A daily look into one of the world's largest collections of radio station bumper stickers and memorabilia.
Sunday, December 20, 2020
CKJD
CKJD launched in the late 1960s from Sarnia, Ontario with a Middle-of-the-Road format. Their original dial position was 1250 AM but moved to 1110 AM in 1977. CKJD ceased to be in 1988 after flipping to Country and changing their call letters to CKTY.
Saturday, December 19, 2020
WDFH
Friday, December 18, 2020
WGSA
Thursday, December 17, 2020
2ZB
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Cannes Radio
Cannes Radio broadcasts to the French Riviera area of southern France. They are heard at 91.5 FM in Cannes and 91.3 FM in Nice. The top sticker may or may not be related to the current Cannes Radio. If you know, leave a comment.
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
WWMY
Monday, December 14, 2020
WPJB
105.1 FM WPJB went on the air in Providence, Rhode Island in 1948. They were originally owned by the Providence Journal Bulletin newspaper from which their call letters were derived. "JB105" was a Top-40 station in the mid-1970s but had switched to Rock in the early 80s. A station sale spelled the end for WPJB in 1985 but the call letters reappeared in 1990 as an Adult Contemporary outlet now broadcasting at 102.7 FM.
Sunday, December 13, 2020
Saturday, December 12, 2020
WHUR
96.3 FM WHUR is an Urban Adult Contemporary station in Washington DC. They are owned and operated by Howard University, making them a rare commercial station that is owned by a college or university. The Washington Post newspaper donated what was then WTOP-FM to the school and they began broadcasting with the WHUR call letters in 1971. The 16,500-watt station initially carried a Jazz format before switching to Urban AC some time in the 1990s.
WDLX / WGHB
AM 930 WDLX and AM 1250 WGHB are simulcast Sports stations in the Greenville/New Bern area of North Carolina. The "Pirate Radio" branding and color scheme are in reference to East Carolina University's athletics for which they are the flagship station.
Friday, December 11, 2020
Thursday, December 10, 2020
KSEI
930 AM KSEI is a News/Talk station in Pocatello, Idaho. The 5,000-watt outlet went on the air in 1926.
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Monday, December 7, 2020
KCHUNG
Saturday, December 5, 2020
CFOK
CFOK was on the air at 1370 AM in Westlock, Alberta from 1975 until 2011. They then shut down their AM transmitter and began broadcasting at 97.9 FM.
Friday, December 4, 2020
Encouragement Media Group
KFRO/KZXM - Pittsburg/Bullard, Texas
KLJT/KMPA - Jacksonville/Pittsburg, Texas
KVNE - Tyler, Texas
Thursday, December 3, 2020
KWTX
A reader of this blog sent along a vintage business card as well as some early 80s studio photos. I've also included a station history that he provided. Thanks Mike! A rare KWTX-AM sticker and station history that Mike sent previously can be seen here.
Waco’s FM radio station once home to the ‘Golden Sound of Beautiful Music’ celebrates a golden anniversary
KWTX-FM celebrates 50 years of entertaining Central Texas listeners in 2020.
KWTX-FM’s inaugural broadcast was Dec. 7, 1970. The new Waco FM station at 97.5 MHz was owned and operated by KWTX Broadcasting Company, the licensee of KWTX-TV (Channel 10) and KWTX-AM (1230 kHz). All local radio and TV programming originated from the company’s Broadcast Center at 4520 Bosque Blvd. in Waco.
KWTX-FM’s transmitter and tower were located along I-35 near Lorena, Texas, a few miles south of Waco. The station transmitted at an effective radiated power of 71kW. Programming was sent from the Waco studio to the transmitter site by a microwave link licensed by the Federal Communications Commission as Auxiliary WAL 23.
Throughout the 1970s, the station aired easy-listening music in stereo with limited interruptions from 6 a.m. to midnight. Instrumental selections from albums by Percy Faith, Montovani, Ray Conniff, Ferrante and Teicher, Andre Kostelanetz, 101 Strings, plus many other similar musical artists were broadcast to listeners throughout Central Texas. The station also carried national news on the hour from the Mutual Broadcasting System. The local FM announcers gave the time and temperature on the quarter-hour and a short headline news report and weather forecast every half-hour.
Dave South, former KWTX radio program director and Texas A&M play-by-play sportscaster, recently recalled a few of the obstacles faced before and after the first broadcast.
“We put the station on the air with a very limited music library,” South said. “I had gone to Dallas a number of times begging the record distributors for any help they could provide, which wasn’t much.”
However, the station received programming help from an unexpected source. South received a letter from a man in Europe asking if the radio station played easy-listening music. The man’s father was an orchestra leader who had recorded 10 or 12 albums.
“He sent those albums to me,” South said. “We played just about every cut on each LP, and that increased our music library by 30 to 40 percent.”
South said station management would come into the control room occasionally and draw a line with a red grease pencil through album cuts they didn’t want to hear again.
“Lots of red circles became a part of our lives in FM,” South said.
On-air announcers also had to cope with working inside a small confined space, sometimes for up to six hours. The FM control room wasn’t much larger than a closet and crowded with equipment and storage shelves.
South said that it was often difficult to find someone willing to work long part-time hours for not much money – and who liked to listen to slow instrumental music.
“Our only full-time announcer was Clarence Garnes,” South said. “Clarence was a former radio guy and had a great voice. He was in his late 70s and smoked like a chimney. He didn’t make much money, but that was OK with him, because he was retired, and his wife had a good job at Baylor University.”
Many FM radio hosts brought “Beautiful Stereo Music” to Central Texas listeners for over a decade until the format changed in the early ’80s to personality DJs playing contemporary hits 24 hours a day.
A few other noteworthy changes to KWTX-FM have occurred. A new broadcast tower and transmitter facility was built near Moody, south of Waco, in 1979. FM power increased to 100kW in 1986. KWTX AM/FM/TV moved to a new facility at 6700 American Plaza in 1987. Both KWTX radio stations were sold to Gulfstar Communications in 1996, and are now owed by iHeartMedia. Today, KWTX AM, FM and other Waco iHeartMedia stations are located at 314 W. Hwy. 6.
Wednesday, December 2, 2020
95.8 Capital FM
95.8 Capital FM is a CHR station broadcasting from London, England. They are one of a dozen Capital FM Network stations heard throughout much of England, Wales and Scotland.