Commercial radio stations in the UK are, on the whole, really poor.
That “20 songs picked by focus groups played every hour” thing you mentioned happens all the time here (UK) too. Even radio1 is culpable of this, during the day the music they play is intolerable.
I guess if you have access to a digital radio or you tune in to stations online you will find some excellent stations, i.e sonarfmuk, 6music etc, etc.
Do we already have a thread for good radio stations that people listen to?