Sunday, February 1, 2009

WGNS





Murfreesboro, Tennessee's 1450 AM WGNS (W Good Neighbor Station) began broadcasting in 1947. Today it's a typical News/Talker but they played popular music up until the early 1990s. They are one of the very few stations that is allowed to simulcast their primary AM signal onto an FM translator of which they have two--at 100.5 and 101.9 FM.

Amusing Call Letters #1 - WSUC

WSUC is a college station from the State University of New York at Cortland. In 1976 they were making the switch from an AM carrier-current station to FM and had to submit 5 sets of call letters to the FCC. Their choices were WCSU, WMLF, WCJL WRTC and, as a joke, WSUC. Thank you FCC. You chose wisely.

Sunday Sticker - KHCB




105.7 KHCB is the flagship of the 21-station KHCB Network located mostly in Texas but also with stations in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. The 100.9 sticker is from K265DH, one of their 6 translator stations in Texas.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Mystery Sticker #3 SOLVED!

Identifying this sticker has been a fruitless challenge. There are clues but so far Google hasn't been able to work her magic on this one. The backing of the sticker is brown and the full AM frequency isn't given so I'll take a wild guess and say it's from the mid 1970s. Here's what we know so far....
--The current KKEA is in Honolulu, Hawaii at 1420 AM.
--There is a WKEA at 98.3 in Scottsboro, Alabama owned by KEA Radio. There happens to be a station at 1330 AM also licensed to Scottsboro--WZCT--but I can't find a previous ownership connection between the two. The only former call letters I could find for WZCT were WSGG.
--Maybe it's a television station...Channel 13...doubtful.
Help!

UPDATE:  A reader confirmed that there was a WKEA in Scottsboro, Alabama circa 1981.  Thank You person-who-I-didn't-ask-permission-to-use-her-name-but-it-rhymes-with-Maureen!

WBVP


1230 AM WBVP went on the air in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in May, 1948.  They air a News/Talk format and are one of 51 stations in the Pittsburgh Steelers Radio Network.  WBVP is licensed to (W) BeaVer Falls, PA.

Friday, January 30, 2009

KCEL

KCEL broadcast a variety of musical genres including Rock, Country, Jazz, Oldies and other specialty shows before being sold and flipped to a Regional Mexican format in 2004.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Mystery Sticker #2 SOLVED!!


The typeface and overall groovy design of this sticker, along with the brown backing, suggests that this is from the 1970s. Someone wrote the call letters on the back but to me it looks like "YBTM-FM." A KBTM currently exists but it's an AM station in Arkansas. WBTM is a station at 1330 AM in Virginia. Not much to Google on here. Any ideas?
UPDATE: It is indeed KBTM - Jonesboro, Arkansas circa 1979-1982. Thanks for your help everybody! I'm pretty stoopid.

WUFM


WUFM is the home of the Radio U network of Alternative Christian stations based in Columbus, Ohio. Radio U has four translators in Ohio as well as two outlets in California. You have to listen pretty closely to the lyrics to even realize they're playing Christian rock....the song I'm listening to right now is a dead-on impersonation of the Killers. Specialty shows also delve into rap, electronica and hardcore/metal.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

WWTC

Minneapolis, Minnesota's WWTC (WW Twin Cities) was the flagship station of the Radio Aahs Network which lasted from 1990 to 1998. Radio Aahs programming was aimed at children under 12 and at it's peak had 29 stations running the format. Disney began working with WWTC as a marketing partner and then went off and launched their own childrens station in Minneapolis (KDIZ) as a direct competitor. This led to a multi-million dollar lawsuit which Radio Aahs won against Disney in 2002.

WWTC is now a Talk station "AM 1280 The Patriot."

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Wine Cork

WINE AM is licensed to Brookfield, Connecticut. WINE FM is now Rock station "i95" WRKI.

920 AM KORK was licensed to Las Vegas, Nevada and is now a Sports station KRLV.

KHOM

KHOM began in 1989 as an Oldies station until 1994 when it flipped to Top 40 as Mix 104.1. A slew of format and call letter changes occurred over the next decade including Classic Rock as KFXN "The Fox", adult-leaning Top 40 KSTE "KISS FM", Gospel KHEV "Hallelujah 104.1." and, for the next few minutes, KYRK "The Rock of New Orleans." KHOM was licensed to Houma, Louisiana.

Monday, January 26, 2009

KAFY

A nice piece of psychedelia from KAFY in Bakersfield, California. They were a top rated Rock station in the 1960s that would later be bought by musician Buck Owens, flipped to Country, and moved up the dial to 800 AM.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

WRUW


WRUW is the student-run radio station from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Sunday Sticker - KGSG

KGSG was a Southern Gospel station licensed to Pasco, Washington.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

CFTR




Toronto's CHFI 1540 AM was a Beautiful Music station beginning in the early 1960s. By 1971 they had moved down the dial to 680 AM and changed their call letters to CFTR--a tribute to Ted Rogers, Sr., a Canadian radio pioneer. CFTR was a legendary Top 40 station throughout most of the 70s and 80s before switching to all News in 1993.

KQNG

KQNG is a combo CHR on FM and News/Talk on AM. Both are licensed to Lihue on the island of Kauai in Hawaii which is also where the 1976 version of King Kong was filmed. Any idea what the phrase at the top of the sticker translates to?

WKZO

WKZO is a News/Talk station from Kalamazoo, Michigan. It is one of 35 stations in the Detroit Tigers Radio Network. This particular Tigers logo was in use from 1961 to 1993 and gets weirder the more you look at it.....something about those crazy eyes. Click on the sticker for a closer look. WKZO-TV changed calls to WWMT in 1985.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Radio Corax

Radio Corax is a non-commercial, volunteer-run station broadcasting in 11 different languages from Halle, Germany. Ich unterstutze translates to "I support." The mascot is a corax which is the Latin species name of the common raven as well as the name of a mythical human/bird hybrid or wereraven.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

WOBM


WHLW came on the air in 1970 at 1170 AM. In 1981 they became WOBM-AM and in 1989 they moved to 1160 AM. WOBM is licensed to Lakewood Township, New Jersey.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

WQBE

WQBE was located at 950 AM in Charleston, West Virginia. In 2001 the News/Talk station switched call letters to WVTS although there is still a co-owned WQBE FM running a Country format. The Charleston Rockets were a semi-pro team that played in the Continental Football League starting in the mid 1960s.