“480 Minutes” - Juneteenth
Have you heard? The New York Knickerbockers won the NBA title this week! The city has been out of its collective mind (in a good way) ever since. Even Islamophobic sports radio asshats have had nice things to say about our Muslim mayor. We’ll see how long it lasts, but for now, all this collective joy is a joy to experience.
In more serious news, June 19th, also known as “Juneteenth” — marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The fact that it took a full 2 1/2 years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to finally free Texas from the abomination of chattel slavery (& that it took a mobilized army) lays bare the depth, entrenchment, & intractability of racism in America.
Juneteenth is now a federal holiday when non-racist Americans celebrate the abolition of slavery, a significant step towards creating “a more perfect union” which helped pave the way for great progress toward realizing the ideals of equality & liberty & self-determination set out in the Declaration of Independence. The section that reads, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty & the pursuit of Happiness” began to ring a bit less hollow after this date in 1865.
Today’s award-winning live-hosted 480 Minutes show will feature no new music due to major technical difficulties this week (anyone know of Mac software that can handle an XXXL music library better than Apple’s offerings?). As of 4 a.m. Thursday night/Friday morning I was still unable to access our “Review Library” which contains the music submitted this week making it impossible to review it.
The show today is the 974th episode that we can prove (there were a bunch in the early years that got lost to history thanks to hard drive failures & stupid human error) & the 25th of the year. Both numbers seem absurd to me — the first because 974 8-hour shows is indisputably absurd, no argument required; the second because this is the 25th week of 2026 (I looked it up!) which means…we haven’t missed or taken a Friday off yet as we approach the midway point of the year. I assumed I must have miscounted, but going back through the playlists for the year it became clear — there has been a new, live-hosted, 8-hour show every Friday since January 2nd, 2026…& there were 4 shows in December 2025, making today the 29th consecutive all-new live-hosted Friday show. Now that’s absurd!
While today’s show may be something of a mess due to the lack of structure normally provided by new playlist additions…it will be fun!
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Celebrate the midday set of old songs you never knew you needed with this Noon Wave t-shirt! Help spread the word by sporting this & other BAGeL Radio-branded products from our merch store. Thank you.
· 60% combed ring-spun cotton, 40% polyester
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· Blank product sourced from the US
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Videos
480 Minutes / Episode 974
