Thursday, July 29, 2010

PHX to TUS

The drive from Phoenix to Tucson is mercifully shorter than Vegas to Phoenix. But similarly there's nothing between but desert and desert hermits. Eloy is sort of in the middle but it has no local local stations, the closest being KKMR with it's city of license going to Arizona City.  But it's a Class A and a simulcast of KQMR. They have a CP to increase the power from 6,000 watts to 8,000 watts while moving their stick North West. Clearly they aspire to be a Phoenix station. Thank you Univision.

I listened to KJZZ on the drive out, they were playing a Tom Waits song called "Step Right Up."  It was a song he was already doing back in 1979.You never really lose KJZZ on the drive South. They have repeaters all the way to Tucson. Eighty miles later in the town of Marana you start to get in KXCI on 91.3. Truly eclectic but leaning Triple-A they're the first "traditional" non-com I've heard all week.  Briefly the highway dipped low and I lost them only to hear another station butt in with some gospel, sounded like the Staple Singers. I took a look at what's local... there's no obvious candidate for that "other" station.

The local AAA in Tucson is KWMT they were not particularly memorable. On 98.7 is a LP High school station KWXL.  The format seemed to be automated Classic Hits. I don't want to be dismissive.. but what a waste. KRDX and KCDX and KHYT already have that covered.  KGMG runs Rhythmic Oldies, and KLPX runs Classic Rock. That playlist is totally played out.  Small non-coms are great for learning, but there are better format selections out there.

On the AM side I tried 690 KCEE-AM and 1400 KTUC-AM they both came in like hell and seemed to be canned Adult Standards when they came in at all. 1080 KGVY-AM seemed a bit different at least. 1600 KXEW-AM was interesting. Tejano isn't my bag but it's a very region specific format to the Southwest. Local talk radio is rife with venom and fiery opinions about the law that was supposed to begin today, SB1070. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is on all of them celebrating his current national celebrity. He certainly seems to like the attention. (For the record I have no problem with deporting illegal aliens. I do have a problem requiring that all Mexican-Americans carry ID to avoid incarceration.) Anyway, the hot topic morphed all the News-Talkers into an unlistenable narrative monologue.


I went back to listening to KXCI then went record shopping at Bookmans on Grant Street. I stopped at a thrift store and bought a guayabera Then I got lucky and found Molcas Mexican Grill, a taqueria stand stand at about the intersection Grant and Stone Streets. It was excellent.
 
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