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Our Journey

I’m sure you’ve sat around countless nights wondering “how did Pinnacle come to be?” Well, I don’t want to leave that heavy pressing question on your mind. I’m afraid it’s probably not going to be as glamourous as you would hope it would be. There were no big name stars, all pining for position and begging us to do something. The station has very humble beginnings. Just two guys that love hip hop.

Before Pinnacle was even a thought, Big H and I had regular lives. Work, family, you know, all of the normal stuff. My job required me to do a fair amount of traveling. Between my job and my family life, I spent a good amount of time on the road. When you travel, music can be a difficult choice. There were certain states where my options were, let’s say, limited. AM radio in a couple parts (no idea how AM is still around to be honest, but that’s another discussion). On this one particular venture, I was spending months going back and forth between home and this new venture with my company. Now, I’ve subscribed to just about any music service you can think of at one point or another. My issue was, I could not find, consistently, what I wanted to listen to. If you go to terrestrial radio stations, it is a bunch of new stuff. Now, the radio is how I discovered music and artists when I was growing up. The difference is, I’m not a huge fan of todays sound. Between that and hearing the same song every half hour, radio tends to not do it for me. When it came to the other music services, I found that if I tried a station that was “the oldies of hip hop” style, I would get some of what I grew up with but then I’d get some 1970’s to early 1980’s songs. Not the end of the world but the sound during that era was very, VERY different than the 90’s and 2000’s. It was closer than the radio but still not what I wanted. Some of the other music options could narrow it down a bit more but I found that I had to go through a good number of songs to get what I really wanted. Those bangin’ tracks that were on the albums but weren’t commercially run. It seemed that the entire album would be available and it was up to me to decide which song I like and which one I don’t. I also felt that the number of artists was relatively small compared to the number of really good MC’s out there.

I was driving to my hotel, as I had been doing for months, trying to find something to listen to. That’s when I thought “there has to be a better way”. I know, pretty cliché. I knew that this era had way more to offer than what was available. When I arrived at the hotel, I put a call into my best friend from high school (Big H). Him and I used to spend hours upon hours in his “lab”. Just hanging out and listening to music, playing cards and doing all the things adolescents do. Big H has always been a hip hop head and had a background in communications. Who better to team up with? So, I call him and after the initial, “How you doin?”, I just come out and say it. “I’m thinking of starting a radio station. I’m tired of not hearing what I want and I think there are others that feel the same way.” It was silent for a few and then I got “ummm…OK”. That started our 6 month journey of figuring out “so, how exactly do you start a radio station?” In case your curious, there’s A LOT to learn. Fast forward, here we are. A live stream station and getting ready to launch our PREMIUM subscription option.

When we say this station is created by hip hop heads, for hip hop heads, we REALLY mean it. We’ve tried things, failed, learned and adjusted. Everything that happens when you attempt to head down a path you are not familiar with….and we couldn’t be happier. I’ve told this story before and had an awesome response one time. I finished with the story and then they said “So, you didn’t like what was on the radio so you just said “forget it, I’ll just make my own”?” The answer is basically, yes I guess. Who would’ve thought that so many people would think like us.

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