For an urban-suburban hiking kit, I highly recommend an AM-FM radio. If there's a crisis occurring, you're going to want news.

I recently got this little Sony from Amazon. It has very nice sound, even with the ear buds it comes with:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SRF-M37W-Walk...9612&sr=8-3


I also have this little Eton (AM-FM + shortwave), but it is easy to accidentally turn the power on so I keep it in a small Lock & Lock container

http://www.amazon.com/GM400-Compact-Shor...9750&sr=8-6