The 12 Days of Radio Station Signs

Happy Impending New Year! Now that I’ve wrapped up my 12 Days of Radio Station Signage series, here’s an opportunity for you to match each sign with its corresponding station. Some of them are obvious if you look closely at the pictures, others may be a bit more challenging. Ready, set, go!

Day 1: Do Not Spray

Day 2: Dead Fish

Day 3: You are Being Monitored

Day 4: Zero Tolerance Graffiti Policy

Day 5: Never Use Swear Words

Day 6: Please Put Records and CDs Back

Day 7: File Your Records Diagram

Day 8: Mic Technique

Day 9: Seven Deadly Words

Day 10: CD and LP Library Alphabetization

Day 11: When this Light is On…Shut Up!

Day 12: Don’t Go Back Here or Touch Anything

Guess Which Station Goes with Which Sign

Here are the stations where these photos were taken (in alphabetical order):

KCSB-FM

KDRT-LP

KDVS-FM

KEAR-AM (Family Radio Headquarters)

KSFS-FM

KSJS-FM

KUSF in Exile

KZSC-FM

KZSU-FM

WGBK-FM

WHRC

WZBC-FM

If you want to guess which station goes with which sign, please include a comment below. Good luck!

College Radio Station Signage (Photo J. Waits)

Recent Radio Survivor contributor Gavin Dahl has been doing an awesome job keeping tabs on radio stories in the press and has been compiling a massive list of recent stories over at Common Frequency.

Hopefully some time soon Gavin will be doing a regular feature for Radio Survivor in which he recaps radio stories, as that’s something that I’ve always wanted to do on this blog. Occasionally on Spinning Indie I will provide a quick run-down of college radio stories “in the news,” as I did last month with a College Radio (Good) News Round-up post.

So, to whet your appetite (and to provide encouragement to the over-extended Gavin!), here’s a list of some of the college radio-related stories that I’ve run across in the past week or so:

KZSC Gets Nod for its Eclectic Mix and “Best Radio Station” Press

KZSC, the college radio station at UC Santa Cruz, gets a nice feature in The Santa Cruz Sentinel; outlining both the history of the station and some recent attention that it received from The Huffington Post.

Wayne State’s Radio Station Recreates “Turkey Drop” Made Famous by WKRP

KWSC at Wayne State College in Nebraska hosted its 15th annual “Turkey Drop,” in which students dropped a range of items including a frozen turkey, a dresser, and a pool table from the 3rd floor of a campus building. The event was broadcast live over KWSC as an homage to an episode of “WKRP in Cincinnati.”

WGCC Celebrates its 25th Anniversary

Genesee Community College’s radio station WGCC turned 25 and hosted a birthday bash in Batavia, NY.

KROL Radio’s Questionable FCC Status

Carroll College radio station KROL has been broadcasting without an FCC license as a LPFM station at 88.5FM in Helena, Montana. A public radio group is hoping to broadcast a full power station from the same frequency, so there has been some question about whether or not the student radio station can continue broadcasting.

Sign Outside College Radio Station KZSC

Those who make pronouncements about radio are always saying that it’s a personality-driven medium. I’m not so sure that I agree with that when it comes to non-commercial radio (especially college radio stations that are focused more on the music than on the DJs); but there’s no doubt that listeners are often drawn to and captivated by certain on-air personalities.

One such personality is Jesse Thorn (aka the host of The Sound of Young America, a syndicated public radio show) and he actually has a college radio past.

As I was writing up a news item about this for my Spinning Indie blog, I found a vintage 2006 article in which he outlines a list of the typical characters who one might encounter at a college/community radio station (no doubt inspired by his experience at college station KZSC where he first developed his radio show). According to Jesse these college/community radio archetypes are:

• Arrogant 19-year old
• Awareness Raiser
• Reggae Guys
• Aging Hippies (Friendly)
• Aging Hippies (Embittered)
• Student Station Manager
• Long-Suffering Faculty Member
• Aspiring Public Radio Producers

And, indeed, it’s all those crazy stereotypic personalities that make college and community radio great: both on the air and behind the scenes.