If you tune in to FM 94/9, you'll find the usual alternative rock suspects -- artists like Amy Winehouse, the Arctic Monkeys and Depeche Mode. But every once in a while you'll hear something truly unusual.

Like three songs in a row by Manu Chao, who sings in French and Spanish and is described, rather amazingly, as a blend of Bob Marley and the Dave Matthews Band. Or a tune by Robert Johnson, the blues singer who died before rock 'n' roll was invented. Or perhaps a little number by King Crimson, a band rarely heard on the radio, or perennial worst-singer-of-all-time candidate William Shatner.

The music isn't truly gonzo; you're not too likely to hear anyone from my parents' ultra-soft-listening album collection (i.e., no Anne Murray or Il Divo). But still, FM 94/9's playlist is surprisingly diverse, even for an alternative-rock station. And it's all due to listeners.

While other stations are continuing the recent tradition of ignoring song requests, 94/9 embraces them. "Insider DJs" take over the station for three songs every hour from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, while host Mike Halloran accepts a "dog dare" -- a song he's dared to play -- each weekday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the station lets the lunatics, er, listeners take over the asylum about twice a year during its "coup d'etat" weekends.

"We really try to break a lot of the rules that had been established by conventional radio when we launched FM 9/49 five years ago," said station program director Garett Michaels. "We try to find ways to break convention when we can."

The station's approach does come with risk. Listeners might get turned off by the choices of the hourly "Insider DJs," who get to play whatever songs they want as long as they're in the 94/9 library and aren't indecent. Indeed, one of the guest DJs chose to play three songs in a row by the aforementioned Manu Chao, something no commercial radio station would ever allow to happen.

And then there's the matter of cost. The station pays $100 an hour to each Insider DJ. (Insider DJs serve on the air if they call in when their names are announced; if the next hour's DJ doesn't call in, the previous one gets to keep "working." The station's regular DJs, of course, remain on duty.)

At eight hours a day, five days a week, the "Insider DJ" program could add up to almost $200,000 a year.

"It's not cheap, but at the end of the day, it's money well-spent," Michaels said. "We're certainly going to be able to do a lot better by rewarding people for taking part in the radio station than putting up some billboards that people could drive past at 80 miles an hour."

Decades ago, it wasn't unusual for radio stations to take requests. But radio has become more tightly controlled over the years, with disc jockeys getting much less freedom to choose what they play. And, of course, it's impossible for a pre-taped DJ to take live requests.

But now, radio stations may be loosening things up, inspired by the success of the "shuffle" feature on iPods and the "Jack" radio stations that jumble several decades' worth of songs together and play them in no particular order.

But Sean Ross, a radio analyst with Edison Media Research, cautions that stations aren't "capitulating after years of being overly conservative," he said. "These are brush strokes."

In other words: Don't expect the unexpected in the wider radio world.

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KPBS-FM personality Tom Fudge, still on the mend after a serious accident, returned to the station on a part-time basis earlier this week. It's still not clear, though, when he'll be back on the air.

Fudge, the longtime host of "These Days," the station's weekday morning public affairs show, was riding a bicycle to work on April 16 when he was hit by a car near Interstate 8 and Fairmount Avenue.

"I was left a bit of a wreck," he wrote in a letter to listeners that was posted on KPBS' Web site on May 15. "My body made hard contact with the car that hit me. That day, I ended up in intensive care, and I was hospitalized for more than a week."

While Fudge wrote that his doctors expect him to fully recover, he may not be back on the air for some time. (Fudge wasn't available for an interview this week.)

Dozens of listeners left good wishes for Fudge on the Web site, with some calling for more bicycle safety on the roadways. Fudge himself thanked his well-wishers: "I can only feel humble, grateful, and very fortunate to be alive in the fellowship of such outstanding fellow humans."

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Randy Dotinga wonders if there was a shortage of consonants when Garett Michaels was named. E-mail him at NCTimesRadio@aol.com.