WANN

WANN was a pioneering Rhythm & Blues station from Annapolis, Maryland. After working as a radio officer in World War II, Morris Blum started WANN in January, 1947. The station set out broadcasting Big Band music along with Sports and News but a year later Blum decided to start playing gospel and rhythm & blues, known at that time as “race music.” Blum had observed African-Americans serving alongside whites in the Navy and was “completely colorblind at a time when it was not popular to support civil rights causes,” according to a longtime friend. The station sponsored a weekend "Bandstand at the Beach" at Carr's Beach, a segregated beach for African-Americans where James Brown and Ella Fitzgerald performed. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Blum allowed demonstrators to use WANN to vent their outrage which helped avert rioting in Annapolis. WANN was an influential black music powerhouse for almost 50 years before switching to Country in 1992. Morris Blum sold the station in 1998 and passed away in 2005 at the age of 95.

WAFL

"Eagle 97.7" WAFL is a Hot Adult contemporary station licensed to Milford, Delaware. The top sticker is from a previous Country format that they had in the early 1980s.

Happy Mother's Day!

KMOM was a Classic Rock station in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Mom started rocking in 1999 but passed away from Led Zeppelin poisoning in 2004. An autopsy also revealed heart abnormalities due to a diet consisting exclusively of Cream, Hot Tuna, Humble Pie, Meatloaf and April Wine. KMOM was licensed to Fountain, Colorado.

Mystery sticker #8

"Q106" is such a generic slogan for a station. There must be two dozen past and present Q106s in the history of radio....and this is one of them. If you have any call letter or location information about this sticker post a comment or send me an email.

KOKE

On this date in 1886 a pharmacist from Atlanta first sold Coca-Cola whose main ingredients were caffeine and cocaine. At the time he claimed it was a "patent medicine" and cured such ailments as headaches, impotence and morphine addiction. The cocaine was removed starting in 1904 but to this day Coca-Cola uses cocaine-free coco leaf extract as an ingredient. A company in New Jersey imports coco leaves from Peru, extracts the cocaine (which it sells to a Mallinckrodt, the only company in the U.S. licensed to purify cocaine for medical use) and sells the coca flavoring agent to Coca-Cola.


KOKE was a Country music station from Austin, Texas. In 1973 they developed an experimental format called "Progressive Country" which included everyone from Willie Nelson to Janis Joplin to the Rolling Stones. It earned a "Most Innovative Station" award from Billboard magazine in 1974 but struggled to earn ratings despite a fiercely loyal audience. By 1977 they had moved toward a more mainstream format billed as "Sterling Country."

KWTS

91.1 FM KWTS (K West Texas State) is an Alternative Rock station broadcasting from the campus of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, TX.  The 6,000-watt station went on the air in 1972.

World Accordion Day

On this date in 1829 the accordion received its patent. To celebrate the 180th birthday of this instrument, the Confederation Internationale des Accordéonistes mark May 6th as World Accordion Day.
I find the accordion interesting to watch being played but hard on the ears. In fact, the accordion is the main instrument for two of the most annoying musical genres ever created--Polka and Tejano (not to mention "Weird Al" Yankovic.) Having said that, If I'm flipping through channels and land on a PBS rerun of Myron Floren on the Lawrence Welk show I'm gonna watch it. The sound might be down but I'm watching (and the clothes on that show were so horrendously awful you can't not watch.) There's something oddly entertaining about the mini keyboard and the dozens of small buttons and the squeezing of the bellows. But that sound.......yech.
KRTX was a Tejano station in Houston, Texas. In December, 2008 they switched to a Spanish Contemporary Christian format. Tejano 980 was licensed to Rosenburg, Texas.

WNJO

WNJO was an Oldies station in central New Jersey that lasted from 1998 to 2001. They focused mainly on late-1950s to mid-1960s songs with an occasional tune from the 1970s. By the fall of 2001 they had switched to a Classic Hits format as WTHK "The Hawk." The station was revived in 2006 as a commercial-free internet station at wnjofm.com. WNJO was licensed to Trenton, New Jersey.

KLEM

1410 AM KLEM is a Soft Adult Contemporary station licensed to (K) LE Mars, Iowa. They are now also heard on 96.9 FM via translator station K245AM.

