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July 31, 2005

Radio Free Washington

I haven't been in Washington, DC, very long, but it hs quickly become clear to me that DC radio sucks. Other than the NPR station, it's pretty much awful in a Clear-Channelled-for-your-protection sort of way, leaving me longing for Atlanta's twin gods of college radio, Georgia State's Album 88 and Tech's slightly more obscure WREK. So, now that I (finally) have high-speed internet, I've been exploring the wonders of Internet radio.

So far, I've been enjoying Seattle's KEXP quite a bit (thanks for the recommendation, Jason and Dave), and Northeastern University's WRBB looks promising. WREK also happens to be available, so I'm sure I'll be listening in there from time to time. But I'm new to this wonderful world of Internet radio, so I'd love to hear your recommendations. What Internet radio stations/shows do you enjoy? I usually listen to indie rock, punk, alt. country, or hip hop, but I'm open to other suggestions.

Posted by chuck at July 31, 2005 12:15 PM

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Comments

WRNR (103.1) is an Annapolis station that you probably won't be able to pick up very clearly, but they're great.

They are run by the folks who brought us WHFS, before it got bought by the big conglomerates. They also have many of HFS's best djs.

I found them right after WHFS went latino, and was sad that I wouldn't be able to listen to them after I left town, but they just launched their listen-live capabilities recently, so you can find them at www.wrnr.com.

Posted by: Ryan at July 31, 2005 1:27 PM

Cool, Ryan. I've been listening to WRNR some this afternoon, and it's a solid station. Now, if my car radio can pick them up, I'll be a much happier camper.

Posted by: Chuck [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 31, 2005 4:58 PM

Some good things I've found:
KCRW (which also has archived shows on its site)
MPR's 89.3-The Current
soundseclectic.com (which contains archives of a weekly show)
pasteradio.com

and of course
publicradiofan.com

Posted by: Chris Martin at July 31, 2005 5:13 PM

Yes, The Current! The Current! The Current!

Posted by: Clancy at July 31, 2005 6:35 PM

Checking out The Current now, which I'm enjoying. The rest of Chris's suggestions look cool, too.

Posted by: Chuck [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 31, 2005 7:02 PM

I forgot to mention that one of the cool things about KEXP which you may have already discovered is that you can listen to tons of stuff in their archives here:
http://www.kexp.org/streamarchive/streamarchive.asp

and you can choose to stream the shows in CD quality bandwidth (1.4Mbps).

Posted by: Chris Martin at July 31, 2005 9:41 PM

Chris, I'd noticed the archives but haven't taken advantage of that feature yet. The CD quality-streaming feature sounds great, too. I'll have to check it out.

Posted by: Chuck [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 31, 2005 9:43 PM

One more for the mix: KALX Berkeley, the radio station mentioned in Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude is pretty amazing.

Posted by: Chuck [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 2, 2005 10:43 AM

Yeah, the excellent KEXP online was how I survived DC's lack of good radio. Sounds like you have plenty of suggestions here -- but if you want one more, my alma mater's indie station, KSPC, is pretty great (and not just because I was once almost-but-not-quite a DJ on it).

Posted by: AA at August 3, 2005 1:49 PM

Glad to know that others share my distaste for DC radio. I've heard good things about KSPC, but didn't know it was available online. I'll check it out ASAP.

Posted by: Chuck [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 3, 2005 1:56 PM

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