Best Radio Station for Local Music 2009 | The Blaze 1330 AM | People & Places | Phoenix
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Best Radio Station for Local Music

The Blaze 1330 AM

Okay, first, let's get past the jokes: Yes, ASU's radio station, The Blaze 1330 AM, has an — ahem — limited range. In fact, your signal may start to break up on the south side of campus, which is why most listeners are online. But what the Blaze lacks in speaker-rattling power, it makes up for by being more in tune with local music than any other tower in town. Yes, this traditional (read: dazed students playing OK Computer front to back) college radio station goes crazy for all those blogger buzz bands, but it's been the only spot on the dial (or, more realistically, the only feed in your iTunes) that'll give you a steady diet of bands like Kinch, Miniature Tigers, and Dear and the Headlights. For that, we love them — at least until we go west of Mill.

Best Online Music Station That Should Be a Radio Station

In a just and fair world, the signals of Radio Phoenix would surge across the Phoenix area with 100,000 watts of clarity. Car stereos and hi-fi sets from Surprise to San Tan Valley would broadcast the stations ber-eclectic blend of indie/underground music and community-based talk programming. We know listeners would dig Hip Rawk Nation with Kaja Brown on Wednesdays, which boasts a diverse mix of gospel, electronica, pop, and urban music (the kinda stuff thats usually relegated to an audiophiles iPod), as well as the retro soul and R&B sounds of The Dalton Green Show every Sunday afternoon. It would put Tucsons KXCI to shame. Yeah, wouldnt that be something? Returning to that nasty thing called reality, such a feat is a long way from happening, if at all, as this volunteer-run station is currently broadcast online only. According to station manager Jeremy Deatherage, plans are afoot to someday obtain a bona fide FCC license, which costs into the hundreds of thousands. Several benefit gigs have taken baby steps toward that goal, but, like we said, it might not happen anytime soon. In the meantime, well keep our fingers crossed and stay tuned.

Best Archive of Old-School Arizona Punk

Shavedneck

As groovy as it can be to catch shows at Valley rock clubs like Jugheads and Hollywood Alley, these joints ultimately bow to the awesomeness that was Madison Square Garden back in the day. A scuzzy mecca for punk and hardcore gigs during the early '80s, the defunct east Phoenix gymnasium/nightclub is where both renowned locals (JFA, The Feederz) and nationally known acts (Dead Kennedys, TSOL) unleashed three-chord anarchy inside a wrestling ring surrounded by cyclone fencing. Though it's been 25 years since Mad Gardens closed down and faded into local lore, you can revisit those mayhem-filled days through Bill Cuevas' online archive chronicling our state's Reagan-era punk scene. The former Tucsonan's Web site boasts a virtual treasure trove of vintage ephemera (including fliers, stickers, and photographs) for Arizona bands and dives that have long since gone the way of Joey Ramone — like Bundini's Warehouse in Tempe, or Tucson's legendary Stumble Inn. A few bootleg MP3s of classic shows (such as Black Flag performing at the Calderon Ballroom in 1982) are also available for download. See, punk's not dead; it just lives on over the Internet.

Best Rock Radio Personality

Tim Virgin

Tim Virgin isn't the most talkative DJ on Phoenix's rock radio scene, but that's kinda what we like about him. Market-wise, he's no virgin, bouncing all around this great land before landing at The Edge, where he spins a lot of '90s "alternative" rock, mixed with a select number of newer bands, during his afternoon slot. He's got a unique (but in no way grating) voice, and he doesn't overdo anything, which is pretty much what we like to hear between songs by Incubus, Nirvana, and Green Day. He also seems to be at least a little excited when he's spinning something relatively new — which may be a directive from the station's corporate overlords but makes us feel warm and fuzzy anyway.

Best Hip-Hop Radio Personality

DJ Strawberry, 101.5 JAMZ FM

Our morning commute just gets longer and longer, but it ain't because traffic's snarled again on the I-10. Ever since the acerbic-tongued jock Strawberry gave up his afternoon drive time shift in favor of urging 101.5 JAMZ listeners to "wake that ass up" from 6 to 10 a.m. every weekday, we've been extending our route to the office, if only to get in a few more minutes of listening. Between spins of the freshest Lil Wayne, Jeremih, and Flo Rida cuts, we're usually cracking up something fierce at his bits, which put other "morning zoo" deejays to shame. Besides the always-popular "Will It Flush Wednesdays," there's "Bitch Slap Mondays," where fans cast text-message votes throughout the show to determine which male in the studio (either the host or one of his sidekicks, Suge White and G-Mo) gets a hearty pimp-smack by outspoken newsgirl Vanessa. His tongue-in-cheek interviews are also top-shelf, be they with oddball listeners, porn stars, or hip-hop luminaries. (He even got to confab with DMX the day he got released from Sheriff Joe's gulag.) If Earl Simmons is down with Straw, then we gotta be, too.

