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KMET License Plate
- Thread starter semoochie
- Start date
That could have been issued in sequence. I was in traffic earlier this week behind a car with a standard-issue California plate but it just happened to be 8KHJ930.
I don't ever recall seeing call letters on standard-issue plates as a kid in the 60s and 70s, though---when California was six characters, three letters followed by three numbers from 1963-69 and the reverse from 1969-78. Never saw KFI, KGO, KHJ, KNX, KYA or KGB on plates here. I wonder if DMV blocked those sequences at that time. Very likely they blocked KGB, but because of the Russian intelligence agency.
The KHJ plate definitely looks like a standard-sequence combination rather than a vanity plate honoring a radio station, especially if Semoochie is in a state that routinely issues or issued 3x3 number/letter combinations. I recently saw a 3x3 plate here in Connecticut with WWV as its letter combination. Highly unlikely the driver knew anything about the longtime shortwave time-signal station!
I wonder if CIA and FBI are among the blocked letter combinations. I think everyone is aware of the gaps between ASR and AST, and FUJ and FUL, and why they exist, but if states weren't issuing KGB due to its association with the Soviet agency, then maybe our own agencies could have been banned from plates as well.
I know it's just a coincidence. That's what I find so intriguing about it. I'm sure I've seen "KGB" on standard issue plates before. I had heard of several things that weren't permitted in the past, among those, US government agencies and pronounceable indecent words, even "SEX".
In Texas I have seen the license plate "JFK 1962". My first thought was "Did they really issue "JFK 1963"?" If they did, someone has a collector's item.
I remember that about 1971, the California DMV had run out of letter/number combinations (i.e: "ABC 123"), so they started issuing a new series of plates - with 3 numbers followed by 3 letters (i.e: "123 ABC"). This was before "vanity" plates were offered. At the same time, BMW 2002s were becoming a hot commodity. Somehow, BMW owners learned that the plate sequence had gotten to "BMW" and they all ran down to the DMV to get new plates. So for a few years, you would see BMWs around town with plates like "763 BMW."
California license plates have a whole history to them. The yellow-on-black 1963s were three letters/three numbers ("ABC 123"), and were the last license plate that required drivers to turn in their old plates.
At first, because they were replacing the previous black-on-yellow 1956 plates, the 1963 yellow-on-blacks were distributed regionally with region-specific prefixes. There was a guy who lived near us in L.A. who got "AAA 000" for his '56 Bel Air. Up in Bishop, everyone got "FNT" or "FNZ" for prefixes. After the '56s were replaced, they then went sequential. We bought a car in L.A. in May of 1964 and got "OQC".
It was 1969 when the yellow-on-blue plates arrived and, for the first time, you didn't have to turn in the old plates. Every plate design since 1963 is now still legal and, for collector cars and classics, there's a Year of Manufacture rule that allows you to run period-correct plates. Seeing as how we've gone from 16 million people to almost 40 million in the 50 years since, that only makes sense.
The '69 yellow-on-blues were the first to be issued sequentially from the very beginning, as Llew notes---which does get people waiting for their initials and other meaningful letter combinations to come up. Some famous Californians didn't wait. Johnny Carson ordered 360 GUY as a personalized before it would come up in sequence and it was granted (360 as in degrees---"All-around guy"). James Garner asked for 853 OKG for the Rockford Files Firebird--August of 1953 was when Oklahoma's Garner came to Hollywood.
In 1978, that ran out, so the DMV went to the number 1 followed by three letters and three numbers "1ABC123" and simply goes up a number and starts over every four to six years, depending on how new car sales and migration patterns are going at the time.
I found the list of letter combinations the DMV won't issue no matter what (they reserve the right to refuse anything). CHP, CIA, are on the list, but DMV isn't. And neither are any California radio or TV call letters: https://www.governmentattic.org/7docs/CA-BannedPlates_2012.pdf
And if you're keeping score, I've seen 8L***** in traffic this month, so 8M is next. We're on pace to go to 9ABC123 in about two years. Which means around 2026-2027, the 1978 series of number-3 letters-3 numbers will have played out. Remarkably, there are online forums where this stuff gets discussed (more remarkably, I'm not on any of them)---and the prevailing wisdom is that the DMV will flip the sequence to 123ABC1 and get another 50 years---or more, if they're right that a lot of us will abandon car ownership for shared mobility.
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They have already done that with trucks in California. Around the time cars went with 1ABC123, trucks had a formula of 1A12345. They have already run the table with this setup that they have flipped it around to 12345A1.
Ok, now we're into California license plate trivia. The 63 plates were the first CA plates to use the letter Q. I remember that my Mom's '64 Malibu had a Q. The tail on the "Q" was initially too short, so from more than 10 feet away, they looked like "O." A couple of years later, they added a longer tail on the Q.
About '72, I had an old hoopty Plymouth with the plate "273 FOG." This was before I lived in Fog City (SF), so my friends thought it was funny, and analogized it to my mental state. Given that I smoked less pot than the rest of them, I thought this a bit ironic.
So THAT's why our Q looks different! We also have a fairly uncommon "4".
While we're on the topic of old California plates and their sequences---Quentin Tarantino, who meticulously re-created minute details of 1969 Los Angeles for "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood", which opened today, chose to use fictitious sequences for the otherwise realistic looking black plates. Instead of "ABC 123", the plates are "1AB 23C". No idea why he made that choice.
Maybe the original screenplay was "Once Upon A Time In Boston" and he forgot to change that detail! I'm pretty sure I've seen that sequence on Massachusetts plates.
It’s been pointed out to me that I misspoke. California drivers did not have to turn in their 1956 plates in 1963. You could keep them, just not on the vehicle.
A few years back on the east coast I saw a car with 89 WLS. It was a sporty car totally appropriate for the tag. Put a smile on my face.
Nah. The screenplay is his, he's an L.A. native and the whole idea was a re-creation of that specific time (summer, 1969) in that particular city (Los Angeles).
I'm guessing, given the obsessive attention he paid to storefronts, bus stop bench advertising and the like, that he either didn't want to deal with the DMV for usable plate sequences or that this is a subconscious way of telling us not to take the whole thing too seriously---that the superficial accuracy doesn't imply historical accuracy.
Has anyone noticed the increase of black license plates that resemble the 63-69 version being used on newer cars today? They appear to be personal types though. Also once 9ZZZ999 is issued, why don't they just go to 10AAA000. Make the font smaller or narrower to fit eight digits across the place, instead of seven. That would ensure a combination that would last a few hundred years once 99ZZZ999 is eventually reached. Pure speculation.
I also read somewhere that the older early 80's 1AAAZZZ series ended early and began the 2's with the issuance of the 1982 orange on white California sun plates, so many 1 combinations were supposedly unused after a certain letter.
It's amazing that it has taken over a half century to get from 1963 AAA000 to the 8 series as Michael noted he saw in traffic recently. You are talking many millions of possible combinations out there. 10x26x26x26x10x10x10, just in the 8's alone, minus the banned letter sequences.
Of course as many older cars are taken off the roads, you lose the older combinations.
An interesting site on this as well...
http://www.worldlicenseplates.com/usa/US_CAXX.html
I also read somewhere that the older early 80's 1AAAZZZ series ended early and began the 2's with the issuance of the 1982 orange on white California sun plates, so many 1 combinations were supposedly unused after a certain letter.
It's amazing that it has taken over a half century to get from 1963 AAA000 to the 8 series as Michael noted he saw in traffic recently. You are talking many millions of possible combinations out there. 10x26x26x26x10x10x10, just in the 8's alone, minus the banned letter sequences.
Of course as many older cars are taken off the roads, you lose the older combinations.
An interesting site on this as well...
http://www.worldlicenseplates.com/usa/US_CAXX.html
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Per "people who know" when we do get to 9ZZZ999, DMV will likely reverse sequence (as they did between the original 1963 yellow-on-black and 1969 yellow-on-blue, and then again in 1980 when they added the leading digit) and will start issuing new plates beginning with 000AAA1. There is also the possibility that they will both reverse and go to a leading letter, rather than number, which would start the next issue with A000AAA.
They still have a while to make the decision.
There are, however, existing restrictions of where "1" and "0" (the numbers) can appear in a sequence, so the DMV would not be able to start the sequences with "10" ... or even "11". These restrictions also affect the calculation of possible sequences since together or singly those digits are not used. Add in, too, the restrictions on certain three letter sets which have meanings that the DMV will not approve.
While your link in entertaining, the real data is at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_California
Indeed, the 1980-86 sequence ended with 1SWC999 but that was because when the first blue-on-reflective white plates were issued beginning in 1982 it was due to a change in state law to meet a federal mandate for reflectorization and new non-reflective plates could not be issued after January 1, 1987. Since there was an overlap of five years where the new plate was an optional choice, they started a new sequence for them, at 2AAA000, and simply ended the previous sequence where it was at the end of 1986. Your conclusion is simply accidental coincidence within the realm of actual reality.
Not sure this has any bearing on radio, though.
Well, unless you count those rare plates that relate to ham, amateur radio operators, citizen band call letters that your link illustrates. Have you ever seen any of those on the roads?
But yes, not really related to commercial radio.
I have seen plenty of vanity plates on the road.
One can retain old vanity plates. We see lots of Gold/Black plates on classic cars in the Coachella Valley.
And hams can get their own calls if they want to. For other vanity plates, it is subject to the very restrictive and rather arbitrary criteria of the bureaucrats at the DMV. For example, I got a hybrid at my weekend place and it was red. "Red Hi" and "Red Hy" were not taken, but I was refused because, apparently, the term "high" and all its derivatives is prohibited.
One of my staff members at KTNQ had "KTNQ DJ" for several decades. That was pretty common back when call letters were in more general use.
QUOTE=DavidEduardo;6268989]
One of my staff members at KTNQ had "KTNQ DJ" for several decades. That was pretty common back when call letters were in more general use.[/QUOTE]
Getting back to radio...is the Bay Area unusual then? The majority of stations here still use call letters. There's Wild 94.9, Star 101.3, and Q-102, The Breeze, Estereo Sol (KSOL), La Raza 93.3, 99.7 Now, and a few others- but some of the other big stations are KOIT (that's K-O-I-T, never "Coit."), KMEL (hasn't been "Camel" for a quarter century), KBLX, KCBS, KNBR, etc. I believe that more top stations brand with their call letters here than not.
One of my staff members at KTNQ had "KTNQ DJ" for several decades. That was pretty common back when call letters were in more general use.[/QUOTE]
Getting back to radio...is the Bay Area unusual then? The majority of stations here still use call letters. There's Wild 94.9, Star 101.3, and Q-102, The Breeze, Estereo Sol (KSOL), La Raza 93.3, 99.7 Now, and a few others- but some of the other big stations are KOIT (that's K-O-I-T, never "Coit."), KMEL (hasn't been "Camel" for a quarter century), KBLX, KCBS, KNBR, etc. I believe that more top stations brand with their call letters here than not.
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