ABOUT THIS RADIO STICKER COLLECTION

Why am I building this site you ask?

Because I think the following things are cool: radio (many types, including broadcast radio)...graphics & logos.... computers, scanning & Photoshop... and radio stickers. (I can't stand that pungeant smell of those Static Cling type stickers though)!!! I've found over the years that I'm not the only one who collects "stix" as we call them. In fact there are hundreds of people who collect radio station stickers. I have not been able to find many websites with scanned collections so I thought I'd give it a try and improve my web skills at the same time. Feel free to look around and even use my images if you need them.

What on earth made me want these?

I accumulated a handful of local radio stickers in the late 1970's, and kept them in a box. By 7th grade I was developing a serious interest in radio, especially "DXing" or logging distant stations. I was into AM-FM-TV, longwave, shortwave, and later on, became a ham radio op.

In the early 80's I pulled out that box of stickers, pinned them up on my floor-to-ceiling bulletin board, and thought, "it would be cool to fill up the entire board with stickers." Soon after, I ran across an article on promotions in Broadcast Magazine that showed a display of radio decals from around the country. After seeing that, I decided to begin what I thought would be "the weirdest collection ever."

I looked for station addresses in phone books and other sources such as the Standard Rates & Data Service (SRDS), and wrote letters asking for "a few stickers." Some stations sent a dozen or more! Others would send one, or none. Sometimes I received t-shirts and other goodies. Some stations were very generous. I had a good "response rate". At first I wrote to AM stations that I'd heard, but soon noticed that FMs tended to have stickers more often than not. I stopped being particular!

When my first KMET sticker, I was inspired by that cool lettering and taped it up in my school locker, among other stickers. In fact, I liked that blue KMET so well that I painted my ham callsign in that style on a piece of cardbord.

I would ask for "several" stickers, intending to save them for future trading even though at the time, I thought I was the only one collecting such a strange thing (or so I thought). Then, I discovered DecalcoMania and joined. Then the Internet and email made trading even easier and faster, and still to this day I'm "trading out" all my old stock. I have not actively "canvassed" stations in many years, and hope to trade out all my duplicates. (Download my dupes list in RTF format)

The stickers in this site are dated by looking at the sticker's backing for coupons with"expiration" dates. I also dated stickers that I received directly from the station. Stickers coming from other traders are hard to date unless there are coupons on the backs. If you have time to let me know about obvious date errors, feel free to let me know (or anything else for that matter!) Send email here.

Want to meet others who are into radio? Check out

     -Tim Carlson's Bumper sticker collection
     -Radio Station Bumper Stickers Collectors Board
     -Collectors and Traders (of Stickers, Airchecks, Jingles, Promo material)
     -Cool Radio Resources (including station histories)


NOTE: if you are wondering where all the stickers are, I have become so busy that I can't seem to get to this project! Feel free to copy this whole idea if you have a collection you'd like to put online.