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Radio stations. Back in the long long ago before the Internet they were a primary source of music and culture. The one that played your favorite artists was how you'd find out when they had a new album out. You knew which DJs were on when and you probably had favorites. When a favorite station went out of business and changed format it was a loss. RIP KQAK in the Bay Area and KFOX in Tucson. Morning shows were a thing, a host who was the primary personality and someone for them to bounce off of. A sound board was probably involved. You got news, music, traffic, and chatter. They were an early form of parasocial relationship. One of the defining features of "radio station" was a limited range. Someone who lived in the next city over had different stations to choose from. But that's okay, before the Internet you maybe didn't know anyone from the next city over. Now we have online friends from all over the globe. And we have radio stations all over the globe too! They're all right here: https://radio.garden/visit/boulogne-sur-mer/bm2Fi8TX Each green dot is a place with a station (some have multiple stations!), click to listen.  That's pointing to a particular station in France. I was planning a vacation and I used that to pick where I wanted to set up to explore France. I checked out my first candidate, and they played truly dope New Wave for the half hour I listened. Sold! Tell the thread about your favorite radio station, or a cool one you found in some corner of the world you will never be in range of. Outrail posted:I like the random police radios And definitely post these!
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Nov 18, 2023 18:59
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Nov 18, 2023 19:32
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As god is my witness I thought turkeys could fly
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Nov 18, 2023 19:43
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PBS.FM from Melbourne, Australia. https://www.pbsfm.org.au/ Everything from progressive to metal to world music. Nice two hour long shows to really get into the different styles. Too many good shows to list. France Musique https://www.radiofrance.fr/francemusique French public broadcasting. Different channels for all kinds of styles. They have really good shows and channels on classical radio. Also a concert show for new classical music every monday. French not really necessary, I think the specialised channels on the website don't even have a DJ.
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Nov 18, 2023 20:00
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busalover posted:France Musique https://www.radiofrance.fr/francemusique Oh that's good, I'll be giving that a listen.
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Nov 19, 2023 04:27
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my favorites were WBRU & WBCN which are now both dead
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Nov 19, 2023 05:12
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We had an AM station locally that was historically music for really old people. As time went by they started throwing in stuff from up to the 80's. It made for a weird mix of lite pop, mid sixties rock and stuff from as far back as the forties. Some records (actually digital copies of the record, I assume) were so old you could just about hear the dust on them but most of the old stuff was new to me and was obviously popular once. That made it worth a listen. They got an FM version of the station but less than a year later went with a lite mix format, heavy on the Barry Manilow and Neal Diamond. Ugh.
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Nov 19, 2023 06:24
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When I was a kid there was a 24 hour news radio station I would listen to when going to bed and it was just super calming, the announcer was so chill and would talk about the weather on the "colour weather radar" with the bands of rain offshore coming in (this is on an island) and man it was the best. They'd do a lot of local news stuff, have the occasional call in segments for discussing local happenings, it was great. But I mostly just listened to it in the evening while dropping off to sleep. Looking at their website now it looks like it is just an iheartradio conglomerate station now with most of the time filled up by podcasts. Sad.
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Nov 19, 2023 06:51
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 WNCW out of Spindale, NC, kinda near Asheville. old-time, bluegrass, singer-songwriter stuff, bands that don't show up on other stations. all live human being DJs. they do a bunch of themed shows throughout the week... there's a Zappa show, a couple of Dead shows, a reggae thing, a soul show, Celtic music, gospel on Sunday morning. NPR news in the mornings and on the hour and a couple public radio music shows. good place to hear banjos if you're into that. I was listening to their pledge drive a couple years and they were announcing callers' names and thanking everybody and in the middle of it was "and Steve Martin... that Steve Martin, he calls in every year and we appreciate his support." one of those bumper stickers one tends to see on Subaru Outbacks up and down the east coast.
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Nov 19, 2023 19:10
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vaguely similar to the above, WFPK in Louisville, KY. much more of a pop bent. it's one of the few current radio stations I've listened to that play eg A Tribe Called Quest.
