Recently, I found an all-​classical FM sta­tion broad­cast­ing out of Toronto that I can actu­ally listen to in Brant­ford, Cam­bridge, and Kitchener-​Waterloo. This may not sound like any­thing impres­sive - who even lis­tens to FM radio any­more - but if you have ever tried to listen to Toronto-​based radio in those areas, you would know what I’m talk­ing about. There is some­thing about this strip of land that just destroys radio signals.

Regard­less, since I’ve found this sta­tion, I have yet to change it back to the others that I listen to. Clas­si­cal 96.3FM does an amaz­ing job of not only fea­tur­ing bril­liant clas­si­cal music, past and present, but also fea­tures spots like “Sunday night at the Opera”, “The Great­est Music Of All Time…” and spoken poetry. How can you not love this?

Though I feel their web­site could use a little infor­ma­tion archi­tec­ture - It’s rather busy and cramped in some places- they offer a sur­pris­ing amount of con­tent for a radio sta­tion web­site. They have an online lis­ten­ing sec­tion as the Inter­net radio is all the rage now, and even the “What Was That Piece” list: a minute to minute fea­ture of every song they’ve played through­out the day and the entire week previous.

I must also men­tion that though they play the typ­i­cal clas­si­cal music, they also fea­ture some fan­tas­tic choice music, moving opera pieces, and even arrange­ments from movies (Lord of the Rings, Forest Gump, and Star Trek to name a few). I actu­ally got home and sat in my car for an addi­tional 6 min­utes to listen to the end of Misere Me, Deus by Gre­go­rio Alle­gri, a moving choir piece. The best part is that I have no idea who that is yet, but thanks to the sta­tion and their web­site, I can find out.

If you’re in the mood for some audi­ble cul­ture, Clas­si­cal 96.3FM is a sta­tion to tune into. If you aren’t in the Toronto area, attach your­self to their Inter­net radio player.

P.S. be warned: All of the per­son­al­li­ties they have work­ing there can hyp­no­tise you with their voice. Every damned one.