I have a list of "Shows" I follow, with regular updates from star guests (Tim Reaper for jungle music [1] , Lena Raine for video game OST [2], ...)
Their "NTS Guide to..." [3] is really great to peek into a new genre as well.
I highly recommend.
[1] https://www.nts.live/shows/tim-reaper
There are many more LFPMs out there too!
This means you have access to the best terrestrial stations, as well as some (often quite niche) Internet-only options.
I find BBC (1-4 + world), Deutschlandfunk (numerous stations), Radio Swiss Classic (available in German, French, and Italian), France Inter / France Culture, and a number of other broadcasters (usually public, and hence with little or no advertising) generally appealing, and preferable to most of what I can tune in locally (OTA AM and FM are all but dead). Tastes run to classical, jazz, and blues, though you can find other options as well.
Lots of community radio still out there! I assume bigger cities would have a solid live music and radio community too.
I'm sure other streaming services have the same and curators can pick from a much larger set of music, from any part of the world. More than they ever could at a radio station where they had to order and ship CDs around.
There's also many independent internet radio stations or music podcasts these days which can be launched for little money, don't require a broadcasting license and can be listened to from any place in the world.
I understand the nostalgia angle, but objectively it seems like what we currently have is better and more open on all counts.
Are we being 'nudged' to like certain genres or musicians because they are being promoted? Of course, this could happen with a DJ or traditional FM station too, but with centralized AI, you impart that 'nudging' on literally millions of people.
Indeed - radioparadise.com is a quite nice Internet Radio
It's much better than what I've experienced with spotify and similar and it's way less effort. I had built a pretty big launchcast preference profile, but it took years of active listening, and in my genre remixes are preferred over original recordings but radio on demand doesn't have them ... you need currated collections, and I'd rather not be the curator.
I do worry about the longevity of the subscription service though... at least some of the channels are very repetitive, it feels like someone set up a currated rotation a while ago that just continues to repeat. They did the sec crowdfunding several years ago and there was a lot of related party transactions that looked too squishy for me, and after the offering expired they did the required years of reporting and its a blackbox again.