Sunday Sticker - KCTA

KCTA (Know Christ The Answer) is a daytime-only Religious Teaching/Christian Talk station licensed to Corpus Christi, Texas.

Actual sticker sighting #1 - WJQK

You rarely see radio stickers on car bumpers or windows anymore. There are three main reasons I can think of for this:1. People don't stick anything on their cars as much as they used to. (This could easily be untrue. I have seen an awful lot of Calvins peeing on Chevy logos and people telling me to "Fear This" and Dale Earnhardt logos with angel wings. Maybe I just live near a lot of rednecks.)
2. Nobody is so passionate about a radio station anymore that they're willing to essentially place an ad for them on their cars.
3. Stations don't have stickers to give away. I talked briefly to an employee of WSHZ Star 108 in Holland, Michigan today. He said that their station no longer had stickers because people tend to stick 'em where they're not supposed to (stop signs, postal boxes, public property etc.) He was doing a remote at the Tulip Festival in Holland and was nice enough to give me a sheet of plastic banner with the station logo on it though.

Anyway....I've decided to make a post anytime that I see a radio sticker on a vehicle (assuming I have the decal in my collection.) Local stations are exempt because otherwise this "actual sightings" series would just be a bunch of Dayton radio stickers.

Driving from Holland, Michigan towards Grand Rapids today I saw this sticker from JQ99 FM.

WJQK is a Contemporary Christian station licensed to Zeeland, Michigan.

Market #1s - Texarkana - KKYR

102.5 KKYR is a Country music station licensed to Texarkana, Texas.  They are known as "Kicker 102.5" and were #1 (easily) in the most recent listener ratings that I could find for that market.

KMUW

89.1 FM KMUW is a public radio station operated by Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.  Their call letters come from the original name of the school - (K) Municipal University of Wichita.  KMUW was the first non-commercial station in the state having gone on the air in April 1949.

WDOW

WDOW was a Contemporary Christian(?) station licensed to (W) DOWagiac, Michigan. In March, 2011 the FCC cancelled their license and deleted the call letters from their database.

Amusing Call Letters #2 - WSEX

In 1983 the FCC reversed a decision that allowed Chicago's WTCO to change their call letters to WSEX. They also switched from Country to a "Sensual Contemporary" format using the slogan "Love Songs & More." According to an interview with the Operations Manager at the time, the station never used the word "sex" on the air and pronounced each letter of the calls individually. He also said they wouldn't even play "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye. In 1986 they flipped to a Contemporary Hit format while keeping the call letters. "Top 10 Rad1o" was a unique spin on CHR in that they only played songs that reached the top 10 on the Billboard charts. WSEX was licensed to Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Market #1s - Boston - WXKS

WXKS began in 1979 as a Disco station before morphing into Urban Contemporary and eventually becoming one of the most influential mainstream Contemporary Hit stations in the country. They were #1 in the latest listener ratings for Boston, helped by morning DJ Matt Siegel who has been with the station for over 27 years.  Kiss 108 is licensed to Medford, Massachusetts.

Sunday Sticker - KCNW

KCNW (Kansas City's NeWs--referring to a previous News format) is a Religious Teaching station in Kansas City, Missouri. They are one of 18 satellite-fed stations in the Wilkins Communications Network. KCNW is licensed to Fairway, Kansas.

WTRY

WTRY is a Classic Hits station licensed to Rotterdam, New York. Around the time the bottom sticker came out they had an Oldies format concentrating on music from the 1960s. The top decal dates to around 1984 when the Albany-Colonie A's, a Double-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics, existed and presumably were broadcast on WTRY.

WSHL

WSHL (WStoneHiLl) is an Alternative Rock station operating from Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. They've been on the air since January, 1974.

KSIQ

KSIQ was a Top-40 station licensed to Brawley, California. In the early 80s they were known as SI-96 (pronounced "See 96" as in the Spanish for "Yes 96") but changed to "Q96" in 1983. The station served the Imperial Valley of California as well as Mexicali, Mexico.  In 2010 they moved into the San Diego radio market and changed their city-of-license to Campo, CA.  They were sold in 2013 and are currently part of the Air1 Radio Network with call letters KYDO.