Radio Name Game - Alice

People-branded radio stations have been around since at least the 1960s when unlicensed pirates Radio Caroline and Radio Jackie broadcast from the waters around England and Radio Veronica anchored off the Dutch coast. However, the vast majority of "name stations" have popped up in the last decade after the success of the Jack FM "playing what we want" format starting around 2002. For the next two weeks or so I'll be featuring stickers from every different "name station" that I have a decal from. We'll start with Alice which first started appearing in the mid-1990s and all seem(ed) to use the same typeface and "@" signs.

WALC "Alice@104.1" was a Modern Adult Contemporary station in St. Louis, Missouri circa 1997. They are currently an Urban Contemporary station "Hot 104.1" WHHL.

"Alice@97.3" KLLC is a Hot Adult Contemporary station in San Francisco, California.

"Alice@107.7" KLAL is a Top-40 station licensed to Wrightsville, Arkansas.

Radio Sticker of the Day Mailbag - Galaxie 95.3

A reader of this blog from France sent me a nice selection of radio stickers today.  Thank you Stephane!  I'll be sending you some stickers in return soon.

According to Wikipedia, Galaxie 95.3 is the first French radio station entirely dedicated to Electronic music including Dance, Techno and House.  They went on the air in 1981 and are based in the city of Wattrelos in northern France near the Belgian border.

2XX

1377 AM 2XX was from Paraparaumu, New Zealand.  The station now broadcasts on FM and is part of the More FM network.

88 Acht

88 Acht broadcasts from Berlin, Germany.

WOKE

"Wonderful WOKE" was a little bit of everything during its time on the air in Charleston, South Carolina;  Beautiful Music, Oldies, News, Weather, Religious Programs, Opera, Poetry Readings, Sports etc.  The owner and GM was Harry C. Weaver who also did triple on-air duty under the aliases Buck Clayton and Tennessee Weaver as well as his own name.  From all accounts the station seemed to be stuck in time and probably sounded about the same in 1964 as it did when they signed off the air 30 years later.

WSRZ

The 1981 Broadcasting Yearbook lists Sarasota Florida's WSRZ as having an "Adult Rock/Jazz" format.  Wikipedia says they were a hybrid Album Oriented Rock/Contemporary Hit Radio station with Jazz on the side.  By 1983 they had changed their calls to WAVE and by the late 80s they dropped the Rock completely and were a Smooth Jazz station as WHVE.  102.5 FM is currently WHPT, branded as "The Bone," and flipped from Classic Rock to Hot Talk (aka male-oriented talk) this past April.

WORQ

"Q90 FM" WORQ is a Contemporary Christian station from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

WKRR

"Rock 92" WKRR is a Classic Rock station licensed to Ashboro, North Carolina.

WEHM

WEHM (W East HaMpton) is an Adult Album Alternative station licensed to Manorville, New York on eastern Long Island.  WEHM now broadcasts at 92.9 FM as well as 96.9 FM licensed to East Hampton, NY.  Among the first owners of the station when they signed on in 1993 were Billy Joel and his then-wife Christie Brinkley.

WADK

1540 AM WADK is a News/Talk station in Newport, Rhode Island.  They went on the air in 1948 as WRJM and became WADK in 1953--the calls stand for (W)AquiDnecK which is the largest of over thirty islands in Narragansett Bay.

KRVS

KRVS is a 100,000-watt, listener-supported, non-commercial station airing from the heart of Acadiana in Lafayette, Louisiana.  They play a variety of ethnic Louisiana music including Zydeco, Cajun, Blues, Swamp Pop and Jazz.  The call letters stand for (K)Radio Voice of Southeastern (the University of Southeastern Louisiana were the owners of the station before changing their name to The University of Louisiana at Lafayette.)  KRVS also kinda sounds like ecrivisse which means crawfish in Cajun French.  A 90.5 FM translator in Lake Charles was shut down by a religious broadcaster in 2002, an interesting tale that you can read about here.

Hawaii Public Radio

Hawaii Public Radio is a network of six stations and two translators airing non-commercial programming from National Public Radio, Public Radio International and American Public Media.  88.1 KHPR in Honolulu was the original station in the network and went on the air in 1981.  Other stations include 89.3 KIPO - Honolulu, 90.7 KKUA - Wailuku and 91.1 KANO - Hilo.

KDJM

"Jammin' 92.5" was an Urban Oldies station in Denver, Colorado from 1999 to 2005.  The format, usually referred to as "Jammin' Oldies," was a mix of Disco, R&B and Classic Soul.  KDJM was licensed to Broomfield, CO and is currently a Country station KWOF "The Wolf."

Actual Sticker Sighting - Opie & Anthony

I saw two of these stickers on a semi-truck while driving to Cincinnati yesterday.

Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show on XM Satellite Radio (now Sirius XM.)  The duo began together on terrestrial radio at WBAB in Babylon, New York before official becoming O&A at WAAF in Boston, Massachusetts.  After getting fired from WAAF they began to get syndicated to about 20 stations nationwide while based at WNEW in New York City before heading to XM in 2004.  WOW stands for Whip 'em Out Wednesdays which encouraged women to show their breasts to anyone with a WOW sign or sticker.  Makes you wonder how many times that trucker got an eyeful.

CFBR

CFBR "100.3 The Bear" is an Active Rock station in Edmonton, Alberta.

Radio 10 Gold

Radio 10 Gold is an Oldies station broadcasting from Hilversum, The Netherlands.

Radio Nostalgie

Radio Nostalgie is a network of stations throughout France that plays Oldies mainly from the 1960s through the 1980s.  They are based in Paris but began in the city of Lyon in 1983.  About 80% of the music heard on Radio Nostalgie is French.

WMAJ

According to the 1975 Broadcasting Yearbook, WMAJ was a "Contemporary" station licensed to State College, Pennsylvania.  1450 AM is currently WQWK an ESPN Radio affiliate.

Attack of the Killer B104s

 "B104" CHBZ is a Country station licensed to Cranbrook, British Columbia.

"B104" WAEB (W Allentown Easton, Bethlehem) has been a Top-40 station in Allentown, Pennsylvania since 1991.

"B104" WBSB was a Top-40 station in Baltimore, Maryland from 1980 to 1992.  104.3 FM is currently CHR "Z104.3" WZFT.