Please sign this petition to Congress to help save internet radio.  Again.  Yes, Small Webcasters like SomaFM are once again looking down the barrel of a gun ( son of a gun, son of a bitch, getting paid, getting rich) and must explain to the people who set the royalty rates why independent internet radio is so important to keeping new and niche music alive.  The royalty rates are set every five years and, it should be noted, are so cripplingly high that no service can afford them -- not even the big players like Apple, Pandora, etc. who all cut side deals with the labels.


In the broader political context, I'll just come out and say it: conservatism is killing America.  Literally.  Bill Moyers does a fine, concise job spelling it out, writing, "And what Republican poobah has dared call out Grover Norquist, whose monomaniacal crusade against government has thrown public education into crisis, turned streets and highways into bottomless potholes, and produced stratospheric deficits?"

On top of that, Republicans in Congress are trying to deflect blame for the Flint water crimes from the Republican Governor of Michigan and onto the EPA.  They are blaming the environmental regulatory body which Republicans in Congress have been decimating for decades for lack of oversight, not the cost-cutting lunatic whose idea it was to switch the water supply and keep it that way for months when he knew it was poisoning people.  This type of obfuscation is fascinating to watch but brutally hateful and condescending.

For more pithy political analysis (but mainly for new music) tune in to BAGeL Radio on Fridays from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time for the live-hosted,   480 Minutes program which has won awards and is beloved by dozens.  The show is rebroadcast Friday evenings beginning at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 5 a.m. and 3 p.m., and Sundays at 1 a.m. ET.

Today's show will include new tunes by Aurora (Bergen, Norway, @AURORAmusic),   Bob Mould (San Francisco, CA, @bobmouldmusic), Eagulls (Leeds, England, @eagullsuk), Hælos (London, England, @haelos),  Holy Wave (Austin, TX, @Holy_Wave), Iggy Pop (Miami, FL, @IggyPop), Kitten Forever (Minneapolis, MN, @kittenforever),   Robert Pollard (Dayton, OH, @GBVtweets), Sink Tapes (New Brunswick, NJ, @sinktapes), and  The Sun Days (Gothenburg, Sweden, @thesun_days). 

http://somafm.com/bagel/