Custom radio station call letters in songs

While browsing my collection, I came upon an acetate of "Fire" by The Pointer Sisters, which mentioned the call letters of one of my old radio stations (WIFI-FM/Philadelphia). The call letters come right in the first verse:

"I'm drivin' in your car...you turn on the radio...Y-FI...you're pulling me close..." There must have been versions of that song for other stations.

How about a list of other songs that have customized call letter versions for radio stations? If anyone can come up with a handsome list, it's THIS forum!

 

I remember Chicago had a few versions of that song. I also remember there was an original version and that the call letters came later, after the song becmae a bigger hit. Now I don't remember what the line was originally, but I would assume it's the version that's released on the CD and all the compilations it's on.

If we make a list, I can't see it being a very long one. Is there any other song that did this?

 

Starship's 'We Built This City' had custom call-letter DJ dialogue inserted where the generic one is in the commercial versions of the track.

-Aaron

 

"Life is a rock, but WLS rolled me!" is one I sure remember.

 

If I recall correctly, Jim Steinman's "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" had an edit that name-checked one our Cleveland stations - can't remember which station for sure, but it was probably the Top 40 station WGCL 98.5. That station is now WNCX and plays classic rock.

 

White Port and Lemon Juice - does that count?

and then there's -

"Do not attempt to adjust your radio, there is nothing wrong.
We have taken control as to bring you this special show.
We will return it to you as soon as you are grooving.

Welcome to station WEFUNK, better known as We-Funk,
Or deeper still, the Mothership Connection.
Home of the extraterrestrial brothers,
Dealers of funky music.
P.Funk, uncut funk, The Bomb.

Coming to you directly from the Mothership
Top of the Chocolate Milky Way, 500,000 kilowatts of P.Funk-power.
So kick back, dig, while we do it to you in your eardrums.
And me? I'm known as Lollipop Man, alias the Long-Haired Sucker."

 

Actually, it was from the initials of that song that the former WABC-FM in New York City adopted its current call letters* effective Feb. 13 (or 14), 1971. So chronologically . . . no.
* Except for the 1987-88 period when it was called WWPR - calls now used by another NYC FM station.

 

Harry Chapin WOLD

Stephen

 

Being a little bored while burning CDs at the slowest possible speed in case I one day develop an ear for jitter effects, I find myself wondering: how many CDs would it take to make The Pointer Sisters' The Complete 'Fire' Recordings: a compilation of all the various call letter versions?

I guess we'll never know, and life is probably better that way.

 

You've GOT that?? I used to hear it on WIFI 92!

 

Apparently there was one for the 'Lake Shore Drive' song we were discussing about a week ago. ('just slippin on by on CFL, runnin' on Lake Shore Drive.') Obviously they could only do that with Chicago stations, unless their car had a reeeeally good radio.

 

And in Philadelphia, we had "Life is a rock, but 'FIL rolled me!" It was weird, because it was noticeably slower and lower pitched than the rest of the song, kinda like the long version of "Crimson and Clover" ... you'd hear the pitch shift back when that verse ended. In Philly, they spliced it in during the first chorus only, and here's what the lyrics said:

Life is a rock
But the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder
So my DJ told me
(woo, woo)
Life is a rock
But 'FIL rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder
So my DJ told me

Also on WFIL, they did the opposite for "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" by Sugarloaf. They had a custom version that removed a radio reference, because the original lyrics said "stereo 92" and the station's top competitor happened to be "WIFI 92"

I got your name from a friend of a friend
A jock you used to know
Remember the all night creature
Who jived on the radio

 

When Harry Chapin used to perform "WOLD" in concert, he'd change the call letters in the last chorus to some local station. I think the live version on Greatest Stories Live does that. When I saw him in concert at Notre Dame, just outside of South Bend, Indiana, in 1979, he name-checked what was the local Top 40 station at the time:

I am the morning DJ
At WRBR
Playing disco bulls***
Playing it near and far

 

The Rayvns recorded a version of their hit "Raised On The Radio," for local Baltimore station 98 Rock. Instead of "When the DJ broke to play us something new," the lyric was changed to "it was IYY that played us something new." Of course the Rayvns were also from the Baltimore area and probably didn't get much airplay outside of the area. Though an earlier recording of the same song appeared on the Fast Times At Ridgemont High soundtrack.

 

Here's an interesting and relevant link:
http://www.jive95.com/ksan_ids.htm

It's a compilation of a station's custom IDs. You may find some your favourite starts doing little musical bits you've never heard before, although some are just talking. Among the stars are: Country Joe, Dr John (no music), Billy Idol, Martin Mull, Hoyt Axton, Frank Zappa, Bob Marley, and--a real surprise to us blues fans--Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee

 

In the case of "We Built This City", the promo 12" had the San Francisco rap on the A-side, and the flip had the same track blank, so a station could insert its' own rap onto it.

In the late 80's, I was on a station in the Milwaukee area; we had a deal with SOMEbody who got us on the list for custom artist re-sings. Richard Marx's vocal pop-in for "It Don't Mean Nothing" was something like, "Welcome to the big time, you're bound to be a star, listen to XXXXX and I know that you'll go far". We had 3 or 4 of 'em.

A few years ago, a friend in a big market got a Shania Twain re-sing for "That Don't Impress Me Much", where she says, "Who do you think you are, XXXX XXXX?"

 

I happened to be traveling through Albany, New York in the summer of 1966. The #1 song there and in much of the nation was "They're Coming to Take Me Away" by Napoleon XIV.

Local station WPTR played a custom version in which Jerry Samuels bleated "...on WPTR, ha ha!" at some point in the song.

I don't have any idea if he did this for other stations, but I never heard another one play such a custom version.

 

Hmm, I remember the song being, "I'm drivin' in your car, you turn on W-L-S...".

 

Locally I used to year David Lee Roth's "Yankee Rose" where the first verse was completely gone, replaced by David Lee Roth talking about the greatness of "OK 95", which was the local Top 40 station with a rock edge. The way I remember it, Roth probably did a number of variations for other stations and markets.

 

I think there are about 5,500 commercial radio stations in the U.S. Therefore, with 12 custom versions per compilation CD, that's 458 units. Looked at another way:

1. With "Fire" clocking in at 3:41*, that's 337 hours and 20 seconds.

2. Furthermore, if you laid 5,500 unique 7" inch records on end, it would stretch 3,280 feet. That's .6 miles.

Extra Credit for the completest: If you walked 2 mph with "Fire" playing in your ipod, you could walk the streets of Fire you'd laid out 281 times before you had heard them all.

*That's 3.68 minutes -- gotta convert the minutes to fraction.

 

"You turn on eleven-king"
KING 1090 AM Seattle

 

I don't think I could even sit through that many version of Jimi's 'Fire.'

 

Yeah, when WIFI-92 changed to punk in 1983 and was going to toss all their vinyl, I brought 30-gallon trash bags and filled 'em up! That was one of them.

Nice call on the Sugarloaf track, too. I had forgotten about that.

Thanks to all for the great list of songs!

 

Not exactly the same,but he cut a short,custom version,to be played as an intro for WABC/Cousin Brucie...