Radio in the Movies #2 - "FM"

I watched a beat-up VHS copy of the movie “FM” yesterday. It’s about Los Angeles rock station QSKY who are doing great in the ratings but aren’t making enough money. Enter the weasly new sales manager Regis Lamar who tries to get program director Jeff Dugan to air commercials for the United States Army. Dugan doesn’t think the spots fit the style of the station and ends up quitting or getting fired (I forget) at which point the other DJs “go on strike” and barricade themselves in the QSKY building, start a riot, fend off police and eventually triumph over management (with a little help from the owner.) There are various subplots involving the ensemble cast of DJs including the horny Eric Swan (Martin Mull) and "Mother" (Eileen Brennan) the old female jock who's bored with her job and leaves, then returns without explanation.
The movie is pretty terrible and steeped in a druggy, late-70s, post-hippie, Los Angeles haze. Linda Ronstadt and Jimmy Buffett appear in extended live concert scenes. Tom Petty, looking almost exactly the same as he does today, i.e., old, makes an in-studio appearance and REO Speedwagon is seen at a Tower Records meet and greet. It’s odd to see the plot of “us against The Man” revolve around boring, corporate-rock dinosaurs like the Eagles, Bob Seger, Foreigner and the Doobie Brothers which make up the station’s playlist. (The kind of music that punk rose up against a year or two earlier.)
The weirdly call-lettered QSKY is, of course, a fictional radio station. (They’re even located at “7-11 on your FM dial.” Huh?!) I’m not sure why they didn’t just go with KSKY or any other more believable set of calls. QSKY’s main competition in the movie is the more regularly-named KLAX.
I have a sticker from KLAX which is an actual Spanish language station in Los Angeles but I stuck it to some poster board years ago. Here's a couple from KSKY instead...

KSKY is a conservative News/Talk station in Dallas, Texas and licensed to Balch Springs, TX.

This is from when they carried a Christian format which lasted from 1963 until 2004.

WILDs

Top-40 WWYL from Binghamton, New York (licensed to Chenango Bridge, NY)

KTFM was a Rhythmic Top-40 in San Antonio, Texas. KTFM moved to 94.1 FM and became a Hot Adult Contemporary station. 102.7 FM is now Southern Gospel KTXJ.

CKEY was an Rhythmic Top-40 station in Buffalo, New York and licensed to Niagara Falls, Ontario. "Wild 101" existed from 2002-2007 and is now a CHR outlet known as "Z101" while maintaining the CKEY calls.

WISM

WISM was a long-time Top 40 station in Madison, Wisconsin. "Wizz-um" was on the air from the 1950s all the way to 1983 when they became WTDY. 1480 AM is currently WLMV, "La Movida Radio" carrying a Spanish language format.

WBEL

WBEL was an Adult Standards station licensed to Beloit, Wisconsin. Somewhere along the way 1380 AM changed their COL to South Beloit, Illinois. They are currently WTJK, an ESPN Radio affiliate.

KNCT

KNCT is a non-commercial Easy Listening station licensed to Central Texas College in Killeen, TX.

KCLQ

KCLQ "107.9 The Coyote" is a Country music station licensed to Lebanon, Missouri.

Bills vs Dolphins

After the Sabres big win over Carolina last night, surely it would be too much to ask for a Bills win this afternoon against the hated Dolphins. The Bills are having a pathetic season and stand at 3-7. They fired their head coach a couple weeks ago and are having major problems hanging with teams in the 4th quarter. It'll be the 88th time these two teams have played in the regular season.

WQAM is a Sports Talk station in Miami, Florida. They claim to be that state's first radio station going on the air in 1921. In the 1960s they carried a hugely popular Top-40 format then switched to Country in 1980. The change to Sports came in 1992. WQAM (We're Quality AM Radio) is the flagship station of the Miami Dolphins.

