The Tubes - WRIF

The Tubes are one of my favorite bands of all time. They've been around since the early 1970s but I first discovered them as a kid after checking out a cassette copy of their excellent 1979 television concept album Remote Control from the local library. Their music is a blend of top-notch musicianship, over-the-top theatricality, a wicked sense of humor and just great songs. They are probably best known for the Top-10 song "She's A Beauty" from the Outside Inside album but one of my favorites is the super funky "Tip of My Tongue" from that same record. Check out those horns!



This is one of dozens if not hundreds of band stickers from WRIF in Detroit. The Tubes logo dates it to 1981 when they released the awesome Completion Backwards Principle album featuring the killer "Talk To Ya Later." Crank it up!

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.

R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio

Ronnie James Dio died today of stomach cancer at age 67. Dio was the lead singer of Black Sabbath and Rainbow but I knew him best from 1980s solo output on albums like Holy Diver and The Last In Line. His powerful voice and trademark "devil horns" hand gesture ensure his place as a rock and roll legend.

WRIF is a Rock station from Detroit, Michigan. Previous WRIF stix can be seen here. And here.

Gene Simmons Turns 60

I was looking at a list of famous people who share my birthday today:

Monty Hall
Sean Connery
Regis Philbin
Rollie Fingers
Rob Halford
Geoff Downes
Elvis Costello
Tim Burton
Billy Ray Cyrus
Claudia Schiffer
and
Gene Simmons from KISS who turns 60. Gene really, really, really, likes money. Did you know that he trademarked the moneybag logo with the dollar sign on it? I thought that image had been used for years and was in the public domain. Apparently he used to turn the S of his last name into a dollar sign when signing autographs. A lawyer said he should copyright the two slashes going through the S which he did. He then got a copyright for the moneybag too.

WRIF is a heritage Rock station in Detroit, Michigan. Previous WRIF stickers can be found here.

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.