Minneapolis has the best mainstream radio in the country. It is impossible to not find something listenable at any hour of the day. The best of the lot is "The Current", (streaming here) which is a public radio station which actually plays good music. And they have real djs that actually select songs that they like and sequence themselves (but unlike a lot of those stations like "The Mountain" or whatever in Denver that pretty much base their whole identity on the fact that they are not owned or operated by Clear Channel and have real djs, these guys have good taste. With "The Mountain", it's like "Wow, you guys are sure are independent and for real. And you are still playing the same stupid fucking Bob Seeger song that the radio always plays. Great."). "The Current" generally goes for the jangly indie rock/electro hipster rock/singer songwriter stuff, but they are carefully punctuated by lapses into socially acceptable hip hop. Sometimes the DJs seem a little uninformed about such music (like, "Yeah, Dave, actually the Dilated Peoples aren't any good, but... thanks for trying."), but for the most part it's right on.
The only station I know of like it is the mighty Triple-J (streaming here) the Australian National Public Radio youth station. That thing was a savior while I was sailing along the west coast. We couldn't pick it up while running but in every port we stopped in we'd be rocking it and hearing what was going on with all the fabulous hipsters in Sydney. They play indie rock and underground electronic and rap, with an emphasis on Oz-Rock (the title is unfortunate, like most of the cutesy colloquialisms the Aussies adore). They pick up on new shit waay faster than American radio, and feature artists mainstream radio would never touch. I remember one night we were moored and had gone into town, I think it was Broome, and the rest of the crew went to see some moldy "pub-rock" for like 20 oz bucks. I chose to get take away beer from the "bottle shop" and drink with the abborigines out in the street. Late that night, back on the boat we had all fallen asleep with the radio on. JJJ was playing an interview with Darkthrone and playing their songs. I was pysched. Everyone else was too drunk and tired to switch it off and they all complained of having bad dreams afterwards.
Triple-J also has radio personalities that are acctually funny (I remember this running bit they did where they read the newspaper headlines about the Palestine-Israel situation that involved Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. They would pronounce his name as "Sharon" the woman's name, and pictured her as a "bogan babe" {white trash chick} who was always screwing up the peace process like "What's Sharon up to today... lets see, 'Sharon Cancels Mid-East Summit'. Aww, Shazza, what have you done this time?")
The "Hot 100" CD they put out every year is a big deal for people who grew up on the station. Young Australians look back on JJJ and talk about it was Saturday Night Live or something like "Remember when that guy was on? And they did that thing? Classic!" They think back to when JJJ was first playing shit like Radio Birdman and the Ramones.
The hindrance the station has is it's reliance on Australian rock that is hit-and-miss. Australians are fierce about their rock, and though they do listen to some American and British bands, there must be an equal time share given to Oz rock bands and for every rock sensation abroad they have their own homegrown equivalent. This is something else in common with Minneapolis radio: in Minneapolis I think there is a One-Atmosphere-Song-Per-Hour rule there. And a one Obligatory-Reference-to-The-Replacements-per-Discussion-of-Any-New-Band-that-Plays-Guitar rule.
In fact i think there is much comparable between Minnesota and Australia. They are both full of friendly, laid-back white people with funny accents. They enjoy things like rock music, animal husbandry, horticulture, smoking weed (I'm just assuming for the Minnesotans but, come on... they invented the deep fried Snickers Bar), drinking local beers (Leinies in MN, Victoria Bitter or Emu Bitter in Oz), friendly political discourse, and a presenting a smiling, inviting face to non-locals even while subtly trashing, mocking, and making them look foolish their local buddies.
