you're right - it really [censored] is - 90 percent of my alt. country from playlists was coming from Digital Cable TV music, but they cut that channel from my area recently.
I eventually ended up at
www.live365.com - download the free client or just cough a couple bucks for a membership - then you have hundreds of pre-programmed radio channels with several hrs on there, and alt/americana country is a common topic, with all the cross genre.
RB