Dr. Demento, whose weekly radio show of novelty and comedy songs has been on the air for almost 40 years, is leaving terrestrial radio. I remember listening to him on Sunday nights in the early 1980s. His song choices were always a topic of discussion on the school bus the next morning. Dr. Demento (aka Barret Hansen) started out in radio at Reed College's KRRC in Portland, Oregon. He developed the Dr. Demento persona in 1970 at KPPC in Pasadena, California. He would later move on to other Los Angeles-area stations including KMET, KLSX and KSCA. By 1974 his two-hour show became syndicated and was eventually heard in most major markets, usually on FM rock stations. Most recently the show was only heard on six stations.....but, "by special agreement and due to contractual considerations" a version of Demento's continuing internet show will be heard on 89.9 FM KACV through the summer.
KACV is an Alternative station broadcasting from Amarillo College in Amarillo, Texas.
Radio Alithia (Radio "Truth") has been broadcasting from the Greek island of Chios since 1988. The shape of Greece's fifth largest island is depicted on the sticker.
WTIC "96.5 T-I-C" (WTravelers Insurance Corporation--the former owners of sister station WTIC-AM) is a Hot AC station from Hartford, Connecticut. The above sticker from 1989 dates back to when they were a mainstream Top-40 station.
104.7 FM WFRN is a Contemporary Christian station licensed to Elkhart, Indiana. Their programming is simulcast on two other stations; 93.7 FM WFRR - Walton, IN and 100.1 FM WFRI - Winamac, IN. WFRN also has a network of 12 translator stations spread throughout northern Indiana and parts of Michigan.
KSSK is an Adult Contemporary station from Honolulu, Hawaii. The AM half of KSSK began broadcasting in 1922 as KDYX while 92.3 went on the air in 1976 as KULA licensed to Waipahu, HI. KSSK FM was the #1-rated station in Honolulu according to recent Arbitron results. Honolulu's market ranking is #64.
The Saturday before Memorial Day is always International Jazz Day. This holiday celebrates the worldwide reach of jazz along with the culture and history of this uniquely American music.
CHRK "101.9 The Giant" is a Hot Adult Contemporary station from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. They're licensed to Sydney, NS and first went on the air in May, 2008.
The station is named after Angus MacAskill, who the 1981 Guinness Book of World Records listed as the tallest natural giant who ever lived, the strongest man who ever lived, and the man having the largest chest measurements of any non-obese man. MacAskill stood 7 feet 9 inches tall, weighed 425 pounds and had 44 inch wide shoulders. He was born in Scotland in 1825 but emigrated as a child with his family to Canada. He later toured the United States, the West Indies and Cuba making a small fortune in wagers over his weight-lifting ability and may have even appeared at P.T. Barnum's museum. Some of his feats include carrying barrels of pork weighing over 300 pounds under each arm, lifting a fully grown horse over a four-foot fence and lifting a 2,500 pound anchor. The giant returned to Nova Scotia in the 1850s and entered the salmon fishing industry as well as operating a general store. There are two Angus MacAskill museums, one on the Isle of Skye in Scotland and the other in Englishtown, Nova Scotia.
Morehead State Public Radio began in 1965 with WMKY in Morehead, KentuckY. In 2001 they added 88.3 FM WOCS to their network in partnership with Owsley County Schools. They also have a translator licensed to Inez, KY at 88.3 FM. MSPR's combined signals cover much of eastern Kentucky and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Much of MSPR's programming comes from National Public Radio but they also carry local programming including shows featuring Bluegrass, Blues, Jazz, Americana and Spoken Word.
A rare, frequency-only sticker from Adult Album Alternative WRJT "The Point" which is licensed to Royalton, Vermont. 103.1 FM is one of 7 stations in The Point's network which also includes 104.7 WNCS - Montpelier, 95.7 WDOT - Danville and 4 translators enabling it to be heard throughout most of Vermont as well as parts of New York and New Hampshire. WNCS began back in 1977 with an eclectic mix of rock, jazz, folk, country and classical and was an innovator of what is now the Triple-A format.
