[krakensden]

I don't work in radio, I'm not a radio historian, so there's a good chance I'm violently wrong- but my pet theory is that advertising killed radio in the US. You have to fit into a small number of surprisingly rigid categories in order to participate in the big money advertising campaigns, and if you don't have those, you're liable to go dark.

There are exceptions, like the Pacifica network and oddities like KPIG, but they're few and far between.

If you're looking for some corroboration, you could check out documentaries about the early days of hip hop.

[__david__]

It's not just that, I think Clear Channel caused the true demise of radio. They own practically every radio station in the US and so there's been a massive homogenization of playlists across radio stations. College stations offer a small respite from the dreary same-ness that is corporate radio, but the stations near me don't have that much power so they only cover a small physical area and the more interesting shows aren't on during commute times.

For me, commercials are also a large issue--with TV I have a DVR and my browser has an ad-blocker, so I'm just not used to listening to commercials. They tend to start aggravating me after a very short time (10 seconds or so).

Those are the reasons I don't listen to the radio any more.

[mekazu]

You paint a pretty bleak picture. Does anybody have any examples of USA radio that is intelligent, artist focused, youth oriented, community driven, ad free, subscription free, streaming on-line, etc? There are plenty to choose from on tunein.com but I'm looking for highlights. Sorry if this is heading too far from the topic.

[krakensden]

That's a lot of qualifiers there.

KPIG is pretty great, but they have ads.

There are lots of college radio stations (check out KDVS and KALX) that are pretty amusing, but they're not so much "community driven" as "driven by the people who show up and pay their dues". That may seem like nitpicking to you, but it seems very relevant after an hour of frogs and Star Trek samples.

NPR stations, Pacifica stations, kind of sort of don't have ads, but they do have sponsors and pledge drives. They are pretty old-people oriented.

I'm sure someone who is slightly less NorCal centric can improve on this list.

[drcube]

KDHX here in St. Louis. Check it out online: http://kdhx.org/

NPR and KDHX are the only radio stations I listen to. The rest of them are literally unbearable.

edit: I used to really like XM radio a few years ago, but it was a subscription based service. And I haven't really listened to it much in a few years, so I don't know where it's at currently.

[chris11]

Colorado Public Radio started Open Air, which is a radio station focusing on new and recent music. You should check it out. Unfortunately while it streams online, offline it is just an am radio station, so I haven't listened to it much because of the poor reception.

http://www.openaircpr.org/

[DaveMebs]

KEXP pretty much fits the bill. http://www.kexp.org/

[J3L2404]

MIT's station WMBR

Boston College WZBC

Stanford KZSU

UC Santa Cruz KZSC

KUSF WNYU WUNH

Tons of great music. All free. All available on the net. Throw in Radioshift to record my favorite shows and I have more music than I can possibly have time to listen to.

Why does everyone always forget about college radio?