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Nov 19, 2023 19:14
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Not all that niche I guess but the station I have on all day when working is https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_6music Just brilliant presenters, many of whom are famous in their own right (Jarvis Cocker, Iggy Pop, Guy Garvey, Tom Robinson, Marc Riley, Craig Charles for instance). It’s an alternative station with a quirky and eclectic playlist each week made up of the newest alternative releases but also plays everything from metal to hip hop to ambient to drum & bass. You never know what’s coming next and that’s brilliant. The presenters all have a massive passion for music which shines through in the programmes and I’ve found so so much new music from listening. The other thing is that a bit back, the BBC were going to close 6 down and the listeners made such a fuss that it stayed around. You often hear the presenters mention this and how much they appreciate the listeners going into bat for them. It just feels like they’re your friends lol.
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Nov 19, 2023 19:24
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The call letters have apparently been reassigned to some conservative Christian station in MS, but back in the late 90's WAQB 94.1 FM was a weird niche Rochester NY station that was only on the air for a few months. It played nothing but 70's funk/disco music on a loop, and everybody was listening to it.
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Nov 19, 2023 21:20
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A good one in the Minneapolis area is https://www.jazz88.fm/ Pretty much all old-timey jazz and R&B stuff, presenters know their stuff, has a relaxed public radio sort of vibe. It's good to have on the car radio when you're driving at night, makes me feel like I'm in a classy crime thriller
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Nov 20, 2023 04:16
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Empty Sandwich posted:
Had that in Northern Virginia until one day I turned on the radio and it had been replaced with Sputnik, literal Russian state sponsored news.
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Nov 22, 2023 22:19
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I remember one night I was listening to random radio stations and I hit on a guy with a hypnotically pleasant voice talking about like - horse feed or something. from somewhere in the US. It was completely charming and I fell asleep *pretty* fast. I like little talk stations like that when they're not ranting madly about the end times or whatever.
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Nov 22, 2023 22:40
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https://www.radiocontrol.org.nz/listen 100% Alternative, Student Radio from Manawatū, NZ. There's some wierd as poo poo, local sounds, there's often interviews with local artists, and one band they used to play a lot, the singer turned out to also play in my future FILs band, and ended up playing at my wedding. I really like it because its mostly ad-free, and many of the ads they do play are made by the radio volunteers themselves, and also because the people on it are real and not pushing any brand or agenda. There's been some legit gems over the years I still have in my playlist now.
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Nov 23, 2023 01:47
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I'm so happy someone beat me to this thread. I love love love radio stations!! It's my first love, and radio was my first job out of high school. I'll be following along closely. I have over a hundred stations bookmarked or added in my favorite radio app, XiiaLive, and I'm always looking for more  When I was a kid I would listen to WZNS, Z-96 in Florida. They had a morning show with presenters called Scratch and Lauri, and I once won a radio contest on it! I found the audio on a tape recently and digitized it, and one day I'd love to do a little interview with Lauri since I found her contact info and there's precious little info out there about the show that meant so much to me. And when I moved to Europe in high school I spent hours every summer day listening to Italy's RADIO80. I still tune into RADIO80 whenever I feel particularly nostalgic. I love that they haven't changed their imaging in fifteen years  Anyway, my favorite radio station in the whole wide world right now is Centreforce 883, based in London. I think it's so cool that it used to be a pirate station way back when, and I love the constant DJ sets and shout-outs. It's a very human station, which is something I like a lot. It makes for amazing driving-to-work music because it makes me think of those morning shows, but with cool electronic music and dance. I love that they do disco and throwback sets too.
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Nov 23, 2023 20:11
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I am so into this but I have to sit down for an hour and write an essay about this later. I did college radio at three different colleges and have loads of memories and recommendations. Most of my formative music taste making happened first with hearing weird stuff on the radio.
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Nov 23, 2023 23:20
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Is it cheating to vote for BBC Radio 3?
