I want to steal a couple of minutes of your day, dear reader, to encourage you to take an auditory gander at your local (or any, really) independent radio station. If you live in a major city there’s a good chance you have one: Brooklynites have The Lot Radio, here in Munich there’s Radio 80000, in Brussels there’s Kiosk Radio. Some are only on the internet, some are still broadcasting over the airwaves. How you listen to them is still up to you (no platform lock in!). These stations offer an alternative to the profit-driven algorithmic feeds of Spotify, Apple Music, etc.

I’ve been having a blast listening to my local radio station as of late. It’s been exposing me to genres of music I’d have a tough time finding on my own, given that The Algorithms seem to be ultra-conservative about keeping me within a bubble of enjoyment rather than taking a risk with genres I may not like.

There’s also an aspect of communal listening that I had never realized I was missing. Many of these independent radio stations have a chat that is actively being monitored by the DJ. You can actually talk with the source of your music! There’s a weekly show at my local station where the DJ is half playing music and half shooting-the-shit with listeners about whatever topic is on their mind- be it about the best grocery stores in the city or stories from a recent trip.

I’ll assume the boomers will be reading this laughing, thinking how silly it is that a youth has finally discovered talk radio. Y’know, I’ll take briefly looking like an idiot if it means I get to sidestep participating in whatever hellscape future tech companies are creating with their AI voice DJs.