That 'Special Sound' is Found... in a Basement in Santa Monica
In a world of ironies, consider this: Advertising executives looking for the perfect sound for trendy selling turn to tiny public station KCRW, housed in a room under the Santa Monica College cafeteria.

According to a March, 2003 article in the magazine Business 2.0, on numerous occasions the creative teams of ad agencies (representing products such as Infiniti's SUV, Motorola, an H-P photo printer, and Mitsubishi's Outlander & Eclipse models) have gotten themselves un-stuck by listening to the little NPR station based just outside Los Angeles.

Boasting one of the largest music collections of any public station in the US, as well as a knowledgeable staff and a fiercely independent & eclectic attitude, KCRW knows new music like no one else.

Further, everything comes cheap. Not only do the KCRW DJs (with their public radio salaries) welcome the chance to earn "finder's fees," but companies know that licensing the fresh but more obscure fare they find there costs only a fraction of what is costs to use the music of, say, U2 or Coldplay.

Link to the complete Business 2.0 article

Link to station's elegant web site, which offers DJ- and web-cam views, as well as plenty of music, news and other information.