AM Stations that "abbreviated their frequency" in slogans

A few from my experience and travels....

Chicago: WLS and WCFL have already mentioned. As has WMAQ from its all news days...but not in the mid 60s when it was 67-Q
Milwaukee: Home to WOKY "Mighty 92" and later WISN "Radio 11"

And some others....

Jackson, MS: 62/JDX (WJDX 620)
Kansas City: 71/WHB or WHB dial 71 (WHB 710)
San Diego: 11-7 KCBQ (KCBQ 1170)
Winnipeg: KY/58 (CKY 580)
Honolulu: Coral Honolulu Channel 65 (KORL 650)

cyberdad said:

A few from my experience and travels....

Chicago: WLS and WCFL have already mentioned. As has WMAQ from its all news days...but not in the mid 60s when it was 67-Q
Milwaukee: Home to WOKY "Mighty 92" and later WISN "Radio 11"

And some others....

Jackson, MS: 62/JDX (WJDX 620)
Kansas City: 71/WHB or WHB dial 71 (WHB 710)
San Diego: 11-7 KCBQ (KCBQ 1170)
Winnipeg: KY/58 (CKY 580)
Honolulu: Coral Honolulu Channel 65 (KORL 650)

Click to expand...

Pat O'Day (legendary "KJR Seattle Channel 95" jock) owned KORL.

In Wilmington Delaware, I believe, in early 1970's:

WDEL Radio 115

In Philly:
WIP channel 61, color radio [may have been late 60's - was still a Metromedia station]

WCAU radio 121 in Philadelphia, this is where the news is.

Classic FM rounding in Birmingham:

WDJC (93.7) rounded down to 93-WDJC well into the 2000's
WAPI (94.5) rounded down to 94 until 1981 when it flipped from easy listening to AOR as 95 Rock, then to CHR as I-95.
WQEZ (96.5) was your Q to EZ listening, Stereo 96. When they flipped to AC as WMJJ they branded themselves as Magic 96.
WLBI (98.7) signed on as Great 98, WLBI, because...
WVOK-FM, later WRKK, later WQUS, later WLTB and finally WZRR (99.5) all used 99 in their branding, and they were on the air first (K-99, US-99, Lite 99, and Rock 99).
WZZK (104.7) rounded up to FM 105.
WERC-FM (106.9) was Stereo Rock FM 107-ERC. When they flipped to CHR as WKXX in 1977, they branded themselves as Kicks 106.

A couple have already been mentioned from Canada (Calgary's AM 106 and Winnipeg's KY58 both great top 40 stations) but there were also Red Deer's Radio 7 (CKRD 700) Vancouver's 14 CFUN, LG73, Edmonton's 126 CFRN Drumheller's Q91, and it's satellite stations, Q13 (1340) and Q 14 (1400) Q 91 is still used today. Winnipeg also had CKRC63 and 13 CFRW (1290). I definitely remember 16 KJET and KJR AM 95 from Seattle...and WMAL AM 63 from DC.

The only one I remember here was WPOP-AM 1410 of Hartford, in their news radio days of the 1980s. They called themselves "NEWSRADIO 14-WPOP".

My memory from growing up in Los Angeles, and later in San Francisco was that practically ALL AM stations below 1010 prior to digital radio dials abbreviated to 2 digits while those at and above 1010 tended not to. There was the occasional exception on both ends - KMPC was 710, KFRC San Francisco was the "Big 610," and KGB San Diego was 136 during the Top 40 era.

My speculation on the "10" stations was that they tended not to abbreviate because '610,' or '710' when spoken were one less syllable than '61' or '71.'

But if this topic had been titled "What AM stations DIDN'T abbreviate, the thread would have been much shorter.

WFGL 960 Fitchburg, MA - "Radio 96" (late 1970's, early 1980's)

Phoenix also had Top40 KRIZ 1-2-3 (1230)...better known as "Fun lovin' King KRIZ Color Channel 1-2-3"

We recently had one here in the midstate that tried "rounding" their frequency, but it apparently didn't work. It was WMAK-AM 1570 out of Linden, TN. They came on the air last October, branding themselves as "Solid Gold 16," but about a month or so later, they changed formats and started emphasizing their actual frequency. I am sure that in this digital age, the term "Solid Gold 16" only served to confuse listeners, especially since the station was at 1570 (not 1600) on the radio dial. And in this digital age, they just won't get away with that much "rounding" anymore. People know better. It isn't 1975 anymore.