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Nov 24, 2023 01:28
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Here's a bunch of stations that are or were meaningful to me. When I was young I also volunteered at multiple college radio stations, mostly while not even a student at the given colleges. I got into that because I listened to them obsessively. It was my source of new music. It still sometimes is. I don't know if streaming playlists do the same job of a human picking out tracks and playing them over the air - the fact that a person picked it from a library/vault like all these stations have and felt it was good enough to throw on means that you're actually getting something somebody thought about, and I think that has value. I also just loved weird stuff. There is so much great weird stuff happening on the radio to this day. It's like public access TV but with an even lower barrier to entry. KZSU 90.1 http://kzsu.stanford.edu http://radio.garden/listen/kzsu-90-1-fm/DqYkBJHM I reviewed dozens of albums of music I did not like for KZSU. Stations liked to have little 3x2 inch stickers on every item in the library with a sort of brief functional description for quick DJ reference, but everybody took them as an opportunity to be more literary than that. The powerviolence band Spazz played live in studio once while on the other side of the wall I was listening to some extremely mellow tropicalia and scribbling tiny track notes on a 9-inch deep table against the wall. I don't know if it was that show, but it's a really funny video due to how blown out it is. KZSU rules, just good variety from the DJs, live bands every Wednesday. Green Day played there when they were like 17 years old or some poo poo. There's a show now called the Sample Sampler that traces samples used in recent music back to their sources. To talk like an old, I remember some insane institutions on there that now have wound down: - Kevvy Kev's "The Drum", an anchor 3-hour chunk of hip-hop, loads of insane guests, part of a legendary 9 hours of hip-hop on Sunday afternoons. From wikipedia: 'This was the world's longest-running hip-hop radio show until it went off air in the summer of 2011. It aired under this name since the late 1970s, but evolved from an earlier program called "Rhythms" that began airing some years earlier. John Graham hosted "The Drum" until 1981. Jonathan Brown (aka Johnny Afro) was host from 1981-1989. The last host, Kevvy Kev, was involved since 1984. Other Drum co-hosts from the period of 1984-1989 were DJ Easy Lou, Dj Rockmaster Marski, Rich D, & KutMasta Kurt.' Yes, legendary hip-hop producer KutMasta Kurt hosted the Drum too. - "Mostly Tamil" - Tamil music, Tamil talk I did not understand. - Big Mike - just... you ever know somebody called Big Mike who wasn't cool? He'd do early mornings and I'd listen before school. He had a segment called "Stump Bas-1" where you'd call or write in with a hip-hop trivia question for the Bay Area graffiti and hip-hop legend and try to stump him. Bas-1 was rarely stumped. - Wikipedia again: 'On September 6, 2004, KZSU held a "short song marathon," consisting entirely of songs running one minute or less, with the goal of playing 1,000 songs in 1,000 minutes. A team of 18 disc jockeys succeeded played 1,104 songs in that span. Number 1,000 was “The Young Lady Who Married a Mule Driver,” by James Downer.' C'mon, that rules. KALX 90.7 https://kalx.berkeley.edu http://radio.garden/listen/kalx-90-7-fm-berkeley/EoeywTiM I reviewed music, answered phones, edited/made promos (they taught me how to cut tape with a razor... I ended up using Pro Tools) and DJed here. When I did my first DJ training shift 3am-6am at KALX I lost my poo poo with nerves. They call them training shifts but you are totally alone in the building. I was so scared I kept having to throw on really long songs to take the time pressure off myself. On at least one shift a psychotic Nam vet called me up and started racially abusing me at 4am because the music I was playing was too black. An hour later he called again to abuse me more, and amidst the abuse he requested Steely Dan "Any Major Dude". He said "you're the major dude, Bruno" and hung up. I played it anyway. It was the only time anybody called during my training shifts. Anyway, as a station it's great. They had loads of great DJs back in the day - some of which are still going (Annabelle, Sex 14s/For Teens, Tiger Lily). Sunday morning hip-hop show with Billy Jam was like an epicenter of the Bay Area turntablist/underground hip-hop movement. Loads of live scratch sessions and freestyles and stuff. They also did a ridesharing announcement every day! "So and so is driving to Seattle next weekend, if you want to join them call the station and we'll give you her number" type poo poo. Seems so old fashioned now but for all I know they still do it. KPFA 94.1 https://kpfa.org http://radio.garden/listen/cr-kpfa/AQyWEXX8 Not a college station. "Free Speech Radio". Lots of