I haven't listened to the radio in months and I have no desire to.

It started slowly for me...I took the CD player along for long trips, then I started taking the CD player along for any trip that would take longer than ten minutes. Now, I just leave the CD player by the door and grab it along with my sunglasses and cell phone on my way out the door.

I would love to see someone start an effort to create more diversity on the radio, but it won't be me. Frankly, I'd rather enjoy watching ClearChannel implode first or collapse under their own weight.

Yeah, that would be great. Kinda like all those people on the net who're giving all the news conglomerates a run for their money with a lot of unedited pundit fury. ;-)

you know this is already happening to a large degree, right? there are a whole slew of pirate radio stations operating in seattle and, in some cases, they are using broadband networks to get their sound transmitted in a distributed [and less tracable] fashion citywide. Jesse Walker [from Reason magazine] has written an amazing book about the history and present tense of pirate radio.

Funny - there was an article about this in the last issue of Too Much Coffee Man, as well, including information on how to setup a pirate radio station, etc.

Pirate radio is thriving as we write. In fact, there are several pirate radio stations hosted out of NYC. I worked with a guy at Seven Stories Press who was involved in pirate radio; he took it very seriously. The primary focus was politics, but there was offbeat (no pun intended) music, etc. that came along with it.

I don't remember the names of the stations, but google should turn something up.

I thought about setting up a pirated station until I found kexp.org on the web, now I don't listen to anything else at home or work, but I am curious if anyone has any experience with XM radio, I need something besides ClearChannel going to and from work.

Well, if you want something besides Clear Channel, don't get XM. Clear Channel is a part owner of XM.

It definitely is nice to live in KEXP's local reception zone, though.

I currently listen to RadioParadise all day long. It's even better than my CDs and MP3 collection.

The only other satellite radio company I know of is Sirius. It would be a shame of satellite radio becomes as bland as FM radio.

i don't know much about any pirate stations here in the Los Angeles area, but thankfully we have KCRW available. public station, member supported, awesome music programs (they have music-only web stream, by the way) and NPR news--if that's your thing.

(during working hours, i tend to listen to Groove Salad. (: )

Yeah, I agree with Jessamyn, Morbus Iff and chris; pirate radio is indeed happening all the time, at least here on the west coast. I feel safe in projecting that it happens pretty frequently on the east coast too.

But more importantly, what is the difference between a FM/AM "pirate" station and an internet broadcaster with a similar bent? Is it that the audience is fundamentally different due to the "digital divide", or would those two types of station acheive the same goals? Another way to ask this is Why should pirate radio people go through all the trouble of setting up the signal and moving to avoid the FCC when they can just do the same programming online and more legally?

Well, the main reason people put up pirate radio stations rather than just broadcasting over the Internet is that a huge proportion of radio listening occurs in the car. In the past decade I don't think I've ever listened to the radio anywhere BUT the car.

Internet streaming doesn't reach many cars.

Jerry's comment makes an interesting point. I wonder how long before the U.S. is so covered with wireless broadband that you can drive anywhere and keep a broadband radio stream open jumping from node to node?

I read a recent article about a company that was doing something like this. I believe they were installing wireless nodes between NYC and D.C. or something like that and their software was optimized to ping nodes and auto-connect/switch to the fastest one as the receiver moved down the road.

Cam, the present state of radio is particularly annoying for me because I can remember when it was so much better. I grew up on LI during the 60's and 70's and I can remember listening to 77 WABC and the WMCA Good Guys. Then the beginning of FM popularity with WNEW-FM and WPLJ (which was WABC's FM station). Lots of album tracks, almost no commercials, weird DJ's who played what they felt like. I have my own streaming host here at work and I play a diverse selection unlike anything you'll hear over the airwaves nowadays. Not quite the early days of FM, but it works for me. I'd love to hear something like it in the car.

There are, on American COMMERCIAL radio today, many more-or-less intelligent and responsible discussion programs; i.e."talk shows." Among them are David Brodnoy's program from Boston and mine from Chicago (www.wgnradio.com/shows/ex720/index.html).

Try it--you might be surprised to find that there is something worth listening to other than music formats and scream shows.

There are, on American COMMERCIAL radio today, many more-or-less intelligent and responsible discussion programs; i.e."talk shows." Among them are David Brodnoy's program from Boston and mine from Chicago (www.wgnradio.com/shows/ex720/index.html).

Try it--you might be surprised to find that there is something worth listening to other than music formats and scream shows.

Pirate radio is thriving in at least one small part of the the middle of the country too - KBFR (http://kbfr.org/) in Boulder, CO.