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worst radio station nicknames

firepoint525

firepoint525

I'm sure that there is someone out there who can top this one, but I nominate WIVR, Mayfield, KY, circa 1998. Their nickname was "the wivver." I am not making that up. It sounded like something that Elmer Fudd would have come up with! Okay, that is my nomination. Can anyone top that? I'm sure that someone can.
 
In the 60s, a couple of the KRLA DJs (Top 40 station) started calling the station "Radio Carla." Obviously K-R-L-A stood for "Radio Los Angeles" - trying to pronounce it phonetically didn't make much sense. This went on for awhile, then it stopped. So I figured the PD didn't like it much.

Similarly, in the 80s, KYUU radio in San Francisco started calling the station "99.7 - The Q," again sounding out the call letters phonetically. Calling it "99.7 - QFM" would have been OK, or even "FMQ, like the station in Honolulu. But in the San Francisco Bay Area, "The Q" was also the nickname for the infamous San Quentin Prison - where California's Death Row is located. The station was owned by NBC, and I figured some suit in New York came up with "The Q." The nickname was dumped after a couple of months.
 
For years in the 60s and 70s, San Diego MOR KOGO-AM (600) called itself "KO-GO".

When KFMB (760) morphed from a failed Top 40 into an aggressive Adult Contemporary under Jack Woods, they began calling themselves "The Mighty KuF-MuB". Brilliant poke at the big guy, and eventually, KFMB beat KOGO.
 
firepoint525 said:
I'm sure that there is someone out there who can top this one, but I nominate WIVR, Mayfield, KY, circa 1998. Their nickname was "the wivver." I am not making that up. It sounded like something that Elmer Fudd would have come up with! Okay, that is my nomination. Can anyone top that? I'm sure that someone can.
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Gordon McClendon changed KTSA in San Antonio to KAKI in honor of the uniforms at the bases there, but the market was always about half Hispanic....and KAKI sounded like "caca" which means "poop". The calls were swiftly changed to KTSA again.
 
michael hagerty said:
For years in the 60s and 70s, San Diego MOR KOGO-AM (600) called itself "KO-GO".

When KFMB (760) morphed from a failed Top 40 into an aggressive Adult Contemporary under Jack Woods, they began calling themselves "The Mighty KuF-MuB". Brilliant poke at the big guy, and eventually, KFMB beat KOGO.
Click to expand...

In the 50s and 60s, Channel 10 in San Diego was KOGO-TV. They also used "Ko-Go." They even had an afternoon cartoon program hosted by "Kogo the Clown."
 
97.1 WRQQ here in Nashville. They have already gotten a nomination from me today as "worst classic hits station," but they will also get a nomination from me here today, too. Back around 2006-2007, when Cumulus owned the station, and they were in the midst of seemingly endless format tweaks, their nickname at about that time was "the Tower." They didn't change call letters in association with that, and didn't even change formats, at least not that time. They just simply added "the Tower" to their moniker. And to make it worse, they called themselves "the new 97.1 the tower," even though the only thing that was "new" was that stupid name! ::) And they continued to be "the new tower" right up until their next format tweak in '08. ::)

This name may have been in conjunction with plans to build a new skyscraper here in Nashville back about that time that would have been called The Tower. It would have been the tallest building in Nashville, and maybe even in all of Tennessee. I still remember even seeing a computer mockup in the paper of what it would have looked like against the existing skyline. But of course, when the recession hit, that project was scaled back, and ultimately dropped all together. Meanwhile, "the tower" (the radio station) was saddled with a nickname that was now largely meaningless, and routinely lampooned here on the Nashville board back then. When they finally changed formats (again!), it was just too easy to say that "the tower fell"! ::)
 
firepoint525 said:
Not necessarily a bad name, just not a very well-thought-out one, as it turned out. Target stores either sued, or threatened to sue, the radio station at 98.1 in Memphis then known as "Target 98." That station has had seemingly dozens of names and formats over the years! Read about it here:

http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=231004.0
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97.9 KXAF- "The Fax Machine" from George West, Texas.
 
Lkeller said:
"The Q" was also the nickname for the infamous San Quentin Prison - where California's Death Row is located.
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That's strange. I lived in the Bay Area (Marin even) for 8 years and never once heard anyone call the prison "The Q".

In 61-62 we used to hold our informal drag races on the "San Quentin cutoff" (now I-580) which goes by the prison. I'm pretty sure the guards were watching us.
 
firepoint525 said:
97.1 WRQQ here in Nashville. They have already gotten a nomination from me today as "worst classic hits station," but they will also get a nomination from me here today, too. Back around 2006-2007, when Cumulus owned the station, and they were in the midst of seemingly endless format tweaks, their nickname at about that time was "the Tower." They didn't change call letters in association with that, and didn't even change formats, at least not that time. They just simply added "the Tower" to their moniker. And to make it worse, they called themselves "the new 97.1 the tower," even though the only thing that was "new" was that stupid name! ::) And they continued to be "the new tower" right up until their next format tweak in '08. ::)

This name may have been in conjunction with plans to build a new skyscraper here in Nashville back about that time that would have been called The Tower. It would have been the tallest building in Nashville, and maybe even in all of Tennessee. I still remember even seeing a computer mockup in the paper of what it would have looked like against the existing skyline. But of course, when the recession hit, that project was scaled back, and ultimately dropped all together. Meanwhile, "the tower" (the radio station) was saddled with a nickname that was now largely meaningless, and routinely lampooned here on the Nashville board back then. When they finally changed formats (again!), it was just too easy to say that "the tower fell"! ::)
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I've lived/worked in Nashville since 1995 and never heard of The Tower (the station).
 
PirateJohnny said:
firepoint525 said:
97.1 WRQQ here in Nashville. They have already gotten a nomination from me today as "worst classic hits station," but they will also get a nomination from me here today, too. Back around 2006-2007, when Cumulus owned the station, and they were in the midst of seemingly endless format tweaks, their nickname at about that time was "the Tower." They didn't change call letters in association with that, and didn't even change formats, at least not that time. They just simply added "the Tower" to their moniker. And to make it worse, they called themselves "the new 97.1 the tower," even though the only thing that was "new" was that stupid name! ::) And they continued to be "the new tower" right up until their next format tweak in '08. ::)
This name may have been in conjunction with plans to build a new skyscraper here in Nashville back about that time that would have been called The Tower. It would have been the tallest building in Nashville, and maybe even in all of Tennessee. I still remember even seeing a computer mockup in the paper of what it would have looked like against the existing skyline. But of course, when the recession hit, that project was scaled back, and ultimately dropped all together. Meanwhile, "the tower" (the radio station) was saddled with a nickname that was now largely meaningless, and routinely lampooned here on the Nashville board back then. When they finally changed formats (again!), it was just too easy to say that "the tower fell"! ::)
Click to expand...
I've lived/worked in Nashville since 1995 and never heard of The Tower (the station).
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You didn't miss anything. They were (at that time) "the new 97.1 the tower WRQQ" or something like that. They were emphasizing their calls in addition to the stupid name. I'm sure that you could probably still find some old discussion about it on the Nashville board if you searched hard enough. Needless to say, when come-in-last sold it off, we were more than happy to see those much-abused call letters LEAVE Nashville! ::)
 
WQAK in Union City, TN was, and is, the Quake, playing modern rock. Not a bad name for a station, especially a rocker. But when Thunderbolt took it over in 2005, they took it over to classic hits and changed its nickname to "The Cool Duck." So what did WQAK stand for in the meantime, the Quack? Fortunately, a few years back, they changed the format back to modern rock, and the name back to the Quake (although I liked their old Quake logo better than the new one).

Here is link to wikipedia article containing the old "cool duck" logo. Not a bad logo, just a stupid name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WQAK

I could say that "the Quake" might not be such a great name for a station near the New Madrid faultline (which created Reelfoot Lake 200 years ago), but I will not go there.
 
I'm sure there are many more to list, but I can't think of any former ones offhand now.

However, Atlanta's "Radio 105.7".....well, you decide.

cd
 
firepoint525 said:
WQAK in Union City, TN was, and is, the Quake, playing modern rock. Not a bad name for a station, especially a rocker. But when Thunderbolt took it over in 2005, they took it over to classic hits and changed its nickname to "The Cool Duck." So what did WQAK stand for in the meantime, the Quack? Fortunately, a few years back, they changed the format back to modern rock, and the name back to the Quake (although I liked their old Quake logo better than the new one).
Here is link to wikipedia article containing the old "cool duck" logo. Not a bad logo, just a stupid name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WQAK
I could say that "the Quake" might not be such a great name for a station near the New Madrid faultline (which created Reelfoot Lake 200 years ago), but I will not go there.
Click to expand...
You can see the new Quake logo here at their Facebook page, but for the old logo, you must scroll down to the bottom of their Facebook photos page:

https://www.facebook.com/thequakerocks#!/thequakerocks/photos_stream

It is dated 2009, but I am thinking that that was when those photos were uploaded to their Facebook page. The photos are probably actually much older than that.
 
Another in a list of (at least) misleading names is "KYTN" of Union City, TN. They first adopted the nickname "KYTN" when they went country (this time for good, apparently) around 1987-1988. Their official call letters were changed at that time to WKWT, which stood for West Kentucky, West Tennessee. At some point, apparently following a call letter change to WYVY, they became known locally as "Y-105." But for whatever reason, that nickname didn't stick, and they reverted back to being "KYTN," apparently after Thunderbolt took it over in 2005.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KYTN

The nickname is misleading, because they are east of the Mississippi River, yet give out what seem like call letters beginning with the letter "K."
 
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