Best Hip-Hop Radio Station

KNRJ ("The Beat of AZ")

T.I.'s hit single "Dead and Gone" (featuring Justin "Trousersnake" Timberlake) is an exceptional hip-hop track, one of the best off the Paper Trail disc from last year. But after hearing it five times in the span of two hours, even the pair's prodigious rapping and rhyming talents tend to sound a little weak. Same goes for the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow," Pitbull's "I Know You Want Me," or the Keri Hilson/Lil Wayne track "Turnin' Me On" (more like you're turning us off, Weezy). In fact, the relentless rotation of the same ol', same ol' played ad nauseam by the hip-hop radio powerhouses in this burg has got us tuning instead to 92.7, 99.3, or 101.1 FM on our radio dial to listen to the dope mix of old-school shizzle provided by KNRJ (a.k.a. "The Beat of AZ"). Until last fall, the station broadcasted high-energy EDM, but it's currently all about busting out anthems from 30 years of hip-hop that never get airplay: names like Biggie Smalls, Biz Markie, and even Grandmaster Flash. In one hour alone, we heard "Dre Day," Ice Cube's "Check Yo Self," and the Afrika Bambaataa classic "Planet Rock." It's almost enough to make us want to bust out the parachute pants and start poppin' and lockin' again.

Best Country Radio Personalities

Ben Campbell and Matt McAllister

In Phoenix's topsy-turvy and hyper-competitive country radio scene (dominated by the twin-powers of KNIX and KMLE), one moment you're on top, the next you're out the door, and, before you know it, you're working for the other guy. We're not sure KNIX's Ben Campbell and Matt McAllister were good enough to get their former competitor — the Morning Mayor, Dave Pratt — recalled, but it does seem suspicious that their success coincided with his departure and replacement with KNIX's old team of Tim and Willy. Either way, there's no real competition between Ben and Matt, charming pretty boys whom the station wisely cross-markets whenever possible (and who score interviews with some of country music's top stars), and the insufferable Tim and Willy, who overuse the dumbass term "NashVegas" and have somehow ended up interviewing a dude from Def Leppard and mystery author Dean Koontz. We'd prefer to see Ben and Matt's tanned faces and pearly white teeth atop a pair of boots a little more often, but when it comes to picking a drive-time country twosome, Ben and Matt are it.

Best Country Radio Station

KSWG 96.3 FM

For those of you who have lived here for a while, remember when Phoenix was totally Podunk? Seriously. Back in the day, we remember seeing pickup trucks dragging their back bumpers down the freeway and hearing Southern-like accents at the neighborhood Circle K. The only thing missing was pure country-and-Western music on the airwaves, the kind you'd hear driving across a dusty stretch of rural Texas. (We're talking Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, Jr., and Woody Guthrie — you know, the good stuff.) Then we were made hip to Real Country FM. The Wickenburg-based station — which tends to play honky-tonk favorites, ranging from Patsy Cline's lesser-known hits to George Strait's old-school jams — has a strong enough signal to encompass everywhere we've been in Maricopa County, so you're only a preset away from Phoenix, circa 1975. KSWG also streams online; just check out the station's hastily designed Web site for easy iTunes-linked tuneage.

Best Country Music Pilgrimage

The grave of Waylon Jennings

Legendary outlaw country singer Waylon Jennings, the first country musician to ever have a platinum record, wasn't originally from Arizona. Though a Texan by birth, he's tied to the Copper State because he lived here much of his life and resurrected his career here by playing gigs seven nights a week at J.D. Musil's nightclub in Tempe. He also passed away here, at his home in Chandler, and was buried here, at Mesa Cemetery, the same grassy lawn that holds the remains of paroled rapist Ernesto Miranda of "Miranda rights" fame. Waylon's grave is a peaceful place, where you'll find his intricately designed black headstone adorned by flowers and trinkets left by generations of fans passing by. It's the closest thing a country music fan will find to sacred ground in this town, and it's well worth the trip.

Best Kids Music Blog

Zooglobble

A few years ago, Stephan Shepherd's wife was asked to edit the newsletter for her parenting group. She roped her hubby into writing reviews of kids' music — and that, boys and girls, is how Phoenix wound up with the best children's music blog around. Shep­herd doesn't just review music and report on the industry on his blog, he also brings super music to town — another reason to read Zooglobble and learn who's coming to the Valley and when. Now we have just one more wish, Stephan: Bring Baby Disco to Phoenix! You know what we're talking about.

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