There is only one truly effective cure for radio blandness -- listener supported radio is just that -- radio supported by its listeners. Unlike public radio, it is sponsored largely by listeners directly, benefit concerts, and a few local record stores -- not large corporations that do it to make people think they're giving back to the community. When informed listeners get to guide a station, the station turns into what the listeners want.
The station that brings this to mind: WBER, located in Rochester, New York. WBER (which can be heard via streaming audio at http://wber.monroe.edu/, or on the air at 90.5 FM) does play some of the things you hear all the time, such as Soggy Triscuit, Boy Stone, and others, but they play a lot of stuff that you don't hear that often. They're the ones that turned me onto The KLF's The Queen and I. They run test tracks often -- once an hour if I remember correctly. I have heard some incredibly cool bands there that I hadn't heard of anywhere else. I heard from Sixpence None The Richer as a test track there nearly a year before Kiss Me was such a big deal on the pop stations.
Unfortunately, I now live elsewhere, in a pit of unadulterated radio blandness. | 
