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In LA you have tons of at least relatively affluent people driving around all day, so the market is much stronger for radio here than in other places.
Some standouts:
Two great NPR stations - KPCC and KCRW (which has some good/ok music shows depending on your style)
One AMAZING college station - KXLU
The original hip hop station - KDAY (still playing the hits from back in the day)
Two great classic rock stations - KLOS (famous) and newcomer The Sound (which often plays whole albums)
I've driven all over this great country and imo nothing matches LA. Radio is more than just "radio" here, it's almost like the newspaper -- everyone I know gets most of their news from NPR and its always the basis of conversations about recent events.
Look people, traditional radio is dead. Listeners are WAY down from what they used to be and it's so much talk. Like someone said, it's all owned by ClearChannel. Indie artists? Yeah right, not in your life.
The internet is where it's at now. Go to Pandora or last.fm
My iPod connected to my car stereo when I'm driving (makes long trips MUCH less boring, considering I have 10,000 songs on my iPod), Pandora when I'm at work or home.
In addition to Pandora, I have apps for 91x i(San Diego) and Indie103 (used to be broadcast, now an internet station). My iheartradio - Listen to 750+ Stations station is tuned to "CBGB radio"
I know I started this thread, but I have to give a shout to my home town of Cleveland. It has some of the best radio in the midwest from what I've seen, on par with Chicago, and much better than the Minneapolis area where I am now. RADIO 92.3, Q104.1, Z107.9, 100.7 The Buzzard, and Magic 105.7 are some of my favorites.
These radio stations are no different than what can be listened to in every major city. As a matter of fact the Minneapolis area has stations that play the exact same format.
89.3 The Current (MPLS. - STPL.) is much better than those you listed and is probably one of the best stations in the country.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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People went from coming home and sitting on the couch and listening to the radios in the 1920's to shoving it into their cars now. LOL people still listen to radios! Talk about old school.
These radio stations are no different than what can be listened to in every major city. As a matter of fact the Minneapolis area has stations that play the exact same format.
89.3 The Current (MPLS. - STPL.) is much better than those you listed and is probably one of the best stations in the country.
Minneapolis has decent radio, but it does have great morning shows -- some of them are national/internationally broadcasted. Minneapolis doesn't have a very good classic rock station and doesn't really have a Motown station at all, which bothers me.
Cleveland DOES have pretty excellent radio, especially for rock!
Unfortunately, unless you're an already long-established radio station (and not always in this case), radio stations do not seem to have a long "shelf life" these days. What we may think is good today, may be horrible tomorrow or vice-versa.
Here are just some of my favorite radio stations over time and the years I enjoyed them. A few of these are still around, but many are gone. Check out the Youtube videos, but also some of the old aircheck links below as well:
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, some holes re: hard rock format IMO)
), all other Spokane stations play John Mayer/etc and country 
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