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Comment by zerr | Hacker News Reader

FM Radio

Eww. Unless you can find yourself an independent station that actually plays something outside of the top-pops, please, please, count me out.

In every Uber and/or cab I end up taking, I ask them to turn the FM radio off.

The jazz and classical stations are okay, but then the commercials completely ruin the listening experience - especially for 'chill out' genres like the above.

Word of mouth from friends - Spotify or Apple Music playlists, these are great ways to find new music. What's on popular radio stations generally just annoys my friends and I.

Between the terrible selection of music, spotty audio quality, and ads, there's never been a worse time to pick radio.

For French speakers, France Inter has a great playlist without ads when they are on strike. When it's not the strike season or if you have more precise tastes, FIP is nice too.

A number of low power radio stations came online after the 2013 application window with the FCC. These are hyper local and often very diverse and essentially equivalent to word of mouth. My city has more than one, they cover the city limits and some of the suburbs. One in particular is full of music nerds playing their own niches for an hour or two every week. I do a show myself :)

89.3 The Current -- based out of Minneapolis -- has a great selection. Totally independent. Not all the DJs play the same music, which is a double-edged sword, but you can count on healthy variety of new and old and many genres.

https://www.thecurrent.org/

You can also find it on I <3 Radio.

Reeeeeeally depends on your area, unfortunately. For instance, where I grew up there were 3 christian rock stations and exactly zero jazz stations.

*if you're near colleges

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