The best “easy-listening” internet radio show for people who thought they had very discriminating musical tastes in college, and would never say “easy listening,” preferring the term “chill”:

Metropolis at kcrwmusic.com

It’s mellow enough not to distract and interesting enough to keep the energy levels up. The DJ will play a remix of some Coldplay song, then something from India, then some latino techno, then something funky. He makes it all seem like it belongs together.

The best “work’s boring, better listen to something interesting” internet radio:

The Cool As Folk station on music.yahoo.com

It’s where I get my Decemberists fix, among other things.

The best “work is really boring, I gotta laugh at something” internet radio. Well, this one’s not music but hey you can’t go wrong with

This American Life

The best “I’m on a deadline and got to go into The Zone” internet radio show, although sometimes this one gets a little too creepy (in a Matrix II mosh-pit-scene kind of way). All electronica.
Nocturna on kcrwmusic.com

CDs that also serve this purpose, making me listen to them over and over obsessively for days on end even if they are only 30 minutes long:

Neilsen Hubbard, Sing into Me — The sweetest Christian-tinged folk you can imagine.

Mia Doi Todd, The Golden State — “Gravity and entropy, they have it out inside of me”

The Violet Burning, Strength — electric guitar you can disappear into.