Monday, April 21, 2014

Hot 99.5, Washington (2012)

Unused bumper sticker from the 2012, sheet measures approximately 14.5 cm by 11 cm.
Front side: shaped; background: yellow; Hot 99.5 logo.

Back side: white.



WIHT (99.5 FM; "Hot 99.5") is a Top 40 (CHR) formatted radio station that serves the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, USA. Located on the fifth floor of 1801 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland, the station broadcasts 24 hours a day and is licensed to, and owned by, Clear Channel Communications. The transmitter is located in Bethesda, Maryland.

Long known as WGAY and located in Silver Spring, Maryland, the station ran a beautiful music format in the 1960s and 1970s, which evolved to an easy listening format by the 1980s.


Television ads for the station in the 1970s and 1980s featured station programmer Bob Chandler relaxing in a recliner while listening to his station's light mix of music playing in the background. During the 1980s, WGAY was reported to be then President Ronald Reagan's favorite radio station.

At midnight on December 26, 1991, WGAY changed branding to "Easy 99.5". In 1995, WGAY switched its calls and became "Bright 99.5", but listeners didn't accept the more up-tempo music, and the station switched back to WGAY within 10 months.

WGAY switched from the still ratings successful format permanently by the late-90s although not because its listeners were too few, but because demographically they were getting too old and therefore less desirable for radio advertisers. On April 13, 1999, the end to "Easy 99.5". After two days of simulcasting WTJM in New York City, the station changed to an urban oldies format at 3 PM on April 15, known as WJMO-FM ("Jam'n 99.5"). At the time, they were co-owned with AM station WJMO in Cleveland, Ohio. The format lasted for almost two years. However, with ratings on the decline due to the arguable burnout factor of the music, combined with competition from WBIG-FM (which at the time played an oldies format; they now play a classic rock format), Clear Channel (who acquired the station in 2000 due to a merger with AMFM media and had dropped the format in other markets due to similar factors) decided to take the station in a different direction. Unlike other stations that dropped the format, however, WJMO gave its listeners the weekend to say goodbye.

"Jam'n" signed off at 7:00 a.m. on April 2, 2001; the last song played on "Jam'n" was "Last Dance", by Donna Summer. That was followed by a "Survivor Radio" stunt before the current contemporary hit radio format debuted as "Hot 99.5" at 5:00 p.m. on April 6, 2001. The first song on "Hot" was "Survivor" by Destiny's Child. With the change of format came a change in call sign to the current WIHT on April 18, 2001.

WIHT's full market signal helped competitor 104.1 WWZZ (Z104) evolve into a more modern AC direction in late 2001; WWZZ would be driven out of the format entirely in 2006 as a result of WTOP moving to WGMS' former 103.5 FM frequency. The station was also considered to be Baltimore's default Top 40 station since their previous Top 40 station, WXYV (102.7 FM, now WQSR), would flip in September 2001. (Baltimore finally got a Top 40 station in November 2009, when WCHH flipped from modern rock to Top 40 as "Z 104-3.") The station's main competitors are CBS Radio urban-leaning Rhythmic Contemporary WPGC-FM 95.5, CBS Radio's adult top 40 WIAD (94-7 Fresh FM) and Cumulus Media's adult top 40 WRQX (Mix 107.3).

WIHT-FM's HD Radio HD-2 format was flipped to Clear Channel's successful Pride Radio format at Midnight on July 16, 2013, replacing the "Hot Spot"-branded "New! Music" format that had been running on the HD-2 signal since 2007.

*source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIHT

Sunday, April 20, 2014

105.3 Kool FM, Waterloo (1996)

Unused bumper sticker from the 1996, sheet measures approximately 20 cm by 7.2 cm.
Front side: background: black; Kool FM logo.

Back side: KFC discount coupons.



CFCA-FM, branded as 105.3 Kool FM, is a Canadian radio station, airing at 105.3 FM and licensed to Kitchener, Ontario, with studios in Waterloo. The station is owned by Bell Media. Unlike other Hot AC stations in Canada, which have rhythmic-leans, Kool FM is a rock-leaning Hot AC station.

CFCA was first launched on 106.1 FM in 1949 by local broadcaster Carl A. Pollock. It was the first FM radio station in Canada to operate independently, without an AM radio sister station. Due to the limited audience reach of FM radio at the time, however, the station left the air in 1951. Pollock subsequently launched television station CKCO-TV in 1954 and AM radio station CKKW in 1959, and then relaunched CFCA in 1967 as an easy listening station. Pollock's broadcast holdings became part of Electrohome in 1970.

CFCA and CKKW were tentatively sold in 1992 to a local consortium consisting of Jack Schoone, a former local radio announcer, and Irving Zucker, a former owner of competing stations CKGL and CHYM-FM, but the deal fell through and the stations were instead acquired by CHUM Radio in 1993. On August 12, 1994 at Noon, CFCA flipped to classic rock as "105.3 Kool FM."

