Best Radio Station

All the political, religious, and legal B.S. (and there sure is a lot of it) aside, 104.1 plays some of the tastiest nuggets of soul, funk, blues, and jazz that can be found on the radio anywhere, let alone this barren wasteland of airwaves ruled by Clear Channel and the FCC. Said to be broadcasting from North Miami, on a clear day the sounds of "the Boss" can be heard north of I-595 and as far west as Sawgrass Mills. One day, it played Miles Davis' Kind of Blue straight through, flipping the vinyl and everything for that authentic cracklin' and poppin' lo-fi experience. You'll hear P-Funk, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, and a plethora of obscure songs straight out of a rare-groove DJ's bag of tricks. It plays few (if any) commercials and broadcasts little inane DJ chatter, excepting the raves and rants of local legend Michael the Black Man. The Boss has no FCC license and borrowed the call letters of a Boston-based station, but it still plays music you just won't hear anywhere else. Readers' Choice: WPYM-FM (93.1)Best Radio Show

Sounds of the CaribbeanWLRN-FM (91.3)Sounds of the Caribbean has been a presence on South Florida's airwaves since 1979, when none other than Bob Marley convinced host Clint O'Neil that he could be an important voice of island culture in Miami, a city that could be called the capital of the Caribbean. Until recently, O'Neil's Monday-through-Friday, late-night broadcasts were supplemented with two weekend editions hosted by Kevin "Ital-K" Smith, but Smith's early Sunday and Monday morning shows were replaced with BBC News by station management in October. It's a shame Smith's quick wit and sharp British accent is no longer heard, but O'Neil is still on from 2 to 7 a.m. Sundays, laying down tracks from nearly every tropical genre, from soca to rocksteady and dancehall through Afro-Cuban. Through the Internet, the station reaches listeners worldwide. The show breaks up the canned chatter and carefully calculated playlists that rule the corporately controlled medium of radio today.