Boston is incredibly blessed with a great, crowded non-commercial dial end. My faves are WGBH (especially for its live feeds!), WBUR (although it's become too talky), WUMB (U Mass Boston, for its fine folk programming), and of course WHRB (Harvard, for their days-long all-classical orgies!). My wife loves WERS (Emerson College) for its all-a capella and Broadway shows programming on the weekends.
An old NAD Monitor Series receiver has their greatest-tuner-ever in it (better than the new one in their HT receiver), but the non-compressed programming is considerably more transparent with my new Magnum Dynalab MD100.
I DO feel sorry for those who have little access to great radio. It's allowed me to have to read less, though, which is a dear compromise....