Favorite Alternative radio stations

KSLG does a great job - they give time to local artists and are really up on the concert and events scene in the area, and their lunchtime request shows allow a fair bit of DJ freedom. Kudos to them - and their clustermates, classic hits "The Point" and freeform AAA KHUM.

Saladressing said:

Fave commercial alt. rock at the moment:

1. CD 101/Columbus
2. FM 94/9/San Diego
3. WEQX

That's about it. I've got all the "top" commercial alt. rockers in my iPhone but they all sound way too corporate and repetitive. Strangely enough, The Spy/OKC is too obscure and non-repetitive. There's a fine line here. There's a balance that is attainable between art and commerce. Viva REV 105.

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Saladressing said:

Since it's been over a year since that post I'll update my faves for 2011:

1. KSLG/Eureka
2. FM 94/9/San Diego

Regarding KSLG, here we have a radio station that like CD101, WEQX and a few others does not trot out the same 40 "classic" alternahits in continuous rotation 24/7. This is a station you can put on and leave on that sprinkles in some cool surprises here and there. Not even close to the vaunted OLD Spy/OKC and REV105/Minneapolis, but the best of what's around today IMO.

I like a commercial alt. station that consistently plays some commercial punk rock (Social D, Bad Religion, Face to Face, Pennywise, etc.) hence the dropping of CD101 and WEQX. Anyone else who wants to update their list feel free

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It appears to be time for my annual update of fave alt. rock stations For the record my preferred sound is on that road just a mile or two before the intersection where art meets commerce.

1. Indie 97.9/Baltimore WIYY HD3: So WHFS came back in the last 12 months on the small 97.5 signal in Baltimore. But a bigger story in my view is the transformation of Indie 97.9 (the HD3 signal on Baltimore's Rock 98; this HD station previously aired a rather formulaic indie/folk alternative sound). While it could be way more diverse in terms of genres played, this station is all about what alternative rock was supposed to be about in the first place: Cool music. It is playing Metric "Synthetica" (why the alt. format isn't overplaying this track is confounding), great music from bands like Doves and so much more, yet it keeps it familiar with acts like Grouplove, Weezer, etc.

2. Live 105/SF: In the past year this station has been featuring some very cool songs that you simply cannot hear on any other commercial alt. station in the US. Plus, this year it has added Electronic Dance Music to its regular rotation which is the perfect fit with alt. music. The station has brought back the elements of unpredictability/excitement to a format that hadn't seen that in years. And the long-running specialty show Subsonic remains incredible. SF is a great city and this station fits it perfectly.

3. 91X/San Diego: Heritage Socal alt. rocker.

1. Radio 104.5/ Philly
2. 107.7 The End/Seattle
3. 94.1 The Edge/Lansing
4. CD101/Columbus
5. Live 105 is getting better, I'm not into the EDM they've added, but the increased current material is great otherwise
6. HFS/Baltimore

This thread makes me depressed...with the loss of WFNX here in Boston, we're left without a real alternative station on the FM Dial. With NYC getting WRXP back, Boston has to be one of the largest markets now without an alt. No, WBOS Radio 92.9 does NOT count, as playing Bon Jovi and Aerosmith and the 90's ad naseum does NOT make you even one bit alternative..

I hear ya man; WBOS is basically Classic Alternative. But is more of an 'alt' station than some markets in the US have.

In retrospect to my post above I made a 'kneejerk' reaction to putting Indie 97.9 at #1 after only listening to them for a short time, so I'll revise my 2012 'fave alt stations' to this list:

1. Live 105
2. 91X

Any updates to your favorite alternative stations? Sorry to resurrect an old topic, but I just discovered KSLG and WEQX after reading though the thread. Great stations.

I really liked CD102.5, but they don't stream anymore, so I'm looking for replacements. Alt Nation on SiriusXM is pretty good, but I'm not a subscriber.

Basically, I'm looking for stations that play the current hits, but also mix in songs that most terrestrial stations won't touch.

Rogee said:

Any updates to your favorite alternative stations? Sorry to resurrect an old topic, but I just discovered KSLG and WEQX after reading though the thread. Great stations.

I really liked CD102.5, but they don't stream anymore, so I'm looking for replacements. Alt Nation on SiriusXM is pretty good, but I'm not a subscriber.

Basically, I'm looking for stations that play the current hits, but also mix in songs that most terrestrial stations won't touch.

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Cool. I'll update it after taking 4 years off time flies lol.

My favorite alt. station today would have to be 91X. Breaking the norm by still playing stuff that isn't really played at any other commercial alternative station. There might be reggae, an 80s new wave track and some harder rocking stuff mixed in among other things. For instance just this afternoon they played Pixies, Ben Harper, Soundgarden, Sublime "Scarlet Begonias", Lemonheads and Thievery Corporation!

Second would be 94.1 KRNA Cedar Rapids, IA: This station made a switch from active rock to alternative rock in 2014 and it does a nice job of playing alternative music that rocks.

Here are some other stations you might enjoy Rogee,

Hard Alternative:
105.7 The Point St. Louis
94.3 WCYY Portland, ME

Alternative:
Modern Rock 98.7 Wilmington, NC
103.1 iHeart Austin
95.5 WBRU Providence, RI
K-Rock 92.3 WBMP HD2 NYC

Underground Alternative:
Indie 105 KITS HD2 San Francisco
Fusion 95.1-2 KNDE HD2 College Station, TX
89.3 The Current Minneapolis
92/9 FM Bend, OR

Saladressing said:

Cool. I'll update it after taking 4 years off time flies lol.

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Thanks for the update! This is exactly what I was looking for. I will check these out.

To add to the "Alternative" list would be 96.5 The Buzz out of Kansas City. It's going to be straight alternative. If you are fond of CD102.5, I would also recommend 102.7 WEQX. Of course, many of your iheart alternative stations are restrictive on the harder alt stuff so I second 105.7 The Point in St. Louis if you enjoy hearing Tool, Rage against the Machine and many industrial bands of the 90s mixed in with your current alternative hits. Deeper modern indie stuff is something that would be limited on 105.7 however. Not familiar with WCYY so may need to check that one out.

At the end of the day, I think Cumulus does a better job that Iheart when it comes to Alternative with the exception being the Denver and Austin alternative stations. Radio 104.5 is pretty safe now. I'm not a huge fan of ALT NATION because they tend to lean way too much in the indie pop direction vs rock. If you like AAA, Lightning 100 out of Nashville is my pick. It's actually an AAA/Alternative hybrid with a focus on new music. They lean newer and a bit harder than typical AAA stations.

re:

I'll follow up w/ my fave alt. station of 2016, & musically there's not a close second:

http://theindependent.fm - Indie Radio Los Angeles

An internet-only feed started by peeps who worked at Indie 103.1 FM in Los Angeles.

Unlike the "official" Indie 103.1 feed (one full of passionless indie folk), this one sounds like what one would imagine Indie would sound like if it were on an FM dream dial devoid of having to have the masses tune in to generate revenue:

The best of the new, great classics (Throwing Muses, Ministry etc.).

They could be a little bit "harder" than they are to really generate the true spirit of rebellious alternative. They play no reggae. They play no electronic music. They play no hip-hop. They don't dig enough into the alt. catalog or history. Still, it's pretty good.

The imaging could be a lot better, they don't have DJs, but for good alt. stuff in jukebox format this is good.

Along somewhat of the same lines, the internet feed of Groove Radio LA by Swedish Egil (Mars FM, Groove FM LA) is crushing it at http://www.grooveradio.com.

Feels like this could use an update in 2019.

105.7 The Point seems to have cut some of their indie catalog out of their playlist as they've transitioned from "Everything Alternative" to "Rock Alternative". Still playing Bastille, Twenty-One Pilots, Imagine Dragons, and a random indie song here and there (like "Grip" by Spooky Basements incredibly late last night) but the divide between day and night playlists is not as strong as it once was. Still an incredibly good station if you want more guitars in your alternative mix, however, and expect tracks that don't ordinarily get play on alternative stations like "Hold Up A Light" by Thrice and "Be My Fire" by The Blue Stones to pop up.

96.5 The Buzz has been an incredible discovery for me the past year, they play a really solid mix of new and classic alternative that stretches all the way back to The Clash. Sonic Spectrum is one of the few freeform shows left on alternative radio and I recommend catching that on Saturday nights if you want to hear all kinds of crazy, obscure indie material.

I also second the recommendation of WEQX if you want more AAA and album cuts mixed into your alternative as well.

I wish my home alternative station was better tho. WKQX is not as bad as a typical iHeart station but it feels incredibly generic. They've largely cut out the 90's and 00's tunes to just a handful of #1s, so expect a lot of 10's indie pop if you choose to tune in to that station regardless of whether it's new or recurrent. The only time the station ever feels like it's stretching its creative wings is on Sunday when they break out the "Alt Backspace" show and play 2 hours of solid classic alternative.