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 a magnet and stickers from 106.9 FM WWSU, 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.

College Radio Week - WHRW

WHRW (W Harpur Radio Workshop) is the student-run station at the State University of New York at Binghamton. At the time of the station's inception the school was known as Harpur College, an offshoot of Syracuse University. In 1961 a group of students built their own closed-circuit radio station known as WRAF which broadcast to two residence halls on campus. By 1966 they had changed calls to WHRW and moved to 90.5 FM with a transmitting power of 10 watts. While the carrier-current station had a no rock and roll policy, WHRW embraced a format-free broadcast schedule as well as left-leaning coverage of news and cultural events. As evidenced by the above sticker, SUNY-Binghamton's WHRW has maintained a proud freeform tradition for over 40 years.

College Radio Week - WUPX

91.5 FM WUPX (W Upper Peninsula Radio X) is the campus radio station for Northern Michigan University in Marquette. They began on the AM dial in 1970 as WBKX and later became a cable-only station. The switch to FM and their current call letters finally came in 1993. "The Pulse of the U.P." runs a freeform/variety format including Indie, Noise, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Metal and Classical among other other genres. Over 100 student volunteers keep WUPX on the air around the clock throughout the school term. A forthcoming automation system will allow them to operate 24-7 during summer and winter breaks.

College Radio Week - KTUH

KTUH is a student-run station broadcasting from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. They were that state's first non-commercial FM station and celebrated their 40th anniversary this past July. KTUH's coverage area has expanded in recent years with the addition of two translators at 89.9 and 91.3 FM.

The bottom sticker isn't really this ugly. The call letters and background have a nice chrome/mirrored look which my scanner is unable to pick up very well.
Get your own KTUH decal here.

College Radio Week - KCPR

KCPR (K Cal Poly Radio) is a volunteer-run, freeform station from the campus at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. KCPR's 2000-watt signal covers about a 50 mile radius around SLO.
This site has some great station pictures from the mid-1970s, about seven years after KCPR first went on the air. It also mentions the beginnings of a certain curly-haired, accordion-playing parody artist who got his start at the station.

College Radio Week - KMNR

Now that Labor Day has come and gone, virtually every college student in the country has made their way back to campus to begin Fall classes. In this back-to-school spirit I've decided to post nothing but college radio stickers for the next seven days. 

We'll begin with 89.7 FM KMNR from the University of Missouri-Rolla (now known as the Missouri University of Science and Technology.) KMNR began broadcasting in 1964 as KMSM before switching to their current call letters in the early 1970s. The 1850-watt free form station is staffed entirely by students. KMNR's brilliant product parody decals are some of the best radio stickers in existence.

 

ESPN Turns 30

ESPN (which used to stand for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) originally went on the air on this date in 1979. Since then, the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" has expanded into multiple cable channels, a magazine and a radio network while becoming the dominant network for sports on television. ESPN Radio was launched in 1992 and has hundreds of affiliate stations that use some or all of ESPN's programming.

KXTK serves the San Luis Obispo area and is licensed to Arroyo Grande, California.