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Vice Blog

New York - WFMU Radio

New York's got a good number of "best" things going for it but perhaps the most stand-out entry, considering that by and large American radio is a solid sea of grating, monotonous pap, is Best Nerd Radio, WFMU. If you've never listened to it take the college station from wherever you grew up, keep the same dorky DJs but give them the ability to speak without stuttering and actual senses of humor, multiply the size and obscurity of their record library by a few healthy thousands, and you're starting to get an idea of its greatness.

Where else are you going to get a Laibach threepeat in the middle of the afternoon, or--as we were delighted by back on a photo shoot in March--a straight hour and a half of amazing listener-submitted
"covers" of a weird 30-second rant about cake recorded by a friend of the DJ 20 years ago--also smack in the middle of the afternoon? Nowhere is right. The best part is every show they put on is kept in
a giant, comprehensive archive on their site, so you can be positive who did that crazy flute song that ends with the sound of a falling tree you caught right before passing out at two in the morning. Even if you think you're above all this or that no one will ever surpass Hot 97 in your heart of hearts, you should still check out the "Cake" covers. It's the kind of thing that's not so funny the first two times, even less funny the next two, then suddenly so ridiculously hilarious that someone has to have the presence of mind to cut it off before you wreck the car.