Surprised that I never mentioned this one earlier. WJZM, AM 1400, of Clarksville, TN, was "14jzm" during their days as a music station. You can look at their website below, and still a photo with an old "14jzm" logo in the background. They apparently go by their full name now.

http://www.wjzm.com/

After all these pages, how can we forget 'Famous 56' WFIL.

Their sounder leading up to the weather in the late 60s and early 70s was "56 Forecast".

LKellerIII said:

My memory from growing up in Los Angeles, and later in San Francisco was that practically ALL AM stations below 1010 prior to digital radio dials abbreviated to 2 digits while those at and above 1010 tended not to. There was the occasional exception on both ends - KMPC was 710, KFRC San Francisco was the "Big 610," and KGB San Diego was 136 during the Top 40 era.

My speculation on the "10" stations was that they tended not to abbreviate because '610,' or '710' when spoken were one less syllable than '61' or '71.'

But if this topic had been titled "What AM stations DIDN'T abbreviate, the thread would have been much shorter.

Click to expand...

The first thing KFRC did when it dropped Top 40 in the mid-80s, was adopt 'Magic 61', and keep the call letters hidden except for legal IDs. KSFO, no matter what format, has never 'shortened' its frequency to '56'. I believe that during their 'Hot Talk' era, they finally started doing the thing that all the other 'two-digit' stations did for years, where they would slip the dial position into the end of the weather report('It's 53 in San Francisco, and 74 on your dial...KCBS, all-news 74.') But 'And on your radio, it's 560' just sounds more forced than a number that would actually be heard in a temperature report.

Syracuse in the '70s had 62WHEN. The station did a promotion centered around a classic car it called the "62 Heavy Chevy."

Allentown PA followed the trend with dropping the zero:
79 WAEB
WEEX Radio 1-2-3 and they used The Big X almost interchangeably.
1320 WKAP was Super K

We had some unusual ones for FM. The format on 100.7 (now WLEV) was Beautiful Music and they would say “WFMZ at FM One Hundred Plus.” WQQQ (now WODE) at 99.9 said it normally, but their logo used the lower-case Q which looks like a nine, hence wqq.q - pretty cool.

WMEX 1510 in Boston was X-15 in the 70s

rhead said:

In Houston, in the 80s, there was top 40 KKBQ "79Q" on 790. Their co-owned FM on 92.9 was (and still is) known as "93Q", even though they've long since switched to country.

In more recent years, in late 2001 and early 2002, there was an oldies station in Beaumont, TX on 1380 that called themselves "The Big 138."

In San Antonio, KTSA 550 called themselves "55 KTSA" back when they still played music.

As far as abbreviated/rounded FM frequencies- the above mentioned "93Q" was originally on 92.5, but moved to 92.9 within a year's time.

Now-defunct country KIKK-FM on 95.7 for years called themselves "KIKK (pronounced as "kick") 96 FM."

As for another rare example of a .5 station that rounded up- there was KSRR on 96.5 that called themselves "97 Rock."

Most of the Houston FMs used abbreviated or rounded frequencies in their branding for most of their existence, but eventually most started using their exact frequencies by the late 90s or early 2000s.

Click to expand...

Never heard KIKK FM round up...I always heard them call themselves KIKK 95...not 96....I'll have to ask Celeste who was there for 25+ years if she remembers them as 96.

Also 560 KLVI in Beaumont was 56 (gee wonder why?) in its top40 days (I still have the shotgun cart somewhere!)...

790 was calling itself 79 KULF before the KKBQ days....(I have tapes of Stevens and Pruett on KULF from the early 80s..doing their Star Trots routine...which evidently a lot of people have forgotten! S&P left KULF just after Gannett announced they were buying the station....to go to 97.1 KEGL in Dallas...and then Gannett had "Black Friday" where everyone was fired and the next Monday came John Landers and the Q ZOO under the new KKBQ callsign)

610 KILT AM never went by 61......one of the few Top40 AMs that did not drop the zero....

The FMs rounded because of the analog tuned radios...as digital radios took over, they had to give their real freq...except 98 KFMK..they stayed with that moniker for a long time..before the format/callsign changed...and they became 97.9!

KRBE merely was 104....107.5 was Z107 and Rocket 107 ....

but this thread is about AM, not FMs.

KILE in Galveston was 14 K-I-L-E for most of its Top 40 days.....so was KAOK in Lake Charles, LA...

I think KTRM in Beaumont never went by 99........but I didnt listen to it that much in its country days so not 100% sure.