I rarely listen to commerical radio (usually in the car), but I've noticed a new(ish) radio station here in the Boston area, 93.7 Mike FM. Their motto is "we play everything". This means you'll hear Loverboy, then Jim Croce, then Ashlee Simpson. I'm guessing the new format has something to do with the rise of shuffling on the iPod and other similar devices (are there other devices?).

I have two reactions to this: a) well, that's sort of cool. At least they've broken out of the commercial radio mold of playing the same 12 songs a day. And b) is this just background sound for people that don't like music? A sort of "Russian Roulette", where the station bets on playing something that you'll like... eventually? What's the demographic they're going after?

Another observation is that this particular station has no DJs (from what I gather). Just pre-recorded station bumpers, commercials and random songs. I imagine this keeps the cost of running a station like this to a minimum. Just hit shuffle and go.

I also wonder: are there similar "shuffle style" stations popping up in other parts of the world?