What I miss in Ann Arbor #2: Decent Radio

I don't know why, but Albuquerque radio stations are terrible.  I like "alternative rock", and the only station playing this leans toward thrashing, metal rock with double kick drums.  (I now instinctively turn the station with I hear that signature "thu-thump thu-thump.")  

I also enjoy some mindless pop music once in awhile, if only to dull my senses after work.  The best pop music station in Albuquerque, by far, is a Christian station.  I'm all about Christian outreach being excellent and am happy that the station is so good.  But it says something that a station restricting itself to such a small part of the available music easily trounces its competition.  And what it says is bad.  Perhaps if I spoke Spanish I would feel differently.  There are at least half a dozen Spanish language stations, playing mariachi to latin pop.  Still not quite my style, but I imagine Spanish speakers are quite pleased.  

Finally (and this is the kicker) I have yet to find NPR.  No Car Talk (at least over the airwaves), no Prairie Home Companion, no All Things Considered, no BBC news service at night.  A city without a decent NPR station isn't really a city in my book.  Albuquerque my be five times the size of Ann Arbor, but its radio has a long way to go before it measures up.