the door.
As for today's 480 Minutes program, it is live-hosted from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Pacific Time (although please excuse me if I beg out an hour or two early so I can shower and go through 12 outfits and do my makeup for the big to do at Bottom of the Hill tonight) and new music will include songs by Guards (New York, NY), Hang Time (Salt Lake City, UT), John Jerome & The Congregation (Moncton, NB, Canada), Public Service Broadcasting (London, England), PVT (Sydney, Australia), Sin Fang (Reykjavík, Iceland), Snowden (Austin, TX.), Thao and the Get Down Stay Down (San Francisco, CA), and a belated addition for San Francisco's own Philistines.
Get in touch with your requests, comments, challenge sets, and your chance to win a pair of tickets to our anniversary event during the hosted portion of the day:
e-mail: ted(at)somafm.com
Yahoo IM/GoogleTalk: bagelradio
AOL/iChat: bagelradiolive
facebook.com/pages/BAGeL-Radio
Bay Area Gig eList (upcoming Bay Area shows of interest)
**# SomaFM Presents...
**# The BAGeL Radio 10th Birthday Bash @ Bottom of the Hill
**# featuring Mister Loveless/ CHURCHES/ Birdmonster 2/1/13 buy tickets
**# SomaFM Presents...
**# The BAGeL Radio 10th Birthday Bash @ Bottom of the Hill
**# featuring Mister Loveless/ CHURCHES/ Birdmonster 2/1/13 buy tickets
* = We're there
** = We're DJing (stop by, say hi!)
# = win tickets during 480 Minutes
Videos
You have probably heard this song in a TV commercial lately. I was shocked any Death Set song was chosen for a TV ad, but thrilled for the band:
What caught my attention first was the band name. Now that's a great band name. Glad they hooked me in...this video is almost as disturbing as The Progidy video for "Smack My Bitch Up," but with more cinematographic grace:
