sashime76

It seems like all my local radio stations either play too many commercials, crack too many jokes (morning DJ especially) or play the same songs over and over again. This holds true when I go visit my brother in Anaheim (CA) or my sister in San Diego.

One station claims to air (maximum) two commercials an hour but the song bank is probably smaller than any teenager. Well, not those who download massive MP3 of course. It seems like they have some random playlist made up from the same songs they have at the station.

I load up my car CD changer which also plays MP3 CDs so I don't have to listen to the same crap everyday driving to work / home.

Anyone has good radio stations in town?

soma

Here in Minnesota, public radio is really great. Good news programming, classical music (although I'm not a huge fan), and a more recent addition: the current, which is a non-classical music, commercial free radio station. I have no complaints whatsoever.

Antikarma

This is why I got addicted to internet radio. We have 3 radio stations in town. We have the general "aimed to white women aged 24-45 staying at home during the day" that every town does, we have CBC radio north(/shudder), and we have a station that is Dogrib language only.

As far as I'm concerned, Shoutcast is the greatest invention on planet earth since Cotton Candy Schnapps at a college party.

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Magpie0001

BBC Radio1, The best NEW music:

Boom!

Click Breezeblock, for pioneering underground music.

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quadro2000

In NYC, I listen to WFUV.

On the internet, I can't say it enough:

Radio Paradise
Radio Paradise
Radio Paradise

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World's King

They all suck becuase they're all owned by ClearChannel.

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RAGEAngel9

Chicago and even better along the Ill-Wis border have improved lately.
Q101 went to shuffle mode, which I actually find to be an improvement.
94.7 Zone has been pretty good for hard rock / metal.
Best of all is 95.1 out of Kenosha. Modern and Classic Rock mixed together pretty well.

Magpie0001

Whats ClearChannel?

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World's King

It's a company that owns all the radio stations in Denver and a few other cities.

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clavus

ClearChannel is a big-ass company that owns over 50% of the radio stations in any given city in the USA. That's why you hear the same homogeneous shit wherever you go.

Thank the Radio Gods that I live in Davis - KDVS and KDRT offer alternatives (and no, its not called "alternative", it is actually alternative)

http://www.kdvs.org
http://www.kdrt.org

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BigBen

I hate to do a "Mine is bigger than yours" but I have to jump in here...

Local radio is owned by one company in my province. Country/Western, "Rock", Top 40, Easy Listening... all owned by the same guy.

This monopoly creates a Mountain of Suckitude that challenges Everest. I have permanent hearing loss in my right ear from sticking the sharpest object in arms reach into my eardrum to avoid one of the worst moments in my life:

Top 40: Shania Twain. No problem... I switch the channel on the radio
Easy-Listening: Shania Twain. Same Song. Quickly change station while now cursing
Country western: Shania Twain. Same Song. I was trying to go past the channel as fast as possible anyway, but PLAYING THE SAME SONG? This is getting rediculous
"Rock": I shit you not. They were playing Shania Twain. Different song. You are not allowed to call yourself a Rock station and play Shania.

At that point, I stabbed myself with a sharp object.

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keyshawn

I just stick to college radio [though the reception can be spotty sometimes] and NPR...

The variety of programming on them: going one hour on stoner rock, then one hr. on radical socialists talking; next: jazz.
Very cool.

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StanT

Had my car 2 years, haven't set up the radio presets, yet. Colorado radio is that bad. I just listen to cd's.

laconic1

I don't have a cd player or satellite radio in my car since it got broken into. It sucks just having AM/FM. All they do is talk, talk, talk, even on FM. Denver is notorious for talk radio. I am ordering a mp3 player soon, and will get the fm radio adapter for it so I can listen to something decent in my car. I dont even mind the repetitiveness of the songs, it's just all the endless inane chatter that bugs me.

guthmund

Around here it was Faith Hill. That stupid song 'Breathe' was on the playlist of every single local station (Rock, top 40, country, whatever) and they played in mercilessly in between the different versions of "How Do I Live."

The radio stations around here for the most part suck. The adult contemporary channel has a playlist that reads like the soundtrack to every John Hughes movie....ever. The local rock station has its moments, but, for the most part, it just chugs and re-chugs the same crap. Britney, Avril, "hard stuff" from Blink 182-esque flavor of the week, Christina, random rap/dance song, and then a song from the new Green Day album to prove the station is still relevant.

Around the house, I listen to radio stations on the internet or browse the Sirius channels. In the car, I either bring along a CD or I punish myself for forgetting it by listening to the radio.

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Grasshopper Green

The good thing about Salt Lake radio is that there is a large variety of crappy stations to choose from....usually I can go through my 10 presets and find ONE good song.

All the stations here just talk in the morning. I hate that. If I wanted to hear someone talk I'd turn on NPR or Talkradio. But yeah...stations here play the same stuff over and over, talk way too much, and play commercials every five minutes. I wish I had a CD player in my car.

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radioguy

dallas radio is just okay. nothing to go crazy about unless you like the hip-hop or spanish. those stations make a killing in the ratings. all the morning shows are there for laughter and jokes. it has become the norm for all radio stations to do bits in the morning and play a few songs per hour. some cities have new "formats" like jack and bob radio. this radio has no jocks, or few, and has a very extensive music bank. unfortunately, most radio personalities don't have the freedom to do what they want or play what they want. it is all about reading liner cards. some shows have the freedom to go "outside the box", but not many. i don't mind the radio. i go between talk, sports, and music so i have plenty of choice to go on.

jhkayakr

Get a plug and play satellite radio system. I listen to radio all the time now. Anything you want to hear is usually on. To much heavy rotation on local radio.

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dougiefresh

sashime76...try 94.9 fm next time you're in San Diego. For over the air radio, its pretty good. They helped start the alternative oldies trend, I'm sure other cities are hopping on the bandwagon because radio is all about originality.

skier

We just got a new radio station in edmonton called "sonic" 102.9 It's actually been awesome so far. Lots of new and good old songs, very few "top40" type songs. I've heard modest mouse etc. on this radio station and It's quickly becoming my main station (other than CBC)

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meembo

online stations whenever possible

I'm about to bite for sirius or xm

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Rodney

We actually have one good local commercial radio station, KPIG, which plays blues, alt country, hard-edged folk/singer-songwriter music (Warren Zevon and Tom Waits are favorites), a whole lot of the bands that are big in the Austin scene, and anything they feel like. Every Christmas Day they air a complete, commercial-free day of twisted or mutant Christmas music. They're on the Internet; you can pay Real Audio to listen, or you can find them free through Shoutcast. Recommended.

We've got a couple of NPR stations that play good stuff, but unless you've got the program guide you never know what format you're getting.

Almost everything else around here is Clear Channel-owned, or something like it. Most of them are robots, or primarily robots except for certain times of the day.

Besides KPIG, I would highly recommend radioparadise.com, an all-internet radio station playing extremely well-selected, eclectic music (I wouldn't call it "alternative" -- it's simply everything that the owner/program director considers good. And he's very, very knowledgeable.

tspikes51

Radio here in Lexington totally sucks since our alternative rock station switched formats and became the second classic/modern rock station in town. Basically, one of the stations is AC/DC followed by a full round of A Perfect Circle and Disturbed. The other one is Zeppelin, AC/DC, and Skynyrd with plenty of Creed, STP and Nickelback, and maybe an 80's rock song.

When I lived in Columbus, I remember the radio being excellent. This was confirmed on one of my recent trips up there. They have a 90's rock (like the Toadies and STP) station, an Alternative rock station, and quite a few other flavors.

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Destrox

This makes me glad to have XM Radio...

We have 1 station here "Rocket 101" which is semi-ok..

But most suck badly.

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Squishor

Pretty much I stopped listening to the radio except for NPR and maybe the local college station, although you can never tell what they're going to be playing. Plus, the college-age crowd seems to be recycling the worst of the 80s these days. Everything else seems to be mostly the same old shit - classic rock (the same old tired 15 songs that construction workers across the country have been listening to for the past 20 years), rap/hip hop, spanish and and barfy pop crap. The only thing about the "local stations" thing is, when I travel (which is often), I do find that the selection gets even worse, for the most part.

I've wondered about satellite radio because even though there may be a lot of stations, that's no guarantee that it'd be something I wanted to hear. Do they play much obscure stuff, industrial, small bands, etc.?

Holdem Dvorak

I usually will listen for like two seconds. But ONLY in the car. I use launchcast. It kicks butt. It is free for any sbcglobal users. I urge them to check it out. It makes you actually want to use your premium web browser!!!! It is tied right into yahoo messenger!

roachboy

with the exception of princeton's radio station, broadcast radio in philadelphia really really sucks. the main university stations have turned into or are soon going to turn into the same npr station. i dont understand why, because there was already an npr station in philadelphia before that. now there are three (soon four) versions of the same station. with different types of audio wallpaper linking the npr spots.

netradio. secret agent, for when i feel like being a spy, radio darvish for when i dont feel like being a spy.

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FunkyLamb

While we're on the subject, WWOZ here in New Orleans is broadcasting this weekend and next weekend from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. It's really a great chance to check out some of the music from Jazz Fest if you can't be here.

