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Are there any others people can recommend on the internet? There also is a local Jazz station, but reception is spotty.

While I would generally agree, I've found a single station that has redeemed FM in my eyes...90.5 WBER. It's a small rochester-native college run radio station that actually plays good music, and being private does not have to worry about commercials.

You can visit their website and listen to their stream if it sounds interesting enough. (They mostly play Alternative from both mainstream and indie but take requests for a good deal more)

But even with this station...FM makes me so terribly sad. I don't live in rochester for all of the year, and I can't get their signal from lower NY, so I have to make do with what is on. And what is played are commercials with music interspersed, annoying DJs, and rap/pop. Out of nearly 20mhz to choose from, I have a whole *one* station which I can tolerate, 94.3. In the past, 90.7 WFUV had a good set of programs, but they've shuffled their program playlist and no longer appeal to me. Because of this, I've ended up subscribing to XM, but only for my periods of break at home. Perhaps if it were less pricey, I'd consider it as a more regular deal with them.

Is there any hope anymore? I suspect not. *sigh*

the best station in rochester is 90.5 WBER.

the commercials are either local concert announcements or PSA's.

Yup - I used to like the Nerve, too. (I grew up in Rochester.) But I was still in highschool when it got bought out - so I stopped listening to any radio for a while. Then someone introduced me to WBER. It's owned by Monroe BOCES, and most of their DJs are volunteers or part-time (underpaid) staff. It's got a great personality, and GREAT music - everything from Tool to U2 to Fatboy Slim to They Might Be Giants (probably not the best examples, but let's move on).

They also do (some) of their own research on what listeners want to hear: Every hour, there's a "test track" which is generally something you're not hearing anywhere else. Listeners can call in (or go to the website) and vote whether they want the song to get ditched, or get put into rotation.

Did I mention that, because they're owned by BOCES, they're non-profit, and don't have the normal ad structure? Instead, they have PBS-style sponsorship announcements every 45 minutes or so. The "ads" are either for local companies that fit the demographic (skate shops, etc), or for clubs & concerts, telling you who is going to perform and when. Way better than car salesmen or nation-wide-chain ads.

The best part? They broadcast online! (using RealPlayer, unfortunately, but I won't hold that against them.)

I lived in Rochester from 1992-96, and one of the only stations I ever listened to was 90.5, WBER

Granted, I've never listened to a lot of radio in general... I always thought a lot of it was crap even before ClearChannel began borging every station in sight. But WBER is an entirely independent station and as such plays a very eclectic mix of music, including local bands. --At least, that's how it was 6 years ago. I haven't listened in a while.

Imagine - playing the music listeners want to hear instead of the tripe the Record Giants have preselected for everyone!

WBER

But then, it's a student run alternative station. Nobody gets paid.

How odd, the alternative station is bypassing union wishes.

And our best radio station is at wber.monroe.edu!

(small world)

i've made between 200-300 purchases online this year and the only one that went awry was my purchase of Solaris 8 from Sun / Modusmedia.

(i didn't appreciate having my CC info redirected from a secure link to an non-secure link)


thor

listen to WBER online