Berkeley lefty content, also some good music and what I can only describe as audio art. I'm talking about sample/collage artists Negativland, famously sued by U2 for calling their album "U2" lol. They have had a midnight to 3am show called Over the Edge since like 1981. It's a live collage mix of found sounds, mostly. In the old days this was achieved with a lot of looped tape cartridge machines, which we used to use for promos. They basically look like 8 tracks, you just ram them in and they can basically work like buttons on a sampler. This plus effects units makes the show pretty trippy. There were often themes - "the 60s" or "how radio was done in the old days" or whatever, but sometimes there was no theme at all, and pretty much anytime, you can call in and be added to the mix, with no screening and no "hello". Just call them up and start raving, playing back your OWN collages, or just getting the live radio station in on your late night conference call with your buddies - I did all these things. I can't tell you how loving cool this is. Live, collaborative sound collage with anonymous members of the public. If you stayed up past 3am when Over The Edge ended you'd get "Radio Subgenius", which was those Bob-worshipping weirdos' version of a church radio show. KFJC 89.7 https://kfjc.org http://radio.garden/listen/kfjc-fm-89-7/G4i2gGLt KFJC was and is the weirdest station music-wise of all of these. They do an annual 24 hours of Sun Ra ("The Day of the Sun"), they do a "Month of Mayhem" with loads of themed stuff like 4 hours of raga followed by 4 hours of Anatolian psych. 4 hours of vibraphone music. KFJC stuff that I listened to in like the early 2000s that still runs: - Spliff Skankin', "Jah's Music" 3-7pm on Sundays. 4 hours of reggae and reggae news. He tends to "pause and refresh" at 4:20 - euphemistically back in the day, although maybe he's more explicit now that it's legal. - Dave Emory "For the Record", 30 minutes of heavily "footnoted" fast-talking by a self-described anti-fascist researcher. If you asked NPR they'd probably call him a conspiracy theorist, because he believes in like, the connection between the Bush family and the Third Reich. To be fair, he probably draws a few too many links to the Third Reich, but he's not wrong about the Bushes and you can't be too careful with the rich and powerful. Stuff that rules but is no longer with us: - Midnight Voicejail, an audio-collage documentary soap opera of the weirdos, losers, wastoids and burnouts who gathered around an 80s-early 90s voicemail box system, like an audio BBS. This is so cool. I wish he had like a USB for sale with all of it in one place because there's tons of episodes, all meticulously edited from samples taped from the voicemail boxes. https://nationalcynical.bandcamp.com/album/midnight-voicejail-episode-01-what-is-voicejail - "Skull Time for Kids", with Cap'n Jack and Skully (this was BEFORE Jack Sparrow, okay). "KFJC's only politically incorrect public affairs show that promotes "health" and "well being" through debauchery and pure mayhem. A club where parents aren't invited and kids rule the wasteland. Stories, games, insight, tributes and knowledge; a treasure trove of fun. Listen as partners in high seas crime, Captain Jack & Skully, take you on an hour long adventure and return you safe and sound. Normality need not apply." This was cool, they'd play old storytelling spoken word records, esoteric but appropriate-for-kids music, etc. Like if you wanted strange music for your kids, but be interested yourself, this was the show. The hosts spent the whole time in character doing Bristol pirate accents and looping the Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland ride theme as their music bed when they chatted. Just googled and holy poo poo! Cap'n Jack is still going! https://kfjc.org/listen/dj-info?djid=206 I thought this ended like 20 years ago! KSXC (formerly KSCR) http://radio.garden/listen/kxsc-1560-am/LZK0UyNE University of Southern California's radio station. I assistant-DJed here a while and had a couple of times where I got to sub in for the guy I was assisting. It was (and still is) AM and barely even made it through the walls of the dorm buildings on the campus. It had a tiny range. I guess the LA spectrum, even the nonprofits under 92Mhz, are so clogged they couldn't go FM or any stronger. My main memory was helping my DJ trainer guy, who I believe was also called Big Mike, with a live show of the band Captain Ahab (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Ahab_(band)), and I think Daedelus played there too. bFM Auckland https://95bfm.com http://radio.garden/listen/95bfm/GqF4MoVB This place wasn't much different from other college stations (so, good), but had more news stuff and also has a twice-daily surf report so you know which side of the isthmus Auckland straddles to drive to to get hypothermia in windslop. They play Solid Steel too, which is a great syndicated DJ mix show that might play near YOU.
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Nov 25, 2023 00:46
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Deep Glove Bruno posted:KALX 90.7 Back in the 80s I won tickets to so many cool things by calling in to KALX, that's a great station. I learned to cut tape with a razor in Jornalism/Radio Broadcasting at Berkeley High.
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Nov 25, 2023 00:56
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Daikatana Ritsu posted:my favorites were WBRU & WBCN which are now both dead I am wearing a WBCN T-shirt right now. Also, WFNX. Julie Kramer was my favorite DJ at this, the first alternative rock station in the USA. Last year I bought a refrigerator from her at Tri-City sales in Salem MA. She is still the best person,and misses her rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.
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Nov 25, 2023 04:57
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I miss WAAF, even though it wasn’t really good towards the end. Anyways, overheard in a BJs: “WAAF was replaced with contemporary Christian and then god hit us with Covid. I’m just saying.”
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Nov 25, 2023 05:36
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Community FM station - Shonan Beach 78.9 MHz (Zushi) is definitely worth a listen https://www.beachfm.co.jp http://radio.garden/listen/shonan-beach-fm-78-9/qg9qo6VR Not broadcast but analogous https://archive.org/details/attentionkmartshoppers?tab=collection
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Nov 26, 2023 02:41
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my local community station kicks rear end its triple zed, i subscribe every year bc you get to hear them read whatever name you put down out on the air which is like an irl version of am empty quote and you can request butthole surfers whenever you want and they might play it. i havent tried requesting butthole surfers during every programme but so far the only show that takes requests that hasnt played it is the jazz show. they put on a bunch of good gigs around brisbane and you get discoùnts on the door for being a sub . favourite shows: wildcard with orlando furious and chachi (monday morning) just random bullshit, kind of like a comedy podcast that plays good music brown couch (thursday afternoon) two blokes playing a lot of punk and metal, no need to request butthole surfers, announce a lot of upcoming weekend gigs dykes on mics (wednesday evening) lesbian radio show. shoutout to queer radio that follows but i like the hosts of dykes a little better balls in the air (saturday mornings) sports show, also no need to request butthole surfers, helps me keep up to date on premier league stuff so i can pretend i give a poo poo in polite conversation
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Nov 27, 2023 04:40
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Started listening in 1978 in high school when they switched from country to rock, still listening at 61. Broadcasting from Colorado Springs.
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Nov 28, 2023 05:00
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rockinricky posted:Started listening in 1978 in high school when they switched from country to rock, still listening at 61. Broadcasting from Colorado Springs. Checks out. I just pulled them up in RadioGarden and they were playing Ironman at 11:18pm Pacific time. That's a rock station if there ever was one.
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Nov 28, 2023 08:20
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Saint FM 95.4 Jamestown, Saint Helena
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Nov 29, 2023 19:05
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KMHD Jazz Radio here in Portland https://www.kmhd.org/ I have it on in my wood shop all day it's fantastic to work to. Shows dedicated to new releases, east asian jazz, Brazilian jazz and bossa nova, all sorts. I really dislike free jazz but it's been rare IME. Every Friday at 5 the DJ plays this clip https://youtu.be/8PjRsfPCo98?feature=shared, tells everyone to shake the shackles of The Man off our backs and plays this https://youtu.be/Ix4o1I9djN0?feature=shared He's been doing it for like 20 years now can't imagine ending the week without it e: fixed typo in the url, was posting on my phone and didn't see it :| Fortaleza has a new favorite as of 02:19 on Dec 15, 2023 |
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Nov 30, 2023 02:40
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I usually have my car's radio set to CFOX 99.3FM here in Vancouver. Decent mix of modern rock and 90s/00s rock, good hosts, and the magical Canadian radio twist where you can occasionally have conversations about adult subjects before 9pm so long as you don't drop an F-bomb. And if you like weird shortwave radio poo poo, there's a Dutch radio pirate on 1611 KHz that you can listen to on WebSDR who seems to almost exclusively broadcast oompah music.
