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.