Euro-style Car Stickers

Oval stickers with block letter abbreviations are a fairly regular sight today. It seems like every bozo in town has to tell you that he vacationed in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (OBX) or on Hilton Head Island (HH) or Yellowstone National Park (YNP.) I myself had an Ocean City (OC) on the back of my Blazer for a few years. These type of stickers originated in Europe to designate what country your vehicle is from. With a large number of small countries in a relatively compact area and where cross-border travel is common, Europe apparently feels the need to identify the country of origin of its cars. I'm not sure if this is a requirement or if it's just cool to slap a "GB" sticker on your Mini Cooper or a "DE" on your BMW. Seems like it would make more sense to just stamp the country code directly onto their license plates but what do I know.

These abbreviated, Euro-style decals have now invaded the world of the radio station bumper sticker:

WYCE (WYoming Community Education) is an independent community radio station licensed to Wyoming, Michigan. They are funded entirely by donations and operate with a mostly volunteer staff. WYCE carries a Variety format including Rock, Jazz, Blues and Folk music.

WTMT is a Rock station in Asheville, North Carolina and licensed to Weaverville, NC.

Vermont Public Radio is a network of about 20 stations and translators in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. It has been one of the most listened-to public radio stations per capita in the country despite being one of the smallest members of the National Public Radio system. The first station in the network was WVPR in Windsor, VT which went on the air in 1975.

KZZP

KZZP is a semi-legendary Top-40 station in Phoenix, Arizona. They became a CHR station in 1980 and pulled in monster Arbitron ratings the second half of that decade and into the 1990s. As with many Clear Channel-owned hit music outlets, the station now uses the "KISS FM" branding. KZZP is licensed to Mesa, AZ.

The front and back of a KZZP t-shirt.

WNWI WSBC

WNWI is an Ethnic radio station in Chicago and licensed to Oak Lawn, Illinois. The call letters stand for NorthWestern Indiana because they broadcast from Valparaiso, Indiana from the mid-1960s until 1998 before moving into the Chicago market. WNWI's schedule includes programming in Polish, German, Serbian and Croatian.

WSBC (World Storage Battery Company) is a time-brokered Variety station licensed to Chicago, Illinois. They carry programming in Russian, Spanish, Greek, Ukrainian and Romanian.

This above image is a magnet from the Torah Radio Network which might not exist anymore as their website URL is defunct.
G'mar Chatima Tova.

WUSN

"US 99" WUSN has been a Country music station in Chicago, Illinois since 1982.  In terms of cumulative listeners, "US 99" is one of the largest Country stations in the United States.

Fish Amnesty Day

Yesterday was Fish Amnesty Day--another harebrained idea from the goofballs at the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The idea is that fishing is bad because it hurts the little critters so you should throw away all your poles and hooks. Since you shouldn't catch fish it follows that you also shouldn't eat them. No problem here. Fish tastes disgusting and I avoid it like the plague. The closest I get to ingesting any seafood is a daily fish oil supplement that I manage to take with all my other vitamins. Even the fish burps from those pills is kinda gross.

Having said that, it just so happens that I'm going fishing today with my son. He built his own boat which we tested last weekend and now he'd like to use it for real.

"Fish" branded stations are almost always Contemporary Christian formatted. They usually use the ichthys (Greek for "fish") symbol as their logo which was used by early Christians as a secret symbol.

WFHM (W For HiM) -- Cleveland, Ohio.

 KFIS -- Scappoose, Oregon.

KAIM -- Honolulu, Hawaii

KNDK

KNDK (K North DaKota) is a Talk station licensed to Langdon, North Dakota.

Finger Quality Lakes Rock

WLLW is a Classic Rock station licensed to Seneca Falls, New York. They also have a translator in Ithaca, NY at 96.3 FM.

KVOD

KVOD (Klassical Voice Of Denver) is a Classical music station in Denver, Colorado. This sticker is from 1999 when they were at 92.5 on the dial. That same year AMFM Inc. bought the station, flipped it to Jammin’ Oldies and moved the dead white guy music to 1280 AM. Colorado Public Radio then bought it and moved it back to FM, first to 90.1 and then to its current home at 88.1. KVOD is licensed to Lakewood, CO.

Can you name the composers shown on the sticker? I could only make a guess on the wigged guy but I was wrong. Hint: It's not Bach. See the Comments for the answers.

Attack of the Killer B95s

WFBE (W Flint Board of Education) went on the air as a public Educational station in 1953. It was sold to Liggett Broadcasting and became a commercial Country station in 1997. WFBE is licensed to Flint, Michigan.

"B95" WBBN is a Country station licensed to Taylorsville, Mississippi.

"B95.5" WYJB is an Adult Contemporary station licensed to Albany, New York.