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Nov 30, 2023 07:23
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Check out wfmu.org if you are into freeform shows. Every slot has a unique character and they have an amazing database of what's played.
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Dec 2, 2023 02:36
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Empty Sandwich posted:
Ah, this takes me back. I used to live in western North Carolina and WNCW was on my car's radio most of the time. Perfect listening for driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. That Zappa show came on Fridays at noon if I remember right because I can distinctly remember hearing it on my lunch breaks and thinking, "Frank Zappa is a loving weirdo." One time a friend from the west coast came to visit and we were driving somewhere listening to WNCW. He was really thrown off when the DJ mentioned they were broadcasting from the campus of Isothermal Community College. Not what they expected from a radio station that was mostly banjo music. I'll mention KEXP. They used to be really great for finding new music about a decade ago. These days they're starting to feel like an oldies station for gen xers and elder millennials but it's still a pretty safe bet if you just want some music on in the background. wash bucket has a new favorite as of 05:07 on Dec 3, 2023 |
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Dec 3, 2023 05:00
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kexp is cool and good. i listen to the morning show most mornings and re-runs of the roadhouse on the weekend
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Dec 3, 2023 15:10
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wash bucket posted:Ah, this takes me back. I used to live in western North Carolina and WNCW was on my car's radio most of the time. Perfect listening for driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. That Zappa show came on Fridays at noon if I remember right because I can distinctly remember hearing it on my lunch breaks and thinking, "Frank Zappa is a loving weirdo." He was and we fuckin' love him for it!
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Dec 8, 2023 05:41
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https://www.kexp.org/listen/ KEXP Seattle DJ programmed. Owned by listeners and KEXP. A broad range of programming, but also pretty new wave/ grungy / alternative when the DJs are just playing what they like. Troy Nelson rules
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Dec 10, 2023 08:48
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Second on KEXP! They have pretty good live shows on YT as well.
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Dec 10, 2023 14:52
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Why did they stop doing the Music That Matters podcast? I loved that podcast.
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Dec 10, 2023 15:05
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"KQTZ-FM. Hobart, Altus, Elk City, Lawton. KQ-POWER-R-R 106." Just a memory of childhood. The station wasn't even that good, just more crap adult contemporary. But the station identifier is seared in my brain.
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Dec 11, 2023 23:51
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I need some time to lay out a few more of my big faves, but first...Disparition posted:Check out wfmu.org if you are into freeform shows. Every slot has a unique character and they have an amazing database of what's played. This was an AMAZING recommendation. I tuned in on a whim on my internet radio app this morning and was treated to an old guy, high off his rear end, rambling about comets and then playing punk music until he got someone to call in for music trivia and proceeded to accidentally ask the guy last week's questions. It didn't feel low rent either, just charming. And yesterday afternoon it was just a young woman spinning R&B tracks and talking about going to CD stores. I love when a station has a clear human feeling about it
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Dec 12, 2023 14:30
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Erin M. Fiasco posted:I need some time to lay out a few more of my big faves, but first... Oh hell yeah that fella is Clay Pigeon! The only bearable morning DJ on the planet! There used to be show called Shrunken Planet, dedicated to folk music. https://wfmu.org/playlists/SP I used to talk to to the live guests using the chatbox, amazing station all around. Helluva has a new favorite as of 15:36 on Dec 12, 2023 |
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Dec 12, 2023 15:33
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