Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Fans

KKFN "AM 950 The Fan" was a Sports station in Denver, Colorado from 1994 til 2008. They were the flagship station of the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche. AM 950 is currently "Cruisin' Oldies" KRWZ.


WBNS is a Sports station and ESPN Radio affiliate from Columbus, Ohio. They are the flagship station of the Ohio State Buckeyes radio network. "1460 The Fan" is one of five remaining stations in the United States to broadcast from a diamond-shaped Blaw-Knox tower.

"1480 The Fan" WRDW was a (what else?!) Sports station licensed to Augusta, Georgia. 1480 AM is currently a Spanish broadcaster known as "¡El Puente!"

Saturday, October 15, 2011

KDKB


KDKB is a Rock station licensed to Mesa, Arizona. A former WEBN employee and his friend used some trust fund money to buy the station and flipped it from Easy Listening to freeform rock in 1971. They took much of the staff of another early Rock station in Phoenix--KCAC--and quickly overtook their competition, helped by simulcasting the signal on an AM sister station as many radios at the time couldn't tune in FM. KDKB celebrated their 40th anniversary this past August.



Friday, October 14, 2011

WNMU

WNMU is a National Public Radio affiliate owned by Northern Michigan University in Marquette. Programming is made up largely of Jazz and Classical music along with NPR staples Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

WRKR


WRKR is a Rock station licensed to Portage, Michigan.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

WLLR

WLLR is a Country station licensed to Davenport, Iowa.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

College Radio Day - KDVS


Today is the first College Radio Day which is being celebrated by more than 350 college and high school stations across the United States and Canada (and Jamaica!) The goal of College Radio Day is to "harness the combined listenership of hundreds of thousands of college radio listeners throughout North America and to celebrate the important contribution of college radio to America's airwaves by uniting for this one day."




KDVS is one of the participating stations in this year's College Radio Day. They're a Freeform station broadcasting from the University of California, Davis. KDVS has been a seemingly endless source of wonderfully oddball stickers over the years, many of them featuring the turntable-brained robot head which must be the station mascot.  Many more KDVS stickers can be seen here.

Monday, October 10, 2011

KRQR





KRQR was a Rock station in San Francisco, California from 1982 to 1993. 97.3 FM is currently an Adult Top-40 outlet "Alice @97.3" KLLC.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

WFVA

WFVA is an Adult Standards station from (W) Fredericksburg, VirginiA.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

WACF

WACF was a Variety Rock station licensed to Young Harris, Georgia. Due to the poor economy and "owing to the licensee’s financial concerns,” the station went silent last April. A new owner was found and this past August they were apparently up and running and playing older country music although an official station website could not be found.

Friday, October 7, 2011

The KGB Chicken

In 1974 a young Ted Giannoulas was hired by KGB-FM in San Diego to wear a chicken suit and give out Easter eggs at a local zoo. Over 35 years later, The Famous Chicken (aka The San Diego Chicken) is still entertaining crowds and is probably the best known and best loved mascot in sports history.

After the original gig at the zoo was up, Giannoulas offered to attend San Diego Padre games dressed in the chicken suit as an ambassador for the station. KGB agreed and for five years he dutifully attended ballgames along with various station events as The KGB Chicken.

A fallout between KGB and Giannoulas resulted in his firing and the station went to court to block him from working in a chicken costume. The California Supreme Court ruled in Giannoulas' favor and he was free to work as he pleased. In 1979, The San Diego Chicken was triumphantly hatched in front of 47,000 people at Jack Murphy Stadium complete with police escort.



The Famous Chicken has now made over 17,000 appearances and performed at over 8,500 sporting events (including more than 520 San Diego Padre games in a row.) I saw his antics myself at a Buffalo Bisons/Indianapolis Indians game a few years ago. Here he is questioning an umpire's vision.










KGB (K George Bowles--station manager of KGB-AM from 1928 to 1931) is a Classic Rock station licensed to San Diego, California. They've carried a Rock format since the early 1970s.

Around the time the KGB Chicken first started there was also a KGB-AM. A 1974 Broadcasting Yearbook lists their format as "Contemporary" although when they were known as "13K" they were Top-40. 1360 AM is currently "Xtra Sports" KLSD.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

KRVL




KRVL was a Texas Country station licensed to KeRrViLle, Texas. They currently carry a Classic Rock format known as Rev-FM.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

KKRW


KKRW "93.7 The Arrow" was a Classic Hits/Classic Rock station in Houston, Texas from 1993 to 2013.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Bills vs Bengals / WEBN

On Sunday we headed down to Cincinnati to watch the Buffalo Bills play the Cincinnati Bengals. Last year Buffalo was losing by three touchdowns but came back to win in a crazy 49-31 victory. This time the Bills weren't so lucky as they lost 23-20 on a gut-wrenching field goal as time expired. Despite the loss, it was a beautiful day for football and you couldn't ask for a closer game.

A shot of WEBN's remote truck located on the plaza outside Paul Brown Stadium. Unfortunately the guy manning the WEBN tent had zero promotional stuff (any stickers given away would have been plastered all over the stadium.)

WEBN handed out these Mike Brown Bags a few years ago complete with eyeholes to cut out and wear over your head in shame. Mike Brown is one of the worst owners in all of professional sports and any success the Bengals enjoy come in spite of his colossally idiotic decisions.



WEBN has been a Rock station in Cincinnati, Ohio since 1967.

Monday, October 3, 2011

KBST

"K-Best 95" KBST is a Country station licensed to Big Spring, Texas.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

WBIM




WBIM is a non-commercial, campus radio station owned by Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. According to the video below, they are the only 100% student-run radio station in the state.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Minster Oktoberfest

Today we traveled about an hour north of Dayton to the small town of Minster for their annual Oktoberfest. Minster is a town of about 3,000 people but balloons to over 80,000 for this three day beer guzzling contest event. After getting our jug of beer (most people buy their brew in half-gallon milk containers) we bought some Alpine-style hats and a few pins. We saw many of these hats decorated with dozens of buttons and extravagant feathers. I now have a reason to buy souvenir pins from places I travel and I plan on covering my silly hat with them.

The next day I remembered that a radio station had sent me some pins which would be perfect for my new headgear. (Click the picture below to see them better.)

DRS-3 is a pop music station from Zürich, Switzerland. While the biggest and best known Oktoberfest in the world is in Munich, Germany, Zürich has a large one too.