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The highway stations
- Thread starter 30james
- Start date
Damn, some of you guys are slow. Hagerty got the joke three weeks ago.
We are making a hell of a lot out of a typo.
You take your inspiration wherever you find it, my friend.
Since the nominal subject of this thread is The Highway Stations, and the highway is I-15, maybe we can go a round or two on the topic of Zzyzx Road. (Check your Google Maps.)
Sure. It's actually a helluva story:
A trip down the most mysterious road in California
Zzyzx was once the 12,000-acre dream of notorious huckster and “super squatter” Curtis Springer.
www.sfgate.com
Off topic (sorry Frank). Not only did I find this an interesting read, but it also reminded me of how astounding it is that throughout history there have been con men and charlatans like this Curtis Springer fellow, and throughout history, people repeatedly fall for them, seemingly willingly in many cases.
I remember a few years back I was listening to a Salem-owned station that was almost 100% brokered programming, and weekends were packed with snake oil salesmen and grifters. They ran a program on both Saturdays and Sundays featuring a vitamin and supplement salesman called "Dr. Bob". Callers would phone in and describe their ailments and he'd tell them which suppliments they should take and in what doses. Some seemed to be repeat customers, calling to describe a problem a family member was having so Dr. Bob could help them, too. I was curious, so I did a Google search. From what I recall, Dr. Bob wasn't an MD or licensed to practice medicine, but his "Dr." title was actually a PhD and he got his degree from a place that was quickly found to be a "diploma mill" and shut down. Also, all the supplements he was hawking were sold by his own company. I also found that he'd actually been dead for a few years at that point, and the shows they were still airing, without mention of his death or even that the shows weren't live or even recent, were years old in some cases. That said, I'm sure his products were still selling or they wouldn't continue to buy airtime.
Thanks for that link, Mike. I've been having fun with Zzyzx Rd. since I first stumbled upon it half a century ago. I'd always assumed it was just some Caltrans person's fanciful name for a desert spot between nowhere and no place, for drivers needing an offramp to turn around, and a site for some truck stop or other development at some future time. The truth was way more interesting. And as @Mikey wrote, there's a never-ending supply of grifters and charlatans on the lookout for their next con.Sure. It's actually a helluva story:
A trip down the most mysterious road in California
Zzyzx was once the 12,000-acre dream of notorious huckster and “super squatter” Curtis Springer.
Early on, it was just the stretch where before, there were no listenable FM signals, roughly Barstow to Primm.
I'm not familiar or from the west coast. How far is that?
It's 113 miles between the two. Barstow had an FM, but the signal reach was maybe 40-ish miles---so probably 70 miles that was an FM dead zone until The Highway Stations signed on. In those days, the speed limit was 55, and traffic jams between L.A. and Vegas weren't uncommon, so that could be an hour and a half or two hours without FM. It made a big difference.
EDIT: I just looked it up in the Broadcasting Yearbook for 1983---the Barstow FM was 3kw at minus 192 feet---so 40-ish miles may have been optimistic.
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Wow that would drive me crazy. I live in Northern NJ outside NYC and we always hit traffic. Idk if I could do it lol. Let alone a 4 hour drive. I can last maybe 3 hours by myself in the car. My adhd kicks in easily.
I moved to Las Vegas from Reno in the late summer of 1984. A 440-mile trip, which at 55 mph in a rented truck with all my belongings and not counting rest stops, was an eight hour drive.
There were receivable FM signals for only about 2 and a half hours of that drive, and the only listenable AMs were a Country station (not my favorite) for an hour after the FMs faded and a pretty lame talk station for an hour before the Vegas FMs started coming in.
Did you try tuning to KUFO, Area 51 Radio? Though could be its signal was invisible, if your truck radio didn't have a security clearance.
I hope there were plenty of places to go potty, get food, drinks, and gas along the way.
Tonopah, Nevada was roughly the midpoint. That was lunch, bathroom break and fueling the truck. Otherwise, best to keep moving. It was 107 in Vegas that day, and not much cooler in Northern Nevada.
In February, I drove from Orlando to Tennessee to Ohio. Once north of Jacksonville, well into Georgia....nothing listenable to me. Well, there were a few AM bible thumping stations, a few smallish country FMs but for the most part nothing. I put the radio on scan, both AM & FM and it just cycled through repeatedly not picking up crap. Most of I-26 was the same way until I got near Asheville and then nearer to Johnson City/Kingsport. On the way to Ohio, I stayed off the Interstate, mainly to avoid West Virginia's outrageous tolls on I-77 and heard one interesting station in Logan, WV. and that was it until I got closer to Charlestown. As much as I hate SiriusXM, I would have killed to have it in the truck for that trip. Since I had started in the early morning, I listened to WCBS until daylight caused it to fade away.
I made that drive from L.A. to Vegas on a summer road trip about 15 years ago. I remember seeing the billboards for the highway station(s) and listening for a bit. Then at some point we stopped for food/fuel at a rest stop and to my surprise the radio station was operating out of that location from a fishbowl studio on the second floor.
I don't remember exactly where this was since the whole trip was in unfamiliar territory to me, being an east coaster. But I thought it was a rather fascinating radio find at the time.
I don't remember exactly where this was since the whole trip was in unfamiliar territory to me, being an east coaster. But I thought it was a rather fascinating radio find at the time.
Where is their studio? In Vegas?
Used to be in the Barstow station on the top floor above the world largest McDonald's, at that time.
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