Leap Day

FM 107.7 WIVK is a Country station in Knoxville, Tennessee. They've used a frog mascot since 1976 when a station employee was recording a commercial and realized that the calls letters sounded like a frog's croak..."Wivick Wivick Wivick." WIVK is a consistently top-rated station in the Knoxville market and held (or possibly still holds) a #1 streak that started in 1980 and lasted until at least the summer of 2011.

UPDATE: I just read that WIVK was #1 in the fall ratings with a healthy 17.7 share.

WLMD

A 1994 sticker from Country station WLMD licensed to Bushnell, Illinois.

WFWI

WFWI "92.3 The Fort" is a Classic Rock station from (W)Fort Wayne, Indiana.

WACV

1170 AM WACV was a News/Talk station in Montgomery, Alabama from 1984 until 2009.  After a series of events too tedious to explain here, WACV ended up at 93.1 FM beginning in 2012.

KRVN

KRVN (K Rural Voice of Nebraska) is a News/Talk/Farm station licensed to Lexington, Nebraska. At night, "880 Rural Radio" plays Classic Country with 50,000 watts of power to western Nebraska and parts of Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming. KRVN is one of six stations in the Nebraska Rural Radio Network which is owned by more than 4,000 farmers and ranchers.

Jamz! Jamz! Jamz!

What's better than a radio station that merely jams? One that JAMZ, of course!


WAJZ is a Rhythmic Contemporary station in Albany, New York. They went on the air as "Jamz 96.3" with an Urban Contemporary format in December, 1998 after flipping from Country. WAJZ (W Albany JamZ) is licensed to Voorheesville, NY.

"94 Jamz" was KUAT from Agana, Guam. The Rhythmic Contemporary station is now known as "I94." KUAT was the first FM station on the island and went on the air September 1, 1966.

WJWZ "97.9 Jamz" plays Rap/Hip-Hop in Montgomery, Alabama and is licensed to Wetumpka, AL.

Market #1s - Austin - KHFI

"Kiss 96.7" KHFI (K High FIdelity) is a CHR station licensed to the Austin suburb of Georgetown, Texas. They were tied with KKMJ for the top spot in that market's Holiday 2011 radio ratings.

KWIZ

KWIZ 96.7 FM "Radio Exitos" was a Spanish station licensed to Santa Ana, California. The call letters were named for the multiple quiz shows which were popular on sister station 1480 KWIZ-AM in the 1950s. KWIZ-FM is currently a Regional Mexican station known as "La Rockola."

Despite broadcasting in southern California, "La Rockola," along with XHTY 99.7 "The Invader" from Tijuana, Mexico, recently showed up in the Arbitron ratings for Middlesex/Somerset/Union, New Jersey. Arbitron ratings are formulated using written diaries as well as data from portable people meters (PPMs) which are pager-like devices that are used to measure how many people are exposed to individual radio stations. Obviously, someone was listening to these California stations in New Jersey via the internet or traveled there while wearing their PPM. It also goes to show how one listener (or a tiny handful of listeners) can impact the ratings.

KKSM

AM 1320 KKSM is a 500-watt, student-run, Alternative station broadcasting from the campus of Palomar College in San Marcos, California. Specialty shows include Country, Heavy Metal, Oldies and Latin Jazz. KKSM was founded in 1976 and was only available via cable radio from 1979 until 1996 when the 1320 AM frequency was donated to the school by PAR Broadcasting. They went on the air on April 1, 1996 and are licensed to Oceanside, CA.

KBUE

105.5 KBUE "Que Buena" is a Regional Mexican station licensed to Long Beach, California. For better coverage across the Los Angeles area they also broadcast at 94.3 FM KEBN licensed to Garden Grove, CA and 94.3 FM KBUA licensed to San Fernando, CA.

WCKG

Chicago's WAGO, a Top-40 station featuring John Records Landecker in the morning, flipped to AOR in 1985 and changed calls to WCKG.

This 1989 sticker dates to when the station had turned into a Classic Rock outlet.

Around the year 2000 WCKG became known as "The Package" which was a male-centric Talk station.




In 2005, many Talk stations owned by Infinity Broadcasting changed their names to "Free FM" including WFNY in New York and KLSX in Los Angeles. WCKG added Opie and Anthony in the mornings after Howard Stern left terrestrial radio.

Currently 105.9 FM is WCFS which simulcasts WBBM's News/Talk format. The call letters stand for We're Chicago's Fresh Station which was their Hot AC/Adult Top-40 branding and current HD-2 station. WCFS is licensed to Elmwood Park, Illinois.

Sticker Board #4

Click it bigger.

