Slashdot Mirror

http://www.radio1190.org/ is the radio station for CU Boulder: that's what I listen to most. Most of their stuff isn't great, or even good, but they'll play three days without me ever having heard *any* of it before and maybe 5% of it is really good stuff that I end up chasing down and buying, so it's kind of do-it-yourself filtering.
http://www.kexp.org/home.asp?noflash=true is a Seattle-based station I also listen to a lot. It's higher-quality but/and more mainstream than 1190.
As for the iceland, the link I use is on a machine at home, so this is the best I can dig up: http://www.penguinradio.com/regional/europe/icelan d/ -- the 'ethnic' stuff is *interesting*. I tend to listen to a more hiphop/r&b station but I can't find a link to it. If I remember tonight, I'll reply to this.

I have to second this. After getting disgusted with commercial radio, I listen almost exclusively to NPR, with some time spent at 1190 AM as well. Good news on one hand and music I've never heard on the other. I actually meant to send a letter to Clearchannel thanking them for making radio so unpalatable that I had to change my listening habits.

Radio 1190, college/indie radio station with 24-hour webcast, based in Boulder, Colorado.

Here's a short version of what I want to hear: "Something that challenges my tastes."
Mostly, I listen to Radio 1190, the CU Boulder station. I'd say that I enjoy about 1 song in 4. I keep listening because I find out about local bands that I'd never hear, I hear indie bands (not just bands running on the "indie" branch of a major label) and I get DJs who love what they do. (here's where I give mad props to Milkman Dan)

What's your spiffy MP3-scanning-neural-network-plugin going to do with me, eh?

--

I haven't used the presets in my car for months. The local college radio here is AM1190, pretty decent sound for an AM station, but the same content is available as a high-bit rate stereo stream from Radio1190.org
I realise that this isn't an alternative distribution medium, but it will hook you up with great indie and local music. (local to Boulder CO in this case)
--

A Mandrake box and a playlist aren't enough to start a good radio station. You're a college student, so use that to your advantage -- get your university involved. THE most important piece of running a radio station is people power, and that's one of a university's great resources. Start a radio club, if there isn't one already. Promote it -- it shouldn't be hard to have folks itchin' to be DJs, but what you really need is folks to do behind-the-scenes stuff. Calling people, filling out forms, promoting, doing tech, etc. Running a radio station is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. The best radio stations are run in large part by volunteers, 'cause then it's the love of the station and the music that drives them, not maximizing profits and targeting the right markets. They also tend to be commercial free, so you get to listen to more radio in the same one-hour period. Community and college radio is the open source of broadcasting. Next to people power you need money, space, and equipment. This is where your university administration comes in. Figure out how to get the university to pay for it -- they may have money lying around for stuff like that or you might be able to get students to vote to raise student fees for a radio station. Be prepared to ask listeners for donations, too. Your university can probably give you space to broadcast from and have offices in. As folks have pointed out, you can get an educational liscence and deal with a lot less crap. Running it through the university means it'll also have a chance to survive once you and your friends graduate. (Make sure to get community members involved too, 'cause students are notoriously busy, flaky, and absent for significant portions of time.) It's possible that your university turns down your proposal. KGNU, a well-known community station, was started after the University of Colorado turned down a proposal for a radio station, but most schools will support such a project. CU does now, in the form of KVCU/Radio 1190. You must be prepared to work really hard without tangible results for a while. You must be able to present clear and reasoned proposals. You must inspire lots of help. You have to REALLY love what you're doing. It's like starting a business, but maybe an order of magnitude harder. If we haven't scared you off yet, the first thing to do is talk to folks from other college and community stations. Get their tips and tricks. Figure out what they didn't forsee and make sure you have a plan for it.

If that statement is true, there is no power left in the hands of the consumer. I would like to think that my choice to boycott commercial radio has some effect on station ratings. But I doubt it does. As long as media conglomerates like Clear Channel can show advertisers that they're programming for a certain demographic, the advertisers will be happy to pay for air time on a station that monopolizes 50% of commercial radio in a given city. There is no way to measure the audience with pinpoint accuracy, and I question the accuracy of current methods.

Radio stations seem to have lost sight of the fact they have influence over modern music. By deriving radio programming from Billboard charts, the mega-stars' album sales inflate, closing the door on any rising stars. Not only does this mean that the consumer has no power over corporate radio, but we've lost power in the fight against the RIAA by allowing the centralization of media/power for non-democratic use.

Listen to internet radio while you still can, and support the phenomenal efforts of the independent stations, too.

Actually, I've been really pleased with the radio station at CU Boulder, radio 1190. They play a HUGE variety of music, are mostly listener-supported, and have live mp3 streams at various bitrates.

You guys should check them out-- everything from Japanese pop to reggae to industrial to "world music." (Actually, I think the J-pop host is away for the summer, but I bet she'll be back in the fall)

But isn't the whole point of this subscription service to pay for a lack of otherwise free information (i.e. advertisements)? I already "subscribe" to a college radio station(KVCU), partly so that I only have to listen to them grovel for pledges four weeks a year instead of hearing 30 minutes of ads/self-promotion out of every 60 on a commercial station. Is this so different?

...as unpopular as it is to pay for the things...

Try thinking of it as paying for the lack of something... I already donate once or twice a year to a college station (KVCU in Boulder) partly because I can't stomach the crappy programming on the various commercial stations around, but also because (except for 20 days a year for pledge drives) they don't run ads.

Unless the cost is prohibitive, I'm willing to pay for the absence of banners...

I'm looking forward to this (if it happens), 'cause the FM dial in the Denver metro area is owned by three (count 'em) corporate giants who firmly believe in wedging as much commercial and self-promotion time as they can between the five song playlist for each of their different "formats".

Ironically, the only decent station in town now is the year old KVCU, an AM college station run by the University of Colorado at Boulder. The irony is that the only reason that they're available to the public is because the FCC decided that Jacor was over their limit and had to throw one back, so they (Jacor) donated the least marketable station to CU.

That's enough ranting for now; time to switch to decaf.