George McFly KXXX 100 San Francisco 1988 1989 aircheck

[recto101]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bQRUpgTOmI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obt1Dl4JttE

Remember Super Snake on KXXX and George McFly Ehat happen to them?

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Super Snake lives in Arizona and is still heard on 101.5 JAMZ (KZON) in Phoenix:

http://supersnake.com/

McFly has bounced around a bit, and is now at K-Hits (WJMK) in Chicago:

http://khitschicago.radio.com/shows/george-mcfly/

 

[richransom]

Hi David - I've sent emails, messages, and smoke signals....do you have the airchecks I sent you several YEARS ago?! You were going to transfer them off cassette and have them uploaded on the KMEL section of your site? It would be a tragedy if these were lost or destroyed..

-Rich Ransom

 

[recto101]

I heard the George McFly name from "Back to the Future"

 

[LKellerIII]

I heard the George McFly name from "Back to the Future"

Well yeah - there was a brief "trend" (though it was hardly that) of DJs taking their on-air names from characters in popular movies and TV shows. Writer Ken Levine's on-air name was Beaver Cleaver, and there were probably others, though I can't think of any at the moment.

 

[DavidKaye]

I heard the George McFly name from "Back to the Future"

Yes. In fact there was a famous lawsuit over the McFly name. There was a diner chain called P. I. McFly's and the restaurant chain sued the movie producers over the trademarked McFly name. The producers successfully argued in court that the trademark applied to a restaurant chain and not a movie, and that nobody would mistakenly go to see a movie thinking they were going to a restaurant.

Seriously, that was the argument and it won.

I've never liked people taking names from existing characters, with the exception of Ken Levine and Beaver Cleaver because he was downright clever and at the time he sounded like what Beaver Cleaver might have sounded like had he grown up and gone into radio.

I often wondered if there was any challenge on his use of the name.

 

[LKellerIII]

I heard the George McFly name from "Back to the Future"

Yes. In fact there was a famous lawsuit over the McFly name. There was a diner chain called P. I. McFly's and the restaurant chain sued the movie producers over the trademarked McFly name. The producers successfully argued in court that the trademark applied to a restaurant chain and not a movie, and that nobody would mistakenly go to see a movie thinking they were going to a restaurant.

Seriously, that was the argument and it won.

I've never liked people taking names from existing characters, with the exception of Ken Levine and Beaver Cleaver because he was downright clever and at the time he sounded like what Beaver Cleaver might have sounded like had he grown up and gone into radio.

I often wondered if there was any challenge on his use of the name.

I posed that question once in a Reelradio comment section and Levine answered No - that he had never been challenged legally for using Beaver Cleaver.

The other example (though not a TV or movie character) is Charlie Tuna, the on-air name of Art Ferguson. From the early 60s through the 70s, Starkist Tuna commercials on TV featured the animated character Charlie the Tuna, voiced by actor Herschel Bernardi. I remember seeing Charlie in a TV commercial recently, so I guess he's making a brief comeback, though Bernardi passed away in the 80s. But the DJ has been using the name for 40 plus years, so no challenge there either, I guess.

 

[recto101]

I heard the George McFly name from "Back to the Future"

Yes. In fact there was a famous lawsuit over the McFly name. There was a diner chain called P. I. McFly's and the restaurant chain sued the movie producers over the trademarked McFly name. The producers successfully argued in court that the trademark applied to a restaurant chain and not a movie, and that nobody would mistakenly go to see a movie thinking they were going to a restaurant.

Seriously, that was the argument and it won.

I've never liked people taking names from existing characters, with the exception of Ken Levine and Beaver Cleaver because he was downright clever and at the time he sounded like what Beaver Cleaver might have sounded like had he grown up and gone into radio.

I often wondered if there was any challenge on his use of the name.

I posed that question once in a Reelradio comment section and Levine answered No - that he had never been challenged legally for using Beaver Cleaver.

The other example (though not a TV or movie character) is Charlie Tuna, the on-air name of Art Ferguson. From the early 60s through the 70s, Starkist Tuna commercials on TV featured the animated character Charlie the Tuna, voiced by actor Herschel Bernardi. I remember seeing Charlie in a TV commercial recently, so I guess he's making a brief comeback, though Bernardi passed away in the 80s. But the DJ has been using the name for 40 plus years, so no challenge there either, I guess.

Wait is this Charlie Tuna who worked at KCBQ in San Diego and KHJ in LA when Bobby Ocean was doing radio in the Southland. All I know is that Bobby Ocean was in the Bay Area on and off for many years.

 

[LKellerIII]

Recto - Yes - that Charlie Tuna.