KRUI is a 100-watt, student-run station from the University of Iowa. They've been broadcasting at 89.7 FM since 1984 but their history dates back to 1952 as the carrier current station KWAD and later KICR. KRUI is licensed to Iowa City, Iowa.
KJCR is a Christian station owned by Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, Texas. The KJCR studios were struck by lightning in September 2009 temporarily knocking them off the air. A few pictures of the resulting fire can currently be seen at their website.
KZZU is a Top-40 station from Spokane, Washington. They dropped the "Zoo FM" branding and now go by "92.9 ZZU" with the slogan "Modern Hit Music." The top sticker has a mirrored/chrome background which my scanner turned into something resembling freshly paved asphalt.
This is an iron-on patch (or is it a textured sticker that lost its adhesive?) from WFRL which once existed at 98.5 FM and 1570 AM. The AM side still exists while the FM is currently a Country outlet "Q98.5" WXXQ. Was WELL-FM a nickname for WFRL FM or did a station exist that had the WELL call letters? One thing is for sure, WFRL AM & FM is/was licensed to Freeport, Illinois. If you have any info on WELL FM/WFRL keep it to yourself feel free to leave a comment.
UPDATE: Received a very informative message from Wyatt Herrmann which I've lazily copied and pasted below. Thanks Wyatt!
WFRL-AM went on the air in October 1947. In 1959 WFRL was sold....from Vincent Barker (the guy who started the station) to Triad Radio somewhere in Michigan....Battle Creek, MI if memory serves me correctly.
In 1967 WELL-FM went on the air. The call letters stayed on 98.5 for 3 years. When WFRL/WELL-FM moved to the new high rise bank building in Freeport (1970), they changed the call letters to WFRL-FM.
In 1972/1973 the call letters went back to WELL-FM. In 1975 just before Triad put the 2 Freeport stations up for sale, they changed the call letters back to WFRL-FM.
The stations were sold to Bradford-Ross Associates in June 1977. WFRL simulcast on WFRL-FM until the fall of 1979 when the call letters changed to WXXQ and became an automated top 40 station while the AM went back to country.
WXXQ 98.5 moved it's studios to Rockford in 1996 and built a new tower closer to Rockford in 1998 and is running at reduced power while still being licensed to Freeport.
WLIZ was a Religious station licensed to Lake Worth, Florida from 1975 until the mid 1980s. The station first went on the air in 1959 and was owned by record producer Sam Phillips, best known for discovering Elvis Presley and signing him to his Sun Records label. Phillips named WLIZ for ELIZabeth Taylor because "she was the hottest female going in 1959." The station was run entirely by women, both on-the-air and management positions, something Phillips had tried previously at WHER in Memphis. The all-girl WLIZ played show tunes, ballads and light jazz but no rock and roll--odd given the fact that its owner played such a huge part in rock history. By 1988 the station had changed its calls to WLVS (W-ELViS?) Currently 1380 AM is a Regional Mexican station "Radio Fiesta" WWRF.
Dr. Demento, whose weekly radio show of novelty and comedy songs has been on the air for almost 40 years, is leaving terrestrial radio. I remember listening to him on Sunday nights in the early 1980s. His song choices were always a topic of discussion on the school bus the next morning. Dr. Demento (aka Barret Hansen) started out in radio at Reed College's KRRC in Portland, Oregon. He developed the Dr. Demento persona in 1970 at KPPC in Pasadena, California. He would later move on to other Los Angeles-area stations including KMET, KLSX and KSCA. By 1974 his two-hour show became syndicated and was eventually heard in most major markets, usually on FM rock stations. Most recently the show was only heard on six stations.....but, "by special agreement and due to contractual considerations" a version of Demento's continuing internet show will be heard on 89.9 FM KACV through the summer.
KACV is an Alternative station broadcasting from Amarillo College in Amarillo, Texas.
