Saturday, May 31, 2014

93QFM, Milwaukee (1990)

Unused bumper sticker from the 1990, sheet measures approximately 19 cm by 9.5 cm. 
Front side: background: black; 93QFM logo. 
Back side: white.


WQFM (branded as "93QFM") was a commercial radio station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, broadcasting on 93.3 FM.

Beginning in 1958, WQFM had various formats, including classical music, big band music, jazz and ethnic programming before a short-lived automated Top 40 format. For many years, starting in 1973, this was Milwaukee's dominant Album Oriented Rock station. They competed with the eclectic free-form WZMF until 1979, and WLPX until 1983.

"93QFM" was the top rock station in town for over a decade, but faced its stiffest competition in 1986, when WBCS dropped their country music format and became hard-rocker "Lazer 103". They shifted to a more heavy metal/hard rock direction, similar to that of Lazer, then switched to a more "adult" rock feel in 1992, then became heavier again. In addition, the station had a seemingly endless succession of morning shows over the years, including an ill-fated attempt at airing Wisconsin native Jonathon Brandmeier's show from WLUP in Chicago, which backfired when WLUP shuffled their on-air lineup, moved Brandmeier to afternoons, putting Kevin Matthews in morning drive. At one point, WQFM put together one short-lived morning show that consisted of people who had never done radio, which included Lori Minetti, the hostess of the Wisconsin Lottery's Money Game television show.


After years of poor and hasty decisions and falling ratings, the owners of WQFM pulled the plug in March 1996 and flipped the station to smooth jazz as WJZI. WJZI's smooth jazz format never dominated the local ratings, but remained competitive in the middle portion of the Arbitrons. In the winter of 2005, the station tied for 9th place with WJMR among listeners 25 to 54, but rose to 7th place in the winter of 2006.


On March 5, 2007, WJZI began a transition in its format, gearing the station towards a slightly younger female demographic. This involved adding more adult contemporary music. De-emphasizing the smooth jazz music that was a staple of the station, WJZI changed its branding to "Smooth 93.3," as it slowly began to make the transition to full-fledged soft rock.


93.3 FM is currently WLDB, branding as "B93.3".

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

Friday, May 30, 2014

FM94 CGY, Boston (1987)

Unused bumper sticker from the 1987, sheet measures approximately 19 cm by 9.5 cm. 
Front side: background: blue; FM94 CGY logo; text: "Classic Rock and Roll". 
Back side: brown.


WCGY 93.7 FM (SuperHits 94 CGY) was a radio station in Greater Boston, Massachusetts, USA. In the station's early days as WGHJ and WCCM-FM, 93.7 aired locally based programming that targeted Lawrence and the Merrimack Valley. In 1974 the station evolved into WCGY, an automated Stereo Top 40/oldies station that targeted the Greater Boston, Massachusetts area, due to the signal's strength. The call letters were chosen with the owner in mind as Curt Gowdy and his children owned and operated the station until the sale to American Radio Systems in 1994.

In 1983, WCGY flipped to an oldies format playing hits of the '50s and '60s. The station, however, did not perform well in the Boston ratings. Some early to mid '70s oldies were mixed in by 1984, and by 1985, the '50s music was gone. The station by then was called "Superhits  94 CGY". By 1986, the station leaned slightly toward classic rock still playing mostly music from 1964 to 1974. By 1987, WCGY evolved to more of a classic rock format and held on to this format until 1994. From 1992-1994, they were called "Rock 93, WCGY"

On September 30, 1994, after the station was sold to American Radio Systems, WCGY became '70s-formatted WEGQ "Eagle 93.7", which then underwent many changes over its five-year existence. Initially, they played music from 1970-79 ranging from classic rock to disco to pop to pop/rock to novelty to easy listening.


93.7 FM is currently WEEI-FM (SportsRadio 93.7).

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

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Orange Juice, USA (1994, 2000)

There are quite a few "Orange/Juice" stations across the USA with the similar orange logo. Currently I have sticker of K-Juice 1370, Austin, Texas; 101 The Juice, Atlanta; and O.J. 92.7 Riverside. Are they owned by same or different companies?

Unused bumper sticker from the 2000, sheet measures approximately 15 cm by 7.5 cm.
Front side: background: black; K-Juice logo.

Back side: white.



Unused bumper sticker from the 2000, sheet measures approximately 19.5 cm by 8.5 cm.
Front side: background: black; The Juice logo; text: "Best Songs - No Rap"; + 1 small sticker.

Back side: white.



Unused bumper sticker from the 1994, sheet measures approximately 18 cm by 7.3 cm.
Front side: background: black; rounded; O.J. 92.7 logo; text: "Fresh Country Hits".

Back side: Grease Monkey discount coupon.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

FM98 WJLB, Detroit (1990)

Unused bumper sticker from the 1990, sheet measures approximately 22.5 cm by 7.5 cm.
Front side: background: navy; text: "Detroit's Strongest Songs"; WJLB logo; the muscular arm.