During the early 2000s, the station added pop/rock songs into their playlist. Today, Kool FM is a pop/rock station that still plays a mix of classic and new songs. Artists include Daughtry, Nickelback, Bon Jovi, Katy Perry, Matchbox 20, Hedley, Theory of a Deadman, P!nk, Aerosmith, Adele, and Train.

CTVglobemedia became the stations' owner when it acquired CHUM Radio in 2007, and is currently owned by Bell Media Radio since 2011.

Most recently, Mediabase delisted the station on the hot AC panel for adds, although the station's playlist still remains on Mediabase.


*source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFCA-FM

Saturday, April 19, 2014

KSUA 104 FM, Fairbanks (1990s)

Unused bumper sticker from the 1990s, sheet measures approximately 20 cm by 10 cm.
Front side: background: white; KSUA logo, slogan: "Alaska's Rock 'n' Roll Super Station" + 2 small stickers: KSUA logo and important phone number, KSUA logo and slogan.

Back side:Fairbanks Fast Foto, Whirla Whip, Fairbanks Tae Kwon Do promos, KSUA T-Shirt discount coupon.



KSUA (currently on 91.5 FM) is a college radio station broadcasting a non-commercial educational format. Licensed to Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, (though most of their legal IDs continue to refer to College, Alaska, which their previous frequency was licensed to), the station serves the Alaska Interior area. The station is currently owned by the University of Alaska Board of Regents, on behalf of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. The station has won many state broadcasting awards and in spring 2012 was in the top 10 college stations competing for the MTV Woodie award.

On September 6, 1984, KSUA-FM came on for the first time, on a frequency of 103.9 MHz. Branded as KSUA 104 FM. Rising out of the freshly reformatted KMPS, KSUA had a new transmitter and a license from the FCC, but was still operated by SMI. Playing what is referred to in the radio industry as the "Album-Oriented Rock" or AOR format (focusing on 'deep albums tracks' in addition to more popular singles), KSUA-FM began as one of the few commercial college stations in the country.


KSUA quickly became the most popular station in the Greater Fairbanks area, with a format of playing a wide range of music that included Classic Rock, Alternative, Heavy Metal, Industrial, traditional Chicago and Delta Blues, Grunge (well before the genre became widely recognized) and a host of Independent recording acts. The station served as a launching pad for 'Glenner and Jerry' (aka Glen Anderson and Jerry Evans), popular local announcers who enlivened the morning show format in Fairbanks, and who still work in local radio today at different stations.

KSUA's fortunes began to decline in the late 1980s. KFAR, the predominant commercial station in Fairbanks, had a format for many years in the 1970s and 1980s of top 40 music and local news and talk. Bill Walley, the station's owner, had resisted expanding into some of the more contemporary music trends and radio formats which had emerged during the 1980s, and in fact had in part seeded KSUA during its push to become an open air station. A combination of Walley starting KWLF in 1987 and hiring away Anderson and Evans, and the decline of the Alaskan economy during the same period, saw KSUA's status as a commercial radio entity take a sudden sharp downturn. As Fairbanks's radio market expanded with a flood of new stations in the early 1990s, acute financial troubles began to plague KSUA. The station's advertising revenues steadily declined amidst an increasingly competitive broadcasting landscape. KSUA was eventually unable to meet its payroll demands to both management and on-air staff. The formerly-paid D.J.s were asked to volunteer, but in protest, one of them filed a wage claim with the Department of Labor, and KSUA was forced to give out almost $45,000 in unpaid wages. Out of money, KSUA went dark March 8, 1993.

*source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSUA

Thursday, April 17, 2014

WZAK 93FM, Cleveland (1990s)

Unused bumper sticker from the 1990s, sheet measures approximately 22.5 cm by 7.5 cm.
Front side: background: red; WZAK 93FM logo + 1 small sticker.

Back side: white.



Unused bumper sticker from the 1990s, sheet measures approximately diameter 10 cm.
Front side: background: chalk; text "More Music" and "More Money", WZAK logo.

Back side: white.



Unused bumper sticker from the 1990s, sheet measures approximately diameter 10 cm.
Front side: background: yellow; text "More Music" and "Less Talk", WZAK logo.

Back side: white.



WZAK (operates on 93.1 FM) – now branded as 93.1 WZAK–is a commercial urban adult contemporary (urban AC) radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio. USA. Owned by Radio One, WZAK is the Cleveland FM affiliate for The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and sole affiliate for D.L. Hughley's nationally syndicated show. Besides a standard analog transmission, WZAK broadcasts over three HD Radio channels. Its studios are located along the Euclid Avenue Corridor in East Cleveland, and its transmitter tower is in Brecksville.

