I don't know if this technically fits the criteria you're looking for, but they're a great local radio station in the Twin Cities with some real awesome programming. It was originally college owned, then became the first fully listener-supported radio station in the US during the1920s, and was then eventually sold to MPR.
Mar 23, 2024
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With all due respect to ruffianbandwidth
the University of Minnesota's Radio K is the classic model of the college alternative radio station The Current wishes it could be. (I still dig Mac Wilson's show tho). the Twin Cities is lucky enough to maintain more than one very cool radio station.
Radio K plays new bands who sometimes sound like old bands. An actual eclectic mix of genres. Random metal every now and again. College kids who, all these years later, keep spinning Jeff Buckley.
I'm always shazaming this station. It gives me hope that indie music still has a future.
My favorite thing is listening to the dj reading the top 5 songs of the week and feeling old because I have never heard of any of the bands but they all have hilarious names and song titles.
My other favorite thing is when a 20 year old dj plays Texas is the Reason followed by Braid in the middle of a "classic 00s emo" set.
Mar 23, 2024
I’ve just been listening to a lot of college radio recently, trying to distance myself from Spotify - there’s some great stations with really good programming.
Some faves in no particular order:
91.7 WICB (Ithaca College - linked above)
88.9 WERS (Emerson College)
91.1 WMUA (UMass Amherst)
88.1 WKNC (North Carolina State University)
90.3 KEXP (operated by an affiliate of the University of Washington)
Feb 7, 2025
You might be 28 but the kids in college are still 20 and through college radio you can pretend that you’re still hip and with the new music. Also sometimes the DJs are clearly high out of their mind and talk about nothing for 7 minutes straight and it rocks. Radio K in Minneapolis is the best and you can listen to it online.
Jan 31, 2024
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I don't know how well this actually answers your initial question, I think it's more of a counterpoint to some of the stuff people have already said, but here it goes.
In the past (prior to social media or search engines) specific styles, specialized knowledge, and niche awareness actually took effort. You had to go out into the world and find a scene, be accepted, participate in it, contribute to it, and learn from others with specific knowledge within the specific sub- or counter-cultural scene. It took time, effort, and experience to craft an identity. Nowadays people cycle through various identities and trends like commodities because it takes no effort (they're sold to them by social media algorithms, influencers, brand accounts, etc.). It comes to you in your phone without you ever even having to leave the house or put in the time to discover it or participate in it (you just follow specific people or subscribe). You can be a passive observer or consumer, not an active contributor. As a result, you're not invested or tied down and committed to that core identity. You can cosplay depending on your mood or who you want to momentarily convey yourself as, because it's easy. Essentially, being a poser has become normalized. An identity is now something to be momentarily consumed and affected, rather than grown, built, and developed over time.
Granted, it's always been different in regards to "mass" culture and popular trends (both in the past and now). Those are impossible to miss and were always monopolized by specific trend setting institutions, but always by the time it gets to that point, the actual initial counter- or sub-culture that inspired it has already been coopted and has started to disintegrate under the weight and attention of mass consumption.
Feb 18, 2024
It's an action deserving of its own nickname. My cat's name is Gomez, but when he crosses his paws like this, he turns into Hodgkins Plumpersocks.
Feb 2, 2024
I feel like everything about this photo captures that unique period of time - the covid masks, the protest signs, the boarded windows, the national guard.
I look at it now and I still feel glimmers of the hope I felt in that moment, when the rigid and all encompassing oppressive and systemic ruts of society felt like they were becoming more plastic and might even come undone. However, in retrospect, I am of course also hit with the ultimate disappointment, betrayal, and futility of it all.
So in that sense, it really captures that hovering sense of disillusionment and hope that I'm perpetually caught between within my day to day life.
Mar 30, 2024