Back side: Coats for Kids, Little Caesars Pizza discount coupon.



WJLB (FM98) is a mainstream urban radio station in Detroit, Michigan, USA that broadcasts on 97.9 MHz.

WJLB, along with sister WMXD (Mix 92.3), broadcast for 20 years in Detroit's Penobscot Building in the heart of the financial district. Clear Channel moved both stations to a building in Farmington Hills in November 2009. WJLB's transmitter is located in Highland Park near the intersection of Hamilton Avenue and Midland Street, and transmits its signal from an antenna 489 feet in height with an effective radiated power of 50,000 watts. FM98 can be heard far north as Flint and as far west as Lansing on I-96, and past Jackson west on Interstate 94. WJLB can be heard farther distances at night, as is typical in radio.


The station traces its origins to a testing station which began operations on May 7, 1941, with 1,000 watts of power at 44.9 megahertz frequency. On May 24, it officially began broadcasting as W49D, Michigan's second FM radio station. It was owned by John Lord Booth. WJLB = W John Lord Booth.

On September 12, 1945, W49D was assigned a full-powered frequency at 96.5 MHz and renamed WLOU. In June 1948, the station moved up to the 97.9 frequency as WMZK, which was a play on the word music, with a format of automated beautiful music. In later years, WMZK alternated between beautiful music and foreign-language programming for various ethnic groups.

In 1980, the WJLB callsign migrated back to the FM dial along with an urban contemporary format from the AM 1400 kHz frequency. WJLB-AM, which went on the air as WMBC in 1926 and adopted the WJLB callsign in 1939, had been providing programming geared toward Detroit's black community for nearly four decades.

Now, the stereo FM station became "FM98 WJLB, Detroit's Strongest Songs". WJLB-AM 1400 continued to program to the African-American community in Detroit for nearly a quarter-century afterward as WQBH, and is now WDTK, owned by Salem Communications with a conservative news/talk format. Within a few years, WJLB-FM performed well in the Detroit Arbitron ratings, despite picking up competition from several competitors including WHYT (Power 96), which was mostly dance and Top 40 but in 1992 would flip to "96.3 Jamz" and aired a rhythmic contemporary format, and then in 1996 at the 105.9 frequency, the former jazz-formatted WJZZ, which became WCHB-FM "The Beat" and later WDTJ "105.9 Jamz" (now urban AC-formatted WDMK "105.9 Kiss FM"). FM98 was famous for its specialty Friday mix shows with "Electrifying Mojo" and the "Sunday Night Segue," hosted by John "Johnny Smooth" Edwards, featuring classic "Quiet Storm" tracks.

In April 1994, Booth American Company merged with Broadcast Alchemy to become Secret Communications. In August, Chancellor Media acquired the station from Secret Communications. In 1997, Chancellor Media and Evergreen, which already owned WKQI "Q95-5" and WMGC later merged to form AMFM, Inc. In November 1999, AMFM, Inc. was purchased by Clear Channel Communications. WJLB and sister station WMXD have been under the Clear Channel banner ever since. Over the last several years, WJLB has shifted to a more younger demo playlist with more Hip Hop and less Urban and Old school and House Music which the station was built on in the 1990s and through 2005.

WJLB's HD2 side channel features a Motown oldies format known as "The Sounds of Detroit," which changed from a Classic Hip-Hop format in the fall of 2013.

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

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Mix 102.9, Dallas (1998-2005)

Unused bumper sticker from the 2005, sheet measures approximately 22 cm by 8 cm.
Front side: background: white; Mix 102.9 logo; text: "Mix Means Variety!"

Back side: white.



Unused bumper sticker from the 2004, sheet measures approximately 12 cm by 5 cm.
Front side: background: white; Mix 102.9 logo.

Back side: white.



Unused bumper sticker from the 1999, sheet measures approximately 23 cm by 6 cm.
Front side: background: purple; Mix 102.9 logo.

Back side: white.



Unused bumper sticker from the 1998, sheet measures approximately 20 cm by 3.3 cm.
Front side: background: blue, black; Mix 102.9 logo.

Back side: white.



KDMX (Mix 102.9) was a Hot Adult Contemporary station in Dallas, Texas, USA, from 1991 to 2012. This station first began its broadcasting activities as KQRO on October 15, 1960 (although license was granted on July 2, 1959). It went dark a year later then returned to the airwaves in 1962. For that time, KQRO's format consisted mostly of classical and orchestral music. In 1965, the callsign was changed to KEIR with an unknown format.

