Roasted Nuts

WKTI Becomes WKT WHY?

Posted by Andrew Franklin on Nov. 7, 2008

You know, I was really getting nervous. Nervous in a reckless leg syndrome kind of a way. Ever since casting my vote on Tuesday. First, the excitement dwindled. Then the news feeds slowed. Suddenly, it was no longer an election cycle. I didn't have anything to do. What was left for me to comment on? Had I become so involved with matters of local and national politics that I had left myself with nothing relevant to say anymore? I fiddled with a few ideas, worried that my keen insight for the absurd had somehow waned in the face of freebies like Sarah Palin. Sigh. Thank goodness for Journal Broadcasting. Brazenly biting the hand that feeds me (or at least the hand that lets me post online), the newest nut to roast has to be WKTI. Or WLWK. Or whatever. Don't get me wrong. It's not like I really listed to anything but NPR for the last decade anyhow. It's just that some things are an American institution. Somewhere in my parents' basement I still have a few of those old WKTI Tail Gator pins. Those were hot. And though every song on the network sounded exactly the same to me, there's still something incredibly insane about abandoning WKTI. And I'm not talking about the music format. I'm talking about the call letters. Call letters are a very significant part of marketing. And so are nicknames. But who the heck came up with "WLWK?" I mean, it's one thing to call a station by new letters. It's another thing to totally ditch iconic station call letters. WZTR 95.7 famously changed it's name when new owners bought it out. Ditching "Star 95", it also ditched some of the coolest letters on the dial. Now it's WRIT. Just boring. WQFM 93.3 became WJZI for jazz. The QFM thing is personal for me, cause my first law office was in QFM's building on 6th and Wisconsin. They had the top floor. Way cool suite. Would you believe there are actually websites devoted to Milwaukee's past stations? One bemoans not just the loss of QFM, but of WLPX.