A schedule and streaming audio are available at www.wwoz.org.

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Gilda

I don't have a problem with radio in the afternoons, or during my twice a week trips into the big city. I can flip between the country, soft rock, hard rock, and oldies stations, and usually find something I like. I hate, hate, hate morning drive time, because every flaming station has the same inane show, the A and B show. Of the six presets I have, three of them are local shows called "A and B in the morning" as if we wouldn't be able to figure out that it's the morning. And they're all the same, lame comedy, trvia contests, stories about their personal lives, traffic updates with the highway patrol, and the weather report and maybe two or three songs in the forty minutes it takes me to drive to work. The other two aren't local shows; they're syndicated A and B shows, the Bob and Tom show and the Jamie and Danny show, and are exactly the same as the local ones, but "edgy".

There's a station in the big city that I absolutely love. The format is a mixture of soft rock, mainstream rock, pop, crossover country, you name it they'll play it. The best part is that there are no DJ's; just music, commercials, and station id's. I love it.

lite campfire

Bla! There's about 3 listenable stations in my area, and my car radio 'sort of kinda' gets one of them. The good ones are 2x 'middle aged guy rock' (AC-DC, Zepplin, ZZ top, etc) stations (I can pick up one) and CBC2 (classical, gets bonus points for being commercial free).
I'm sure we have at least 5 'mellow/soft favorates' (Celene, Shania, Phil Collins, Elton John, misc. other crap) stations, all of which get piped into every commercial building in town. I guess not being able to stand being in any store for more then 5 minutes saves me some money. They play the same crap when I go to the dentist as well, which is the single worst part. Sometimes she starts singing along, it's agony...

Sometimes I stare up at the sky, and think of all the satellites which are probably beaming down something I'd really want to listen to. *sigh*

Charlatan

Most local stations aren't even local. They are programmed from some other city and all you have is a local talking head.

Satellite radio is good... really good.

If you are in Canada, CBC is excellent. It is most classical (CBC2) or talk (CBC1) but it is still great programming.

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sashime76

One alternative we have in the office is to share our MP3s. Our lab PC is hooked up to the receiver (aux input), we have some 6000 (and counting) songs at our disposal. Screw the radio stations...
Only problems is when our servers go down we are forced to listen to radio.

SpikeQX99

Well, I'm glad to know that radio sucks no matter where you are at..

Seems that corporate monkey-see monkey-do is everywhere..

Seattle radio sucks big balls...
But KEXP is teh shit!! College radio.. good stuff most of the time, but they get off track sometimes with the local bands... far too many local acts in a row... But "shakin' the shack" is very cool.. rockabilly, boogie rhythm and blues, bluegrass and everything in between!! I like that..

Check it out online.. KEXP.org if I remember correctly

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RallyEX

I say: Go for the Satellite Radio.

The stations here suck as well... NPR occasionally has cool stuff, but even the college radio stations don't play good music! There are a few clear channel, and a few others owned by the same company, so they all play the same standardized crappy playlists.

The only time I actually listen to a station is in the morning when the Bob & Tom show is on the air. After that, it's over to Sirius satellite radio.

Panopticon

I can't even stand to listen to the radio anymore. It is all commercials or songs that I don't want to hear. For whatever reason, the "Classic Rock" station in my area is hellbent on playing this real crappy southern type rock - not even good southern rock like Lynyrd Skynyrd, either.

Luckily, I got my iPod and I hook that up to my radio. Hours upon hours of commercial free music that I actually like.

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Janey

1050 CHUM every night from 7 to 8 (while I wash dishes etc) plays the '70's at 7. Get your fill of 70's playlists du jour. lots of schmaltz.

other than that the local rock and alt scene predominates. (oh yes and of course the predictable Hip Hop)

talk radio is all over too. the only one i like is 1010 CFRB's Jim Richards at 8 pm. very ecclectic off the wall and humourous talk radio.

lurkette

Our local radio market sucks. The only things I listen to are NPR, the local jazz station and occasionally the local college station. We have 2 Christian broadcasts (good for a chuckle), an all-mariachi-all-the-time station, countless sucky R&B channels, and a bunch of top 40/easy listening crap. And they're always yelling! The commercials are yelling, the DJs are yelling, drives me nuts. I don't listen to commercial radio any more unless something boring is on NPR, like Garrison Keillor (I grew up in MN, save the nostalgia for someone who cares) or Back Porch Music (which is occasionally good if I'm in the right mood).

I have a vague memory of hearing about a couple of commercial stations in southern California who were seriously cutting back on commercial time and were setting guidelines for those commercials to improve the quality and lessen the annoyance factor. I'll see if I can find something on it online.

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