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Remember when people showed support for thier favorite station?

D

Dal85

As a 44 year old, who still likes his rock, I remember back in the late 70's and throughout the 80's, it seemed more people showed thier support for thier station of choice.
Younger rock fans and thier cut up metal militia 97.1 shirts
Older rockers giving each other the evil eye in a battle of which was cooler. Q102 or KZEW bumper stickers or beer coozies.
To the out of the shadows metal heads wearing thier Z ROCK black shirts and proudly displaying thier dogtags.

Being at a rock show and a KZEW or Q102 would fly thier banner or thier logo would flash on the reunion arena jumbo-tron.
People would go ape-S and try to cheer louder for "thier" station.

Whatever the fashion, hats, tshirts, bumperstickers, etc. It just seemed that people back then would fight for thier colors, call letters or what have you.

Today you just dont see that same " love ".
The only exception to the rule i see is not to a music station, but to a little station that could, that still reaches out to its fans and loyal supporters.

That station is The Ticket. Love em or hate em
With the most blatent case of false advertising " All sports all the time" they still have fans that will fight and show massive support for thier call sign.
 
Remember when radio gave us something worth supporting? Hard to rally behind voicetracking, cut-rate talent, national contests, 300-song playlists and nothing creative or inventive to set one bland station apart from the other. If Ticket has it figured out, good for them. I'm not a listener, but I respect what they're doing.
 
I knew radio was dead when my move up to a bigger station happened and the Program Director said my personality was how creative I was getting across the information on the 3 by 5 index card. In his defense, he said he didn't want to hear it done the same way twice in a week. It really put an end to trying to make an emotional connection with the listener. And it was really difficult to make the same info sound unique by the time Friday rolled around.
 
Great topic and one I was discussing with a friend a while back. I grew up in San Antonio, and as a teenager in the 80's the bumper sticker on the back of your car showed your allegiance to a particular station. 99.5 KISS often had events where they would give out free LP's/Cassettes, t-shirts, and bumper stickers. (I, of course had the KISS sticker that had the station logo and written underneath "Rocks San Antonio"). Every weekday night at 10pm myself and all of my friends had to tune in to listen to "The Godfather" Joe Anthony who had a somewhat interactive Heavy Metal show. He would often put callers with requests on the air! (including me once). Fast forward to 2011 and things like that are a fading memory, I cannot recall the last time I have seen a bumper sticker or shirt for a radio station.
 
Greg Branch said:
Dal85 said:
Older rockers giving each other the evil eye in a battle of which was cooler. Q102 or KZEW bumper stickers or beer coozies.
Click to expand...

The Zoo was cooler. ;D
Click to expand...

I listened to both but I was mostly a Q102 guy. The good days of rock radio in DFW. ;D ;D
 
... Back in the day when stations actually bought stickers, etc. for their stations and had personel to hand them out... Big companies that own these stations still don't get it. The reason why radio is fading into being not relivent in people's lives is that they have starved out things so bad there's simply nothing left other than the shell.
 
OKCRadioGuy said:
... Back in the day when stations actually bought stickers, etc. for their stations and had personel to hand them out... Big companies that own these stations still don't get it. The reason why radio is fading into being not relivent in people's lives is that they have starved out things so bad there's simply nothing left other than the shell.
Click to expand...

Yes. No engine for generating local pride in a station.
 
I never supported a rock radio station just because of the DJ's personalities. That didn't mean anything to me.

IF the station played great rock songs all or most of the time.... then that station was worth defending.

Most people loved their station because of all the cool give-aways.

I see through that right away.

They just want free stuff.

They want to be coddled.

I just want good cool music played all of the time.

This "We're here for the Community" shtick is a joke.

ANYONE can have Blood Drive. That doesn't validate your narrow playlists. And DJ's salivating over another over-played wonder....

When you try and try to be everything to everyone.....

You eventually become nothing to No One.

I hated Q102 doing Cowboys games....

It Never felt right.

Everything has a good start.... like MTV....

Then it just gets corporatized and morphed into something that's meaningless, with the Suits in more and more and more control over every little aspect of it.
 
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the heyday of KVIL in this thread yet.

I moved to Dallas in 1984, and one thing that was truly impressive were the number of KVIL stickers to be seen on the freeways -- you know the ones: "I (heart) KVIL", "KVIL (hearts) ME", "KVIL (hearts) YOU", and all the other variations that appeared through the years to support their "fun and games" department.

Now, I was never a big KVIL listener -- but then I also wasn't in their demographic target. But I noticed that they earned 10 shares for quite a few years in an environment where a 10 share in a major market was getting increasingly rare. And they didn't have to do long sets of commercial free music to get that -- in fact, they ran a whopping seven breaks each hour and still managed to maintain those huge audience shares.

At the time, K104 bumper stickers were also quite common, along with the stickers for the various rock stations already mentioned in this thread.

All that promotion really did work -- and it certainly made a huge impression on me, because I'd never seen anything quite like it in the Pacific Northwest.
 
I agree, from the beginning KVIL built slowly with an emotional bond with the listener. There was an attitude. It was as if KVIL was a life coach for your upward drive up the ladder. The more affluent-styled promotions and events almost let you live beyond your means. The station seemed to listen to you, make you feel important and worthy. Even the contests were the 'People's Choice'. Listeners were treated as members of the exclusive KVIL Club. KVIL created a community within a community. Sure the jocks were superb and the music was 'safe' but it was the fact KVIL gave you something to hang on to. You could identify, relate and feel a part of all that KVIL was. That was the 'magic' of radio. That was the success of KVIL.
 
here in indianapolis the listener support for wnap in the late 60`s and early 70`s was pretty strong without the bumperstickers and for the most part giveaways.it was the music and the personalities.
 
I think the Ticket embodies a lot of the old Zoo spirit. I didn't move to North Texas until after the Zoo flipped, but I know the role Mike Rhyner played with both stations and I'm sure he brought that with him when he helped start the Ticket. And I've heard a lot of Rody/Labella airchecks and pine for banter like that on a rock station today.
 
TheRover said:
I believe the KVIL bumper sticker promotion was such a success, was that IF you had a KVIL bumper sticker on your car, then you could be awarded Money. Works every time ! ! :D
Click to expand...

I remember that.
 
charles123 said:
TheRover said:
I believe the KVIL bumper sticker promotion was such a success, was that IF you had a KVIL bumper sticker on your car, then you could be awarded Money. Works every time ! ! :D
Click to expand...

I remember that.
Click to expand...

I also remember that KDGE always had their "Edge Of The Weekend Party" every Friday sometimes at the old J'Pepe resturant on Greenville Avenue
 
TheRover said:
I believe the KVIL bumper sticker promotion was such a success, was that IF you had a KVIL bumper sticker on your car, then you could be awarded Money. Works every time ! ! :D
Click to expand...

Oh, I remember that too.

The bottom line is that those contests got their bumper stickers on several hundred thousand DFW-area bumpers. In terms of the impressions that created, the cost of the giveaways was a bargain.
 
What amazes me is how management of facilities that are in the advertising business refuse to put anything into advertising or promotion. Bumper stickers, banners, boards, and meaningful contests... NOPE! They wonder why the damn thing is swirling down the crap-hole quickly. The product is inferior and they refuse to spend money to promote. It's like a crappy version of McD's that won't advertise. How would that work for the restaurant biz?
 
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