Songs & Artists NEVER HEARD on the RADIO?

Have to admit, when first coming to New York I expected there to be choices for great radio stations. To my dismay, there is absolutely nothing that I consider worth while, save for NPR and one jazz station. The remainder, as Mr. Porter so aptly and reliably put it, is the "fast food" variety, at best. Prior to New York, I was in Charlottesville, VA, where there was both a great college station and a phenominal "listened suported" station that I miss dearly and still sometimes contribute to. These days, the only way I get to hear new or interesting music (save from seeking it out live) is on various internet stations. The favorite for fairly cutting edge "alternative," underground, largely unsigned artists is 3WK.com -- which offers seperate channels for both "New" and "Classic" underground music. Through them I've discovered a whole host of things I wouldn't have found any other way: Crooked Fingers, Tykwar, Callendar Girl, Tawwater, Rainer Maria, Slumber Party, Neutral Milk Hotel, Chicks on Speed, Sigur Ros -- the list goes on. I am frustrated that I am condemned to listening on my decidedly lo-fi computer system (though I try to buy the stuff I like) but my tuner now lives in a box in the closet.... The death of radio is not somehting to fear in the future, I suspect it has already happened.

Direct TV has quite a few different music channels that play a WIDE variety of music. Not only is there a great selection of music styles to choose from, whomever is selecting / organizing the program material seems to have a clue. While this is not as good of quality as i get from a top notch local station, it IS better than most of the sludge and dreck being repeated on a daily basis on the FM band. I assume that if i wanted to improve the audio characteristics, i'd have to start "tweaking" my Sattelite receiver : ( Sean
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The Tragically Hip get airplay in Canada, but nothing in the U.S. Bizarre

Quite right Jeff, bizarre and a shame. Such a good band, so little exposure in the US, even here where they land usually twice per tour. Frankly, half the audience at the shows are die hards from Canada who religiously make the trek, waving the Leafs flag.

Sad to say my first blush response would have been "Anything I like", but then I realized that is not totally true. Here in Kansas City we have a few (About 12) hours of classical/week on KCUR (NPR)-via a feed from Minnesota PR! There used to be about 12 hrs. of jazz, but that got reduced to 3 hrs. on Sunday PM, and even that has now been changed to "world" music. The rock stations are pretty much formula stuff-even the "Oldies" one is stuck in the bubble gum vein and never plays anything the least bit adventuresome. Oh, I forgot: We do have a "smooth" (snooze?) jazz station!

What is really discouraging is that when we moved to KC 4 yrs. ago, there was a full time commercial classical station on both FM & AM. Shortly thereafter it was purchased by one of the conglomerates and...do I really have to tell you what happeened?

I know that this post is slightly off topic, since the thread was started by someone talking more about the pop/rock arena. But everyone with an interest in serious music, no matter the genre, should be concerned about the disappearance of quality and the homogenization of radio.

The FCC at one time at least pretended to be concerned about this sort of thing and made some effort to promote diversity. That, of course, is a thing of the past since the de-regulation mania caught on.