Reader's Pick: While they don't really have any competition and could therefore coast, they still do a good job at KNST. Local news is covered about as well as you can expect it to be by a radio station (although they do have a tendency to get stories directly from print media). Mike Rapp does a great job in the mornings before turning it over to the national blowhards--the increasingly boring Rush Limbaugh, the annoying Dr. Laura, and the truly embarrassing and shockingly lowbrow Michael Savage. But KNST sandwiches local and national news (and Paul Harvey) around the syndicated shows and tops off the afternoon with Ryan Radke's sports hour.
Of Mythic Proportions: NPR on KJZZ and KUAZ. If you like your radio to talk to you to drown out the voices inside your head, you won't find conversation more though provoking and informed than on National Public Radio. Tucson is blessed with two places on the FM dial to hear NPR: 89.1 KUAZ, from the UA campus, and 98.9 KJZZ, translator from Phoenix. Don't ask us to choose between them, because we can't. KUAZ is good for keeping abreast of local news and now airs BBC World Service all night long, which is great for insomniacs. However, some of us don't have the refined palate necessary to appreciate all that jazz and we long for more talk, MORE TALKING, ALREADY. That's what KJZZ is good for: NPR news plus call-in shows all day on weekends, Fresh Air with Terry Gross and our personal favorite, This American Life at 2 p.m. on Saturdays. And listening to the Phoenix traffic reports just reminds us of why we don't live there. Both help us break out of our Tucsoncentric bubbles to develop a broader world view. So we dutifully send in our yearly pledge money to both stations to get their broadcast schedules, turn off the TV and listen up.
