WRIF

One of the first stickers I ever got was a black & white WRIF decal. I went to the library and found a book that listed radio station formats and mailing addresses. Unfortunately it was 1986 and the book was from 1976 so many of the self-addressed stamped envelopes I mailed out came back Return to Sender because the stations moved or no longer existed for whatever reason. WRIF sent about a dozen of their classic racetrack-shaped stickers which I promptly used to decorate the inside of my high school locker and book covers. After one of the covers got worn out I chucked it in the trash. I guess somebody else liked it because a few days later I saw it covering someone else’s book. I wanted to ask the kid if he enjoyed picking through trash cans for his book covers but never did.
The album rock station’s overall logo hasn’t changed in more than 25 years although somewhere along the way they went crazy and switched from “WRIF 101” to “101 WRIF.” The Riff is licensed to Detroit, Michigan.

Monsters of Rock / WRIF

The 1988 Monsters of Rock was a festival tour featuring Metallica, Dokken, Scorpions, Kingdom Come and headlined by Van Halen. This WRIF sticker was released to coincide with the June 16th and 17th stop of the tour at the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit, Michigan. WRIF has been giving out various bumper stickers in the classic "racetrack" shape for much of its 40 year history. Most feature a band's name or logo but some have included sports teams, DJs, and station slogans. The station's website has a section with many of their decals over the years. There are probably hundreds (maybe thousands?) of different WRIF stickers out there. Some people have even made a hobby out of collecting WRIF stix.

The WRIF Depository

On this date in 1971, Detroit's WRIF went on the air and became a pioneer in the Album-Oriented Rock format.  "The Riff" started printing up racetrack-shaped stickers in the late 1970s and over the years hundreds of different decals have been printed.  Most WRIF stickers feature a band or artist, while others are station catchphrases/DJs, Detroit-area sports teams or specific concerts.  I have approximately 100 in my collection, some of which have already appeared on the blog and can be seen here, here, here and here.