Radio has been terrible for a while. Just when I start liking a song, it gets played to death and I can’t stand hearing it any more. And the lack of variety doesn’t help matters either. Clear Channel is the next Microsoft of radio. It owns 1,200 radio stations across the country, 8 in the Washington DC area alone. This homogenization and commercialization of radio will not get any better until listeners tune out, which is difficult to do without an alternative. I’m looking closely at XM, one of the satellite radio providers that seems to offer a lot more variety, albeit at a cost.