WXOU - Oakland University

WXOU sounds like college radio should: messy, loud, and completely impossible to predict. Based at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, the station gets its hands dirty in the Detroit music scene. One hour you're hearing Motown classics from the city's golden age, the next it's a basement band from Hamtramck no one's ever heard of. The DJs are students, which means you'll get rambling tangents and genuine enthusiasm in equal measure. Some shifts drag, especially the early morning blocks where the host clearly hasn't woken up yet. But stick around for the freeform afternoon shows, where t…