When I was a kid growing up, we lived out in the middle of nowhere. We didn't even have cable tv (not that we could have afforded it), and only had three broadcast stations if we were lucky. The radio was really our lifeline to what was going on in the outside world.
Our favorite station was WLAV, out of Grand Rapids. Back when FM radio could get away with playing just about anything, they did. They played non-radio-edited music, so you could actually hear the whole song (which was important, because some of those songs were in excess of 7 minutes long - they would never get away with that today). They even played quite a variety of music - from Roxy Music to AC/DC, and eveything in between. They were also big into the prog rock, which I'll own up to enjoying. I think I'm one of the few people who knows what a Moog is.
At first, we used to hang out in our living room, playing games with the radio in the background. As I grew older and got my first electronic equipment, I started listening by myself. When I was a teenager, they were changing too. They were playing quite a bit of the new alternative music - I mean real alternative, not that whiny Pearl Jam/Alanis Morrissette stuff that passes for alt music. I heard for the first time The Cure, Peter Murphy, the Church, XTC, and many others.
Unfortunately, sometime around the early nineties, WLAV sold out. They became a "classic rock" station only. They got rid of all the old deejays, and brought in some new "talent," which was really disappointing. At least I still have my memories of the good old radio days....
7:54:27 PM 
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