Found this posted on that evil social media network (and it seems to have been, ahem, RE-posted from the NYT, maybe?)

College [and Community] radio stations across the U.S. are still going strong, even in an era where most cars have Bluetooth functionality and streaming platforms reign supreme. While radio has found renewed relevance through online stations like London-founded NTS Radio and Brooklyn’s The Lot Radio, traditional radio remains relatively obsolete in Gen-Z’s listening patterns.

Despite this decline in relevancy, college radio remains popular among students who have a passion for music. At college stations, student DJs personally curate their own playlists, broadcasting a mix of digital files alongside CDs and vinyl pulled from physical libraries, often built up over decades. The result is programming shaped less by algorithms and more by individual taste, discovery, and experimentation.

Tune in at one hour, and you might hear an ambient specialty show; come back the next, and it could be Brazilian funk from the 70s or 2020s hyperpop. That unpredictability is precisely the draw of college radio. “That’s what I chase in this show,” KXLU DJ Elias Herrera told The New York Times. “A conversation between genres that wouldn’t talk to each other otherwise… I’m grateful for this little room.”

In the region that I live, we are fortunate to have a VERY cool "community radio" station (WMPG Maine), and it operates primarily through donations, and on the labor of volunteer DJs and their radio program blocs. I was aware of this station for many years, but only really started turning into it with greater frequency over the past year. I love the personality, and the sense of community. I love hearing from human DJs--my neighbors--that somehow manage to que up songs that speak to me, but that I know I would never have stumbled upon independently. It sometimes feels like a secret club, or a magical portal.

Another great aspect of modern, indie radio stations: many of them offer digital streaming, so even if you're too far away from their physical location to pick up a good FM signal, you can go to their website (or, in some cases, download their specific streaming app) to listen from anywhere in the world. I think that's pretty incredible.

Here are some indie/college radio stations that were mentioned in the comments of that particular social media post that I quoted above--in other words, actual humans on social media listened to and/or had a connection to each of these radio stations listed and felt inspired to shout them out in a random FB post.

One great insight from a post commenter was this assessment:

It introduces you to actual quality music, usually has no ads, and broadens your horizons as opposed to a normal radio station trying to always offer only one genre and then force feeding you 80 ads in a row. What's not to love about college radio?

Could not agree more!

I also just found that Wikipedia is attempting to manage a running list of Community Radio Stations in the United States. Great resource for finding more cool, indie FM stations to liste to on an FM radio or streaming online :)

One final thought: man, I love the art house/punk rock vibes in some of these community radio websites. As a design/web dev nerd, I really love to see websites like this still alive and out in the 'wild' of the REAL internet, beyond the corralled confines of the social media panopticons.