Despite the fact that I own an iPhone and my car has an USB port that makes it really easy to listen to music while driving, I still spend time tuning into local radio. This makes basically zero sense, I realize, but yet when I don't feel ambitious enough to find a playlist on Spotify to stream, I start flipping through the frequencies, hitting every single play of Katy Perry's "Birthday" along the way. Lately, my dial has largely stayed on 1330 AM, the former home of talk radio station The Jolt, now branded Star 1330. Believe me, I'm not trying to start a discussion of the station's ownership, but it's almost impossible to figure out what the mindset behind programming the playlist of Star happens to be, although the fact that an occasional freestyle jam makes it into the mix makes me very happy (although it was beyond strange to hear Sybil's "Don't Make Me Over" this morning).
However, listening to this hot mess of a station gave me this thought: Someone should flip an AM station over to a classic hip-hop format. I readily admit that I might be the only person in town thinking this right now, but there are distinct benefits. One, Tucson has a history with hip-hop on AM from the old Power 1490 days, so the poor signal and low fidelity of the AM part of the dial might have a nostalgic appeal. Two, the format works in Phoenix (101.1 FM, The Beat) and whatever they have, we certainly could do better. C'mon, can't we switch one of the two Top 40's stations over to something a bit more relevant? The Old Pueblo deserves the opportunity to hear Heavy D songs on a semi-regular basis.
