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K-Earth Unveils New Logo

For those that don't know, the black and gold California plate was discarded long ago for the current white background. But, for something like $80, you can get custom black and golds with a 6 to 8 month waiting time! So those heritage colors are very fashionable today and lots of people are ordering the plates, creating interest in what would seem to be a boring subject.
A few things ... First Earth Day was April 1970, a while ago. I was surprised to see this new K-Earth logo. The black/gold tags are indeed a hit with many young drivers now and much more so than older people with classic cars. I have a theory though. Nice new cars, young drives, with black/gold CA plate more often than not equals bad-boy drivers. I have them, but I'm not a young one and not a bad driver though. I wanted the blue/gold ones for myself, sixties too early for me. There were not enough takers to kick them into DMV production. KMET had a variation of that one IIRC.
 
A few things ... First Earth Day was April 1970, a while ago. I was surprised to see this new K-Earth logo. The black/gold tags are indeed a hit with many young drivers now and much more so than older people with classic cars. I have a theory though. Nice new cars, young drives, with black/gold CA plate more often than not equals bad-boy drivers. I have them, but I'm not a young one and not a bad driver though. I wanted the blue/gold ones for myself, sixties too early for me. There were not enough takers to kick them into DMV production. KMET had a variation of that one IIRC.
The DMV says the overwhelming majority of orders for personalized license plates are for the black/gold revival (which did not offer personalized plates when issued from 1963-69).

You can order personalized white plates, but since the blacks went into production 7 or 8 years ago, almost no one does.

Ultimately, I don’t think it’s a great logo. It won’t kill them, but I don’t think it helps them much either.
 
Hmmmm, they tribute the old ‘63 plates of California and perhaps the car culture of years past, but yet, they abandoned 60’s music eons ago. Something doesn’t seem right here. Nice logo but it would have fit in better 20-30 years ago when the format would match up perfectly with this. Unless they are using the recent reissue of black plates as an excuse to use them. Either way, the classic K-Earth globe logo beats anything they’ve used since. It’s a clever idea but would have fit better with the proper musical format, not 80’s and 90’s that’s played today.
 
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I'm surprised that KRTH didn't use the late 1980's early 1990's license plate when LA Law was on TV. This is given that their oldest songs on the list was from that era.
 
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I'm surprised that KRTH didn't use the late 1980's early 1990's license plate when LA Law was on TV. This is given that their oldest songs on the list was from that era.
Not to pop your bubble, but that series of plate debuted in 1982. (I was assigned one of the earliest of those plates when I arrived in CA from Washington State in the last quarter of '82. A great plate, as it happens, "2AGE240". I was 32 at the time, and I wondered if California was daring me.)
 
Not to pop your bubble, but that series of plate debuted in 1982. (I was assigned one of the earliest of those plates when I arrived in CA from Washington State in the last quarter of '82. A great plate, as it happens, "2AGE240". I was 32 at the time, and I wondered if California was daring me.)

You're right the Art Deco one was issued from 1982-1987. Also those plates have been common on cars all the way to the 1990's
 
Once more:

The DMV says the overwhelming majority of orders for personalized license plates are for the black/gold revival (which did not offer personalized plates when issued from 1963-69).

Which means—-

The plates today’s California drivers are willing to shell out money for ($50 first year, $40 each year after) are the black plates.

An estimated 1.2 million of the black plates have been put in circulation in the past eight years, again, mostly personalized, with almost nobody ordering personalized white plates since the black plate introduction.

Again, I don’t think it’s the best logo, but KRTH is more in tune with today by choosing that plate than anyone here seems to understand.
 
Once more:

The DMV says the overwhelming majority of orders for personalized license plates are for the black/gold revival (which did not offer personalized plates when issued from 1963-69).

Which means—-

The plates today’s California drivers are willing to shell out money for ($50 first year, $40 each year after) are the black plates.

An estimated 1.2 million of the black plates have been put in circulation in the past eight years, again, mostly personalized, with almost nobody ordering personalized white plates since the black plate introduction.

Again, I don’t think it’s the best logo, but KRTH is more in tune with today by choosing that plate than anyone here seems to understand.
Once more: this little digression has to do with whether the series of plate that was used on the LA Law TV series -- the kind I once had -- would have been more appropriate, era-wise, for a new KRTH logo than the gold-letters-on-black-background series that was originally in use in the sixties, since KRTH has scrubbed all sixties music from their station. None of us are disagreeing with you that, as a custom-order vanity plate, the black ones are far more popular than those white ones with the stylized California banner.

KRTH is a nostalgia station, so shouldn't their logo design at least aim for consistency with the era of the music they're targeting?

Are you still in Europe, Mr. H? If so, 4:07 pm here is 1:07 am there, and that might be affecting the reading-for-comprehension thingee.
 
Once more: this little digression has to do with whether the series of plate that was used on the LA Law TV series -- the kind I once had -- would have been more appropriate, era-wise, for a new KRTH logo than the gold-letters-on-black-background series that was originally in use in the sixties, since KRTH has scrubbed all sixties music from their station. None of us are disagreeing with you that, as a custom-order vanity plate, the black ones are far more popular than those white ones with the stylized California banner.

KRTH is a nostalgia station, so shouldn't their logo design at least aim for consistency with the era of the music they're targeting?

Are you still in Europe, Mr. H? If so, 4:07 pm here is 1:07 am there, and that might be affecting the reading-for-comprehension thingee.
Still in Europe. 1:07 am yes, but a broader comment, not specific to the L.A. Law plate.

KRTH is not a nostalgia station tied to an era. It’s a radio station that plays non-current music in an attempt to score listeners in the 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 demographics. They’re using the license plate design their listeners pay money for, not one that hasn’t been available since before most of their current audience learned how to drive.
 
Now they have to change their callsign to K-PLATE.

They should have retained the planet earth theme for recognition and simply rejuvenated it with a visual style appropriate for their current playlist's core era. As I believe that's the 1980s, think neon and think trapper keepers. Flavor collages:

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=synthwave+earth
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=synthwave+font

Edit - Picture something in the way of a palm tree-studded sunset/sunrise gridscape like those seen at https://www.google.com/search?q=synthwave+earthrise+palmtrees&tbm=isch but with the sun replaced by an electrified, rising planet earth. On the gridscape, there would be a fire tracks-laying Delorean speeding off to the horizon leaving their new black and gold license plate in the foreground, spinning on one of its corners. ;)
 
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