• 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

Coolest Calls for 60's Top 40

M

MsMusicRadio

Guest
( Another post on this?)

What were the coolest calls for an AM top 40 in the sixties?

A few:
WFUN-Miami
WHOT-Youngstown
WJET-Erie
WQXI-Quixie in Dixie
WOND-wonderful in Atlantic City
CHUM-Toronto
WPOP-Hartford
WING-Dayton

More?
 
WAKY-----Louisville. Perfect calls for the decade
KGB-------San Diego. Perfect calls for the decade
 
CFUN-Vancouver
WSEX-Arlington Heights, IL
KISN-Portland
KYSN-Colorado Springs
KOMA-Oke City
KORL-Honolulu
WILD-Boston
 
cyberdad said:
CFUN-Vancouver
WSEX-Arlington Heights, IL
KISN-Portland
KYSN-Colorado Springs
KOMA-Oke City
KORL-Honolulu
WILD-Boston

WSEX wasn't Top 40 and was not used until the 80s, but good calls anyway.
 
deltas69 said:
CKLW..WINDSOR/DETROIT..WLS, WABC, KCBQ SAN DIEGO
Those calls only became cool because the stations were cool. WLS was not a cool call before becoming a cool station. If they were MOR during that period, those calls would be as cool as WGN :p
 
If we count WILD in Boston, we can add WAMO in Pittsburgh and WVON in CHicago.
 
KGB was a cool call that far eclipsed KCBQ. ( the calls, not the station itself) They had a great line-up;

6am--Khruschev and Bulganin
10AM-The Don River Breakfast Club
11AM--Handsome Boris Yeltsin
3PM----Dandy Leonid Brezhnev
6:30----World News from Pravda
7:15----Uncle Joe Stalin
12------Leon Trotsky till dawn.
 
MsMusicRadio said:
KGB was a cool call that far eclipsed KCBQ. ( the calls, not the station itself) They had a great line-up;

6am--Khruschev and Bulganin
10AM-The Don River Breakfast Club
11AM--Handsome Boris Yeltsin
3PM----Dandy Leonid Brezhnev
6:30----World News from Pravda
7:15----Uncle Joe Stalin
12------Leon Trotsky till dawn.

You forgot the Karl Marx hour ;D
 
Karl Marx was PD and did a live jazz show Sunday night from a club in Odessa. His air name was Sid. Jazz came up the Dneiper from Odessa. Also on Sundays from 4-6 was a tribute to the music of Lenin hosted by his widow. Saturday night from 7-11 Khruschev prerecorded (what is VT?) a ground breaking show called "Shoe Bangers Ball".
 
in Syracuse there is Wonderful WNDR and of course WOLF in the land of perpetual winter.

WFYR in Chicago

WBEE in Rochester

KSTP in the Twin Cities. A pretty fast station
 
in Syracuse there is Wonderful WNDR and of course WOLF in the land of perpetual winter.
WFYR in Chicago
WBEE in Rochester
KSTP in the Twin Cities. A pretty fast station


Just to keep the responses on track, the original posting was for "the coolest calls for an AM top 40 in the sixties?"
WBEE appears to be an FM with a current country format. WBBF 950 in Rochester would count though (the Busy Bee's). WNDR was called the Wonder station in the 50's when it was a Mutual affiiate. After they flipped formats to Top 40 in the 1957, I can't remember WNDR ever being referred to as Wonder or Wonderful Station. KSTP 1500 was Top 40 only in the early -mid seventies.

Other Top 40 AM's in the 60's with cool call letters were;

WARM Scranton/Wilkes Barre "WARM Land".
WENE Binghamton/Endicott "The Big E".
WIBG Philadelphia "WIBBAGE".
KLIF Dallas "Cliff in Dallas"
WDGY Minneapolis "WEEGEE".
WOKY Milwaukee "Waukee in Milwaukee". (I know it's a stretch but it worked for them.)
Detroit/Dearborn WKNR "Keener 13."
 
The KGB / KCBQ competition was a great battle.

Both were cool stations, therefore both their calls became cool (KOOL?)

But, it was KCBQ that was the stand alone not Drake format, success that was emulated all over America. Many a top forty station slipped "Q" into their calls - thus being able to say "on Q" etc. and claim some of KCBQ's glow as their own.

Therefore, in my opine the Q was the coolest of the two.

rickity
 
I'd also add KIOA....still rockin' after 52 years in Des Moines. When spoken (or sung in jingles), the calls came off as "Ioway" which is a rather common coloquialism from the locals there. The signal covered basically the entire western two-thirds of the state when it was on 940. Also home to more than a few legendary jocks....Peter McClain, Art Jones, and of course "Youngsie"-Dic Youngs, a fixture for more than 40 years. If there's room for mid-market guys in the Radio (or for that matter Rock) HOF, "The Youngster" certainly would get my vote.
 
rickityone said:
The KGB / KCBQ competition was a great battle.

Both were cool stations, therefore both their calls became cool (KOOL?)

But, it was KCBQ that was the stand alone not Drake format, success that was emulated all over America. Many a top forty station slipped "Q" into their calls - thus being able to say "on Q" etc. and claim some of KCBQ's glow as their own.

Therefore, in my opine the Q was the coolest of the two.

Q might have been cooler, but those who did not put KGB in the ratings diary might never be seen again

rickity
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom