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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