KRST - Albuquerque, New Mexico
"K92 FM" WWKA - Orlando, Florida
"Eagle 97.7" WAFL - Milford, Delaware
"The Peak 100.3" KPEK - Albuquerque, New Mexico
KKUP - Cupertino, California
"KY94" - Salina, Kansas
WHEN - Syracuse, New York
KAST - Astoria, Oregon
"KD97" Beaumont, Texas
WNEW - New York, New York
"K-OTTER 94.9" - Cambria, California
"The Bridge 92.7 FM" - Clinton, Louisiana
WLIS - Old Saybrook, Connecticut
"The Coast" KOZT - Fort Bragg, California
Hessischer Rundfunk - Frankfurt, Germany
"Mix FM 107.5" Charlottesville, Virginia
CKLC - Kingston, Ontario
"KJ108" KJKJ - Grand Forks, North Dakota
"FM 99" KRLB - Lubbock, Texas
"Way FM 90.3" W212AR [WAYM] - Lindale, Georgia
"The River 107.5 FM" WRVW - Nashville, Tennessee
Radio Rijnmond - Rotterdam, Netherlands
WRKO - Boston, Massachusetts
WZEP - DeFuniak Springs, Florida
KHSL - Paradise, California
"Magic 102.9" WMGK - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
"Y107" WWVY - Hampton Bays, New York
"Q98" WQSM - Fayetteville, North Carolina
"G98" WIGY - Madison, Maine
"Rebel 105.9" WPFB - Middletown, Ohio
"B98.5" WBBO - Ocean Acres, New Jersey
WGY - Albany, New York
WPEO - Peoria, Illinois
hr XXL - Frankfurt, Germany
"Sly 96" KSLY - San Luis Obispo, California
"103.3 The Fox" WUFX - Buffalo, New York
KLCE - Idaho Falls, Idaho
"B104" WAEB - Allentown, Pennsylvania
"The Point 98.7" WKSI - Greensboro, North Carolina
WAWZ - Zarephath, New Jersey
WEEI - Boston, Massachusetts
WSGW - Saginaw, Michigan
KBUR - Burlington, Iowa
WGPR - Detroit, Michigan
WESX - Salem, Massachusetts
WKSH - Pewaukee, Wisconsin
CFTR - Toronto, Ontario
"770 Radio K" KUOM - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Couleur3 - Lausanne, Switzerland
"98.5 KRZ" WKRZ - Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
CKTA - Taber, Alberta
"Star 97" WYST - Southfield, Michigan

Mystery Sticker #24

This could be from Birmingham, Alabama Top-40 station WKXX (which later became WIKX, a Country station that also used the "Kicks 106" branding.) Anybody know for sure?

China Radio International

China Radio International (formerly Radio Beijing) is the external radio service of the People's Republic of China. The government-owned CRI broadcasts via shortwave, satellite and the internet in about 60 different languages.

This video was taken by a Hungarian journalist and shows the massive building from which CRI operates including studios, offices and what appears to be a museum. In one office is a set of files with correspondence from listeners around the world, each drawer labeled with the country name in Chinese and English.

Radio Kolor

Radio Kolor may or may not still be broadcasting from Wrocław, Poland. Google translated the sticker to say "Listen To The Radio" and "Golden Hits."

WSNI

"Sunny 97.7" WSNI is an Adult Contemporary station licensed to Keene, New Hampshire.

WXNR

"99.5 The X" WXNR is an Active Rock station licensed to Grifton, North Carolina.

Swiss Radio International

Yesterday I posted about Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's Dazzle Ships album from 1983. It seems that OMD had a thing for radio (specifically shortwave) and communication in general. Besides "Radio Prague," other tracks include "Telegraph" "Radio Waves" "Time Zones" and their follow-up album Junk Culture had a track called "Tesla Girls." I'm still trying to figure out the meaning of the title but I would assume it had something to do with early radio pioneer Nikola Tesla. Other songs like "This is Helena" and "ABC Auto-Industry" utilized radio broadcasts within them. The last track on the 2008 reissue of Dazzle Ships is called "Swiss Radio International" and, like "Radio Prague," consists of that station's interval signal. The 14 notes were repeated for about 5 minutes before the start of SWI's broadcast. OMD's drummer referred to it as "The Ice Cream Song" because of its similarity to ice cream truck music. Take a listen:




Swiss Radio International ceased broadcasting on shortwave in 2004, a disturbing trend brought on by the ease of listening via the internet. A different SRI sticker was posted here.

Radio Prague / Radio Praha

I've been listening to my CDs in alphabetical order over the past few months while making my 50 mile round trip commute to work every day. I'm now in the letter O which includes Scottish post-punk band Orange Juice, California indie-pop band The Orange Peels and UK electronica from Orbital.
Next came Dazzle Ships by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, an experimental synthpop and sound collage album from 1983. The first track is called "Radio Prague" and simply consists of the opening bars of the Communist anthem Forward Left which was used as the interval signal from (what was then) Czechoslovakia's international broadcast station. An interval signal is just a short musical call sign indicating that a station's broadcast is about to begin.
Here's the track set to some eastern bloc imagery sure to cause cold war flashbacks.






Radio Prague began broadcasting in 1936 and has programming on satellite and internet in six different languages. They ceased most shortwave broadcasts in 2011 although they can still be heard in North America via Radio Miami International in English and Spanish.

WQLT

WQLT was a Top-40 station licensed to Florence, Alabama.

"Q107" is now an Adult Contemporary station playing "Great Classics and the Best of Today."

WQLT was originally owned by Florence native Sam Phillips who recorded a young Elvis Presley for his famous Sun Records label. Sam Phillips also recorded Howlin' Wolf, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and B.B. King, along with what many consider to be the first rock and roll record: "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (led by Ike Turner.)
Q107, along with WXFL and WSBM is operated by Big River Broadcasting which is still owned by the Phillips family.

WKRI

WKRI broadcast at 1450 AM out of West Warwick, Rhode Island. I believe they carried a MOR format when the anniversary sticker was current and played Country music by the time of the bottom decal. 1450 AM is now WLKW, an ESPN Radio affiliate.

WEGR / WOTO

WEGR is a Classic Rock station in Memphis, Tennessee.

A dual sticker featuring the long-time walrus mascot of Rock 103 along with the now-defunct WOTO. "Oldies 95.7" was on the air in Memphis from 1999 to 2002 and is currently a Gospel station "Hallelujah 95.7" WHAL.