I know what you mean. I was stationed at Fort Bliss, and made the trip to Tucson and Ft. Huachuca several times (a college classmate was MI, I was ADA). Made many long trips on I-10 to San Antonio and Houston. Long stretches of nothing, to say the least.
And it had an AM radio and the stations faded out for long stretches. I had just finished the MI basic course and was enroute to the 1st Cav Div back then.