Other attacks can be seen here. And here.

WIOV

WIOV is a Country music station licensed to Ephrata, Pennsylvania.

Sunday Sticker - KGDP

KGDP (K Gloria Dawn Patterson--the wife of the owner) is a Christian Talk station licensed to Oildale, California. Apparently they switched their city-of-license as I have it listed as Orcutt, California in my records. After going dark for awhile they seem to be back on the air as of late August according to this Radio-Talk discussion forum.

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. To celebrate all you have to do is call everyone "matey" and say "arrr" a lot. On second thought, don't. Please just don't do it. It's beneath you and really, really annoying.

Pirate Radio 102.1 was an unlicensed, illegal "pirate" radio station which broadcast in the Tampa, Florida area in the mid-to-late 1990s. It was run by a self-described "redneck biker," played Rock music and had paying advertisers. Check out these pictures of the operation before it was shut down by The Man. They even had a logoed station van!

WKRP Goes On The Air

On this date back in 1978 the first episode of "WKRP In Cincinnati" aired on CBS. My interest in radio is tied directly to watching it as a kid after it went into syndication in the 1980s. I loved everything about WKRP from the oddball characters to the rock posters plastered everywhere and the radio stickers in Andy's office.

This sticker was apparently a promotional item for The New WKRP In Cincinnati which ran in syndication from 1991-1993. Many of the characters reprised their roles but the show just wasn't as good as the original.

WKRP's frequency was never revealed on the original series but The New WKRP In Cincinnati placed the station at 1530 AM (which is the home of real life Cincy station WCKY.)

This sticker is from KRPN, an 80s-era Oldies station in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their top-of-the-hour legal ID actually read "W KRPN Salt Lake City" which purposefully sounded like "WKRP in Salt Lake City." Brilliant!

Lux FM

Lux FM is a radio station from Kiev in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine. I'm not sure what their format is--this website lists Lux FM as an Easy Listening station while another says they're Ethnic/Adult Contemporary. Still a third says they're "Dance Radio." I couldn't get any "listen live" links to work to find out for myself but I did spend an awful lot of time mentally untying a red ribbon on their website. Gospodi pomiluj!

If anybody out there happens to know Ukrainian and could tell me exactly what this Cyrillic sticker says, leave a comment or shoot me an email. (Click the sticker to enlarge.)

KUBE

Seattle's KUBE started out in the mid-1960s as Religious station KBLE. In 1981 they switched to a straight-up Top-40 format and later changed calls to KUBE. They currently run a Hip-Hop/R&B/CHR format with the clunky title of Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio.

Today is "Stay Away From Seattle Day," a semi-humorous attempt to give "America's Best Place To Live" a break from the influx of unwashed masses who keep visiting and relocating there. So please don't move to that great city in the Pacific Northwest and for God's sake don't listen to KUBE.

CHST

Star 102.3 FM was a Hot Adult Contemporary station from London, Ontario Canada. They originally went on the air in 2000 then flipped to their current Adult Hits format as "Bob FM" in 2003.

College Radio Week - WWSU

We wrap up College Radio Week with two stickers from the campus radio station at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. I attended WSU from 1988 to 1994 (that’s right, it took this dumbass six years to finally score a degree.) In that time I witnessed “alternative” music become relatively mainstream as well as the advent of Grunge and that soon-to-be massive band from Seattle known as The Supersuckers Nirvana. I swear we must have played the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” CD-single with its little cardboard sleeve twice an hour when it arrived at the station. I only did a three hour show once a week but it was enough time to foist plenty of British post-punk and obscure Canadian new wave upon the 2 or 3 people who listened. I called my show “Brave New Waves” which was completely stolen from the Canadian Broadcasting show of the same name. In clichéd DJ fashion I changed my name for use on-air and somewhere along the way obtained the nickname “Miracle Man” (because if I played a good song it was a miracle...ha ha ha.) It was great fun doing college radio, my only regret was that I never got more involved at the station as a director. As I’m not a trust fund baby I had to work all through school and never had the time to do more than DJ.


Yours truly in the WWSU studios circa 1992.

Digging through a drawer recently, I found my old, laminated FCC Radiotelephone Operator Permit which was required to be on the air.

“Dayton’s Wright Choice” pumps out an astounding 20 watts of power (which I believe is twice as much as when I volunteered there.) WWSU is licensed to Fairborn, Ohio.

College Radio Week - WUNH

91.3 WUNH originates from the campus of the University of New Hampshire. The first radio station at the school was WMDR formed in 1930 by the Mike and Dial Club.  In 1952 a closed-circuit station known as WMUR broadcast over electrical lines on campus. An FM license was granted in 1962 along with a switch to their current call letters. WUNH is licensed to Durham, NH.