I have have a Kenwood Excellon X659 deck and the radio seems to be not pulling in stations very clearly. It pulls in like 93.5 and 103.5 but they are affected by static. It pulls AM stations in alright. Any clues to what it could be

2002 Celica GT

 

Did you hook it up yourself? Some cars have a factory amplified antenna, and even if you don't have a power antenna you still need to hook up the blue antenna lead. Someone corrct me if I am wrong......

 

I believe the problem is not so much with the deck, or reception, but rather HOW after market H U tuners are designed.
Keep in mind that stock unit are not designed with SQ in mind, so the manufacturewr tends to make the tuner section operate in a narrow BANDWIDTH (where it sounds closer to Mono), whereas an after market radio which IS built with SQ in mind will work with a wider bandwidth but skimp on distance of reception, yet provide you with a much wider stereo sound , and improved frequency response.
it's a trade-off between SQ and distance of reception.
You can try to MATCH the impedance of the tuner by changing the antenna to match the resistance of the deck's antenna input.
Keep in mind reception in the city sucks big time, especially when near a large body of water.