• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Best radio station names

KRLC AM Lewiston, Idaho once identified as being in the “Seaport Cities”, though about 300 miles inland from the ocean. The idea was that the Snake River (tribulation of the Columbia River), came through the market, probably to benefit some of either the owners interests or advertisers interests. Always thought that was a bit far fetched.
 
I finally found it, not on woof moo, but on youtube.
This is REQUIRED LISTENING:
 
Last edited:
What AM station said,
"The graveyard channel station by the graveyard"?
 
Woof-moo!
Denim-tote-1_grande.png
How cute!😍
 
There was a station in mid Michigan graced with the call letters WUPS. Their slogan back in the day was "We Deliver The Hits." Clever.

I worked at the competition, and we just called them "Whoops."

And I don't recall what station it was, but as I was driving across southern New Mexico back in '93, I heard a station that leaned into their situation in the imaging. "We're not just Silver City's best radio station...we're Silver City's ONLY radio station!"
 
In the early 90s, WWWE Cleveland was called “Newsradio 1100 3WE, The Monster on the Lake”, playing both off the Nessie myth and a slogan Geoff Sindelar bestowed on the station when he hosted Sportsline in the late 80s.
 
Most branding seems a bit bland, and is reused in several markets (Hot, Cat, Q, B, Z, Cool, Kiss, Star. Big, King, etc. with "Cool" being used 4 times within a 225 mile span of me), however I particularly like when they can capitalize on a random callsign given to them, like K Triple R (104.9 KRRR) locally, or 92.1 WOLF in Syracuse, or 94.5 KOOL Phoenix.
KOOL was not a random call sign. It was chosen for 960 AM in Phoenix in 1947 specifically for the concept of “It’s KOOL in Phoenix”.
 
KOOL was not a random call sign. It was chosen for 960 AM in Phoenix in 1947 specifically for the concept of “It’s KOOL in Phoenix”.
Nor was WOLF in Syracuse, at least if what I was told by local radio buffs during my college years there was true. The "OLF" stood for Onondaga Lake Front, or at least that was the story back in the mid-'70s, when WOLF was howling (but never ever calling itself "wolf," amazingly, just the call letters) on 1490 with high energy Top 40.
 
KOOL was not a random call sign. It was chosen for 960 AM in Phoenix in 1947 specifically for the concept of “It’s KOOL in Phoenix”.
Back when KOOL was a CBS affiliate there was a sister station in Tucson called KOLD. If you phoned one or the other back then you got the greeting "It's KOOL in Phoenix and KOLD in Tucson". In reference to the once relative daily temps in both geographies.
 
Back when KOOL was a CBS affiliate there was a sister station in Tucson called KOLD. If you phoned one or the other back then you got the greeting "It's KOOL in Phoenix and KOLD in Tucson". In reference to the once relative daily temps in both geographies.
True. In fact, the Tucson call letters were changed from the original KOPO-TV to KOLD in 1957 when Gene Autry and his partners (who put KOPO on the air in ‘52) bought KOOL.
 
There was a station in mid Michigan graced with the call letters WUPS. Their slogan back in the day was "We Deliver The Hits." Clever. I worked at the competition, and we just called them "Whoops."

I can just imagine it:

"This is WPPS123, Traveller's Information Service for Richland, Washington, 1720 AM."
 
... Which I guess probably most of you wouldn't get if you're not from the area/familiar with Energy Northwest's troubled past. Whoops.
 
Last edited:
In the south, Chattanooga listeners had WFLI "the Great Jet Fly" with of course an announcer using the name "Tommy Jett". Jingles had the jet flyover sound effect in the background.

Looking back to my childhood, another clever slogan was WCFL's "Big 10 and Super CFL". They didn't have the national nighttime signal WLS had but IMHO calling themselves "Big and or Super CFL" was and attempt to have an image of being just as strong and possible stronger than WLS.

When I was in college, Tenn. Tech's WTTU which at the time was 25? watts: 10 watt transmitter with a 3 or 4 bay antenna, One of the staff came up with the ID: "With less power than the light bulb in your refrigerator WTTU Cookeville". For some reason it only lasted a day or two.
 
In the south, Chattanooga listeners had WFLI "the Great Jet Fly" with of course an announcer using the name "Tommy Jett". Jingles had the jet flyover sound effect in the background.

Looking back to my childhood, another clever slogan was WCFL's "Big 10 and Super CFL". They didn't have the national nighttime signal WLS had but IMHO calling themselves "Big and or Super CFL" was and attempt to have an image of being just as strong and possible stronger than WLS.

When I was in college, Tenn. Tech's WTTU which at the time was 25? watts: 10 watt transmitter with a 3 or 4 bay antenna, One of the staff came up with the ID: "With less power than the light bulb in your refrigerator WTTU Cookeville". For some reason it only lasted a day or two.
I just heard John Landecker on Ken Levine's "Hollywood and Levine" podcast, and he said that there was never a thought while on the air of "they're listening to me in Louisiana". It was all about Chicago
 
A good branding package IMO is probably that of KLVE Los Angeles at 107.5, ...
The "K-Love" name and KLVE calls were inherited by the Liberman brothers when they bought the station in the late 70's from a failing airline. The Libermans were way, way too cheap to pay their lawyers their fees for a call letter change so they remained with the same calls and name, just adding "Radio Amor" to the slogan.

By the time I got there, the name was too well known to change. But when looking at Arbitron diaries I saw at least 30 different ways of writing "Kay-Love" including "Quelub" and "keyloff".
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom