Phoenix Gets One Radio Station That May Be Worth Listening To

Phoenix has had a dance music station broadcasting over the desert air for the last six years, one of the few American radio outlets that provided Taylor Dayne with a slightly fatter royalty check each quarter. In news that was surely a real bummer to the glowstick crowd around these parts, Energy dimmed on Halloween, and Monday brought The Beat, which has a playlist devoted to classic hip-hop. Although I’m not giving up my satellite radio subscription quite yet, it was pretty great to hear these three tracks played consecutively yesterday:

Das EFX, “They Want EFX”:

Outkast, “Rosa Parks”:

EPMD, “Crossover”:

… and a few songs later, Father M.C., with “I’ll Do 4 U”, a track that somewhat mysteriously is a big hit on one station in Tyler, Texas, and nowhere else. (Aside from my heart.)

While some message-board cranks aren’t thrilled with the change, it feels like every other commercially viable radio format– from “Jammin’ Oldies” to those phony “we play what we want” stations–has playlists that have been crushed into a soulless cube of banality. Keep playing Another Bad Creation on a semi regular basis, Phoenix’s The Beat, and catching up on my local commercials just might be worth it.

92.7 The Beat [homepage]