UPDATE: The Bills shock the Dolphins 31-14!! Rian Lindell kicked a 56 yard field goal to break a 14-14 tie with under 4 minutes to go in the game. Then the Bills made a couple interceptions and piled on two more touchdowns at the end to squish the fish!


Ian in front of The Ralph.

Hurricane Season Is Over - WGR/WRBZ

We're driving to western New York this morning for the Buffalo Sabres game against the Carolina Hurricanes. First stop though is Dave & Adam's store in Williamsville to pick up a couple of Sabres jerseys. They're about 40 bucks cheaper than buying them at the arena. It's a six and a half hour trip but the weather is clear so it should be a good drive.

 

550 AM WGR carries an all-sports format and is the flagship station of the Buffalo Sabres. 

WRBZ was a Sports Talk station in Raleigh, North Carolina. They were formerly the flagship station of the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team.

UPDATE: SABRES WIN 5-1!!

After two periods the Sabres trailed 1-0 then exploded for 5 unanswered goals.

Ian shows off his gear.

National Electric Guitar Day

Today is National Electric Guitar Day. It's also, not-so-coincidentally, Jimi Hendrix's birthday.

WXKE is a Classic Rock station in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. They signed on in 1976 as "Album 104" and was the rock station of choice when I lived in west central Ohio. The sticker shows the distinctive Flying V guitar which I thought came about in the 1980s with people like Zakk Wylde and the Scorpions but which actually dates back to 1958 and the first model manufactured by Gibson. Here's Hendrix himself playing a Flying V.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Voice of Turkey is the external radio service of TRT--Turkish Radio and Television. They've been broadcasting internationally via shortwave since the 1930s. Cultural, music and news programming are heard in over 25 different languages.

Listening live while making this post the voice of turkey was heard to say "Gobble gobble. I'm delicious with cranberry sauce. Gobble gobble." I'm just guessing, though. The static was pretty heavy.

Crossroads of America

The Interstate 70/I-75 interchange was officially completed this week. The massive $145 million project took seven years to finish. 70 and 75 are two of the longest interstates in the United States; I-75 runs from Michigan to Florida and I-70 from Maryland to Utah. They meet just north of Dayton, Ohio about 6 miles from my house. The old interchange was a 1950s-style cloverleaf where the merging of exiting and entering traffic in the same short lane was a dangerous pain in the ass. This picture isn't the actual interchange but gives you a good idea what it used to look like:


Here's a south-facing view of what it looks like now:

The project also included 16 new bridges, a railroad overpass, and the rebuilding of eight ramps. For the most part, traffic never stopped flowing regularly. There was only one time I got caught up in the construction; coming back from the Ohio State Fair around midnight they shut westbound I-70 down completely for 15 minutes. We just turned off the truck and waited it out.

This 1960s(?)-era WING AM sticker shows you just how proud we are of being "The Crossroads of America." Referring to Dayton as a "Megacity" seems like a bit of an overstatement though.

Dayton's first radio station, 1410 WING AM began as WXAX in 1921. They were a legendary Top-40 station in the 50s, 60s and 70s known as "High Flying WING AM." They are currently an ESPN radio affiliate. The WING call letters are a reference to Dayton's most famous citizens Wilbur and Orville Wright, the inventors of the world's first successful airplane.

WHFC

WHFC is the student and community volunteer-run station from Harford Community College in Bel Air, Maryland. Their signal reaches the Baltimore area as well as central Maryland and part of Pennsylvania. WHFC carries a Variety/block programming format including Jazz, Classical, Blues, Celtic, Folk and "Golden Age" radio shows like The Lone Ranger and Dragnet.

WKFR

WKFR (W Kalamazoo FM Radio) is a Contemporary Hit Radio station licensed to Battle Creek, Michigan. They began in 1963 at 96.5 FM as WELL-FM. A year later they moved to 103.3 FM with a Beautiful Music format but by the late 1970s switched to Adult Contemporary. In 1981 they flipped to their current CHR format.