WZAK began as an ethnic radio station, signing on the air on May 26, 1963. The Ohio Music Corporation, the local franchise for MUZAK, had the original construction permit to build the station. Ohio Music Corporation, Xen & Lula Zapis, Joe & Betty Bauer and Bob Stumpf formed Trans World Broadcasting to put WZAK on the air.

Zapis and the Bauers had been previously involved with WXEN, an earlier ethnic programmer in Cleveland, which Zapis also was associated with (and which had call letters derived from Zapis' first name). WZAK was Cleveland's first full-time ethnic radio station, presenting programming in 17 foreign languages, including programs in Hungarian, German (hosted by the Bauers and a second show hosted by Bob Stumpf), Italian, Slovenian, Greek (hosted by Zapis and his wife Lula), Irish, Arabic, Lebanese, and Hindi. Some groups had multiple different programs; there were, for example, five different programs offered in Spanish and five different German programs.

Most programs were brokered, that is, the program producers were not station employees, but independent producers who put the program on the air determined program content, and sold the advertising for the program. Although the program content varied, most programs primarily featured music from the homeland, along with some news or discussion. Although foreign languages seemed to dominate, English was actually used about half of the time during the station's broadcasts. Owing to this practice, one of the more popular programs that aired on WZAK was not ethnic at all, but was an early progressive rock show hosted by Barry Weingart and Steve "Doc Nemo" Nemeth in 1967.

WZAK's only competition in the Cleveland market came from WXEN which also featured ethnic programming for a portion of its schedule. WZAK was the city's only full-time ethnic station – and its last. By 1979 the station, then owned by Trans World Broadcasting Corp. of Cleveland whose president was Zapis, found it difficult to maintain its ethnic format. The number of listeners was declining, several of the program hosts had died or retired, and the overall financial situation was discouraging. In 1980, Zapis bought out his partners to become the majority owner of the station, forming Zapis Communications. The station began straying from its all-ethnic format, as Wayne Mack began programming and hosting hours ethnic "beautiful music" on the station.

On March 2, 1981, the station adopted a black-oriented urban contemporary format, continuing its ethnic programming only on Sundays (for a while). Ratings improved with the arrival in May 1982 of program director and DJ Lynn Tolliver, Jr. and general sales manager Mike Hilber. Several controversial promotions also drew media attention to the station. Over the next few years, the station's ratings climbed, and it finished first in the Aribtron ratings on April 5, 1990. Critical opinion also improved. In 1993, for example, it won three Billboard magazine awards] Zapis Communications purchased and operated radio stations in Atlanta, Boston (WWTM, WAAF), Akron and Youngstown (WPAO, WICT, WWSY). WZAK faced stiffed competition from Beasley Broadcasting's "Disco 108" (WDMT), which at the time played club mixes and more disco and urban music in Cleveland

In 1997, the station replaced its popular Three's Company morning show with the syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show. The January 16, 1997 and January 15, 1998 Arbitron ratings again showed WZAK to be the number one station in Cleveland.

On August 12, 1998, Chancellor Media Corporation of Texas announced its purchase of WZAK from Zapis Communications, along with its purchase of five other Cleveland radio stations, WZJM, WDOK, WQAL, WRMR and WJMO, for $275 million. It was, at the time, the largest radio deal in Cleveland broadcasting history. On July 13, 1999, Chancellor Media merged with Capstar Broadcasting to form AMFM Inc., at that time the nation's largest radio station owner with 465 stations. AMFM sold WZAK to Radio One on July 20, 2000 as part of a required divestiture when AMFM merged with Clear Channel Communications.


*source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WZAK

Sunday, April 6, 2014

99.5 The Fox, Detroit (1988)

Unused bumper sticker from 1988, sheet measures approximately 22 cm by 7.5 cm.
Front side: background: white; text "99.5", The Fox logo.

Back side: Hungry Howie's, Sound Warehouse discount coupon.



99.5 The Fox (WDFX) was a CHR/Top 40 station in Detroit, USA, circa 1988-1992.

Part of the branding of this station included a logo with red lettering and a fox tail coming off the letter X. For a short time, The Fox tweaked its CHR format into "Rock 40," a variation of Top 40 heavy on hair bands and other rock-oriented acts, and saw its ratings slide after a promising beginning.

Afterwards, The Fox tweaked its format back to mainstream CHR, and at the same time, added some hip hop to compete with Power 96. Ratings did improve and the station posted frequent Arbitron top 10 showings in the late 1980s and early 1990s - but advertising revenue was poor and, in September 1990, the station went into receivership. In addition, WDFX's ratings were adversely affected (as were WHYT's) by the debut of modern rock station 89X in 1991.

On December 24, 1992, the station started stunting by having a character named "Cowboy Hugh Chardon" (played by Dr. Don Carpenter) play "Friends In Low Places" by Garth Brooks repeatedly (for his good buddy Bobby Stalls in Birmingham) and try to kill "The Fox" using various methods suggested by "listeners". This was followed by an automated countdown that started at Midnight on Christmas Day, beginning with 63,752 and ending with number one on December 28, 1992. (This was apparently done so they could rebuild the studios.) Instead of changing formats when the countdown ended, it stunted for another week with a six-hour loop of novelty songs they called "goofy loops" played repeatedly. This continued until the early morning of January 4, 1993 (the first Monday after the holiday week), when the station finally finished changing formats and became "99-5 WOW-FM" WOWF (the call letters had actually been in place since October 1992), a news/talk station with broadcasters such as Art Vuolo and Ed Tyll coming to the station. However, by popular demand, the "goofy loops" track was brought back at weekends for the life of the station.


99.5 FM is currently Country WYCD.

*Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYCD

Thursday, April 3, 2014

KRTS 92.1, Houston (2001)

Unused bumper sticker from 2001, sheet measures approximately 30.3 cm by 8 cm.
Front side: background: purple, lite purple; text "Bach Around The Clock!", KRTS 92.1 logo.

Back side: white.



The 92.1 FM frequency in Houston, Texas, USA signed on the air in September 1983 with a CHR format as KZRQ "Z92". The station took heavy shots against its CHR neighbor on the dial, KKBQ "93FM".

By the fall of 1984, KZRQ was gone, as the station flipped to a beautiful music format with the KYND callsign. (ironically KKBQ-FM's previous incarnation). Later, the station was known as KRTS with a classical music format. KRTS was created to fill the void when KLEF (94.5 FM), flipped from classical to adult contemporary as KJYY.


Radio One purchased KRTS in 2004, changed its calls to KROI with a new short-lived Regional Mexican format as "La Mera Mera". When that was unsuccessful, its owners, which mainly specialize in Urban radio formatted station ownership (with a majority African-American listener base), flipped it one more time to an urban gospel format branded as "Praise 92.1".


On October 28, 2011, Radio One announced that KROI would flip to a (mainly) all-news format, starting November 17, branded as "News 92". This is the first time Radio One has programmed an all-news station geared towards a mainstream audience. (Houston, the 6th largest radio market in the USA, according to Arbitron, has been underserved in regards to radio news, as KTRH and KPRC, well known for news coverage in past decades, have become predominantly talk radio oriented in recent years). The Praise 92 gospel format moved over to the HD2 subchannel of KMJQ and to its online website.

*Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KROI

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Prambors Rasisonia 102.3 FM, Jakarta (1993)

Unused bumper sticker from 1993, sheet measures approximately 20 cm by 7.3 cm.
Front side: background: white; Prambors logo.

Back side: white.



Unused bumper sticker from 1993, sheet measures approximately 26 cm by 4.5 cm.
Front side: background: yellow-chrome; 102.3FMania logo.

Back side: brown; 102.3FMania 8 Steps to Win procedure, registration form.



Prambors Rasisonia (now re-branded as Prambors Radio) is a commercial radio network based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Prambors plays hit music with target listener is teenagers.

Between 1970s and early 2000s, Prambors Rasisonia is one of the most influential stations in Greater Jakarta area and become an radio icon for youngsters in Jakarta, even Indonesia .

Prambors currently operates on 102.2 FM, previously aired on AM 666 kHz (1970s-1980s), and then migrated to 102.3 FM in the late 1980s. Between 1993 and 1996 Prambors was re-branded as 102.3FMania, but they
was returned under the former branding Prambors in 1996 as Prambors Radio. Prambors moved to 102.2 FM in 2003.

Many popular air personalities on Prambors' history such as Dono, Kasino, Indro (Warkop Prambors).. very popular in the 1970s to 1980s, Sys NS and his team at Sersan Prambors (1980s), Ida Arimurti and Krisna Purwana ("Porsi Kamu" morning show hosts), Artha Bangun, Meuthia Kasim, Iwan Haryono, Epri, Asri Poeratmadja, Aryono Arifin, Becky Tumewu, Ferdy Hasan, Irfan Ikhsan, Arlingga Panega (Angga), Fla Priscilla, Daddo Parus, Praditya Soetrisno, Vena Annisa, Joe Danu, Arie Dagienkz & Desta, Nycta Gina, Imam Darto, Dimas Danang, and others.

Prambors Rasisonia was founded on March 18, 1971 and located in Menteng area, Central Jakarta. Phrase "Prambors" is derived from a number of street names in this area.. PRAmbanan Mendut BORobudur, and additional letter S is for "dan Sekitarnya".