In 1971, the call letters were changed once again to KDTX, this time with a religious format. Then over six years later, the callsign was changed to KMGC (the KDTX call letters were later used on a local TV station in 1987, ironically with Christian programming) and the Christian contemporary format continued up until September 1977. It was then changed to an adult contemporary format as Mellow 102.9 and a month later to Magic 102.9. Prior to that, a mass distribution of door-hanger flyers announced the station is coming. The station enjoyed a loyal following until May 9, 1991, when KMGC began stunting with a series of formats ranging from rock oldies (as "Cool 102.9" on May 9) to country (as "Kickin' Country" on May 10) to an all-Beatles format (also on May 10), and then party cocktail noise on May 11 and May 12, before changing to its current call letters and settling on its long-running Hot adult contemporary format as "Mix 102.9." Call letters stand for "K Dallas MiX" (similarly-named sister station KHMX (Mix 96.5) in Houston is named regionally as well.)


Typically, a Hot AC station wouldn't play any hip hop/rap songs or pop songs that feature rappers. However, as of 2011, KDMX began playing very few said tracks by LMFAO, Gym Class Heroes, and Pitbull; as of 2012, KDMX began playing songs from artists like Flo Rida, Eminem, and Nicki Minaj.

On May 18, 2012, KDMX rebranded as "102.9 NOW" dropping most modern AC artists, and shifted to an Adult CHR format. However, as of October 2012, KDMX returned to Hot AC. Some of the Modern AC artists have returned to the station's playlist, and dropped some hip hop tracks. The switch back to Hot AC was likely due to low ratings, as well as playlist overlap with sister CHR KHKS (106.1 KISS FM). It is the only Hot AC station in the market, as there are no competitors. However, it shares an audience with CBS-owned 103.7 KVIL, which recently retooled its AC format to include music from the 90s to current product.


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

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Energy 103.7, San Diego (2012)

Unused bumper sticker from the 2012, sheet measures approximately 14.5 cm by 9 cm.
Front side: background: magenta, cyan; Energy 103.7 logo.

Back side: Jack Powell promo.



Unused bumper sticker from the 2012, sheet measures approximately 14.5 cm by 9 cm.
Front side: background: orange, deep yellow; Energy 103.7 logo.

Back side: Go Fast promo.



KEGY (Energy 103.7) is Top 40 (CHR) station based in San Diego, USA. Owned and operated by CBS Radio. The station broadcasts in HD Radio. The HD2 broadcasts a simulcast of sister station KROQ-FM, Los Angeles. House of Sophie, which broadcasts down-tempo and chill-out music, is on the HD3 signal. Its studios are in the city's Linda Vista neighborhood and the transmitter site is in La Jolla.

The station originally signed on in February 1965 as KSDO-FM, and aired Country music. It was co-owned with KSDO-AM. By the late 1970s, the station was KOZN-FM playing a beautiful music format. On May 20, 1979, the call letters were changed to KJQY and the station was known as "K-Joy". The station evolved into an adult contemporary format in the late 1980s as "Sunny 103.7", then in 1995 it became "Rock Mix 103.7" KMKX, playing classic rock music.


On October 25, 2005, the station changed formats from classic rock to an FM talk format with the brand "Free FM", and their call letters changed on October 28 from KPLN to KSCF. In December 2005, Howard Stern left the terrestrial airwaves and moved to Sirius Satellite Radio. At the beginning, Adam Carolla was their morning show host. He started January 3, 2006, replacing Stern.


In the end, the attempt to make Free FM a success in San Diego had proven to be too difficult and like other Free FM sister stations in New York City (WFNY) and San Francisco (KIFR), which returned to active rock and classic hits respectively, KSCF decided to switch formats in June 2007. To add to the demise of the Free FM family of stations, Its sister station in Phoenix (KZON) flipped to Rhythmic Contemporary at the same exact time as KSCF's format switch.

On June 22, 2007, KSCF flipped to Oldies as "K-Surf 103.7". They were supposed to be the market's first FM Oldies outlet since 2005, when XHOCL had the format prior to its flip to Regional Mexican. The Oldies format turned out to be a stunt as the station revealed its true format, a Modern AC as Sophie @ 103.7, adapted slightly from sister station KLLC in San Francisco, which is known as Alice @ 97.3.


On March 29, 2012, CBS Radio announced that it would flip KSCF to a CHR format with a heavy emphasis on upbeat Rhythmic, Dance and Pop hits targeting Teens and Adults 18–34 years old, using the "Energy 103.7" moniker. CBS also applied for a call letter change to KEGY, which was granted on April 2. The switch to top 40 mirrors other California markets with multiple top 40's, although San Diego has three--Los Angeles (KAMP-FM & KIIS-FM), San Francisco (KMVQ-FM & KREV). "Energy" competes with KHTS-FM and XHTZ. KEGY also appeals to be more rhythmic-leaning like other CBS Radio contemporary hit radio stations such as WNOW-FM New York City, KAMP-FM Los Angeles and KMVQ-FM San Francisco. This makes California have the most contemporary hit radio stations owned by the company out of any state, and the youngest in California after KMVQ-FM & KAMP-FM of CBS Radio's top 40s still having the format today.

CBS Radio's California hot AC stations are now solely located in Northern California with only KZZO Sacramento and KLLC San Francisco following the flip of KSCF to KEGY.

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