Sunday Sticker - KHCB AM

KHCB AM is a Religious Teaching station in Houston, Texas. The AM side of KHCB broadcasts programming in Spanish, Chinese and, as you can see by this sticker, Vietnamese. Houston is home to the third largest Vietnamese-American population in the United States after Los Angeles and San Francisco. KHCB AM is licensed to League City, TX. Anybody know what the wording translates to? Stickers from KHCB FM and a translator can be seen here.

KMYZ

KMYZ is a Modern Rock station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They went on the air in 1985 as a Classic Rock station, flipped to CHR then back to straight-ahead Rock before going Alternative in 1995. "Z104.5 The Edge" is licensed to Pryor, Oklahoma.

WMNI

WMNI (after founder William R MNIch) is an Adult Standards station in Columbus, Ohio. They went on the air in 1958 and carried a Country format for many years.

CILK

CILK is an Adult Contemporary station from Kelowna, British Columbia. This sticker dates back to 1985 when Silk FM's format leaned more to Soft AC. 

WNIU / WNIJ

WNIU is a Classical music station licensed to Rockford, Illinois. They are a public service of (W) Northern Illinois University and began broadcasting in 1954. WNIU is currently located at 90.5 FM having moved from 89.5 FM in 1998.

Sister station WNIJ is licensed to Dekalb, IL and makes up one fifth of the Northern Public Radio network.  They carry News/Talk programming from NPR along with some music shows.

Radio in the Movies #1 - "Pirate Radio"

I watched the movie "Pirate Radio" this afternoon. It's directed by Richard Curtis who also wrote "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill." British radio in the 1960s was completely controlled by the government which refused to air rock music. This spawned a group of illegal ship-based broadcasters programming popular music from international waters, the most famous of which was Radio Caroline (generically named Radio Rock in the movie.) The ensemble cast was underwhelming even with Philip Seymour Hoffman playing the lone American DJ called The Count. Kenneth Branaugh's performance as a government suit bent on outlawing pirate radio is absurdly over-the-top and a subplot about a character named Carl finding his father is just lame. Sometimes it seemed like Curtis wrote the screenplay based on songs used on the soundtrack (Leonard Cohen's "So Long Marianne" fit just a little too perfectly into the script.) Given the subject matter I really wanted to like this film but didn't. Apparently "Pirate Radio" came out in Britain last spring under the title "The Boat That Rocked" and totally bombed at the box office. They trimmed 20 minutes for the American release but no amount of cutting can save this turkey.

KQLZ "Pirate Radio 100.3 FM" was a "Rock 40" station in Los Angeles, California from 1989 to 1993. They aired a mix of pop hits and rock songs claiming to play everything from Madonna to Metallica to Milli Vanilli. The station was masterminded by Scott Shannon who found great success in the 1980s with Z100 WHTZ in New York City. Unfortunately, the ratings never materialized, Shannon was fired in 1991 and KQLZ is now known as one of the most high profile failures in the history of radio.

Here's a t-shirt I received from Radio Caroline who were, amazingly, still broadcasting in 1998.

Amusing Call Letters #4 - WLSD

On this date in 1938 Albert Hofmann first synthesized the drug LSD at his lab in Switzerland. Hofmann discovered LSD's psychedelic properties when he accidentally ingested some in 1943. In the 1950s the Central Intelligence Agency began a research program which studied the effects of LSD (commonly known as acid) on their own employees, the military, the mentally ill and other members of the general public usually without their knowledge. Code named Project MKULTRA, the experiments weren't publically known until the mid-1970s. Possession of LSD was banned in 1968 which didn't stop the hippies from tripping on the brown acid a year later at Woodstock.

WLSD FM hit the air in 1975 with a Beautiful Music format. 93.5 is currently the Country music station WAXM. WLSD (Where Love Sounds Different) AM went on the air in 1953 and currently carries a Sothern Gospel Religious format. Both stations are licensed to Big Stone Gap, Virginia.