October 15, 2025
Casey Maxwell and Scott Fybush each contributed some of today's update for Norfolk-Virginia Beach, VA. Thank you!
We can’t possibly get everywhere to record IDs, so we rely on you to record for us. Here’s how you can help:
• Record 30 seconds on either side of the ID
• Record off the air
• E-mail your audio file to tophour@gmail.com
• Include the month and year the ID was recorded
• Record only the ID
• Record off the internet
• Record from poor quality source
• Forget to share details of the recording
If you aren’t sure what we’re looking for or just generally have questions, just ask: tophour@gmail.com.
Sometimes, a station uses it’s call letters — KDWB, WABC, KOIT — and it’s fairly easy to suss out which station it is. But maybe your town has a station that calls itself “Star” or “KISS FM” or “Z100” or whatever. Believe it or not, so does pretty much every other town in America. So, a lot of times, the only way to tell for sure exactly what station you’re listening to is its’ legal ID.
Simply put, the legal ID is a station’s legal call letters, followed by the city the station is licensed to. The only things permissible between the calls and the COL are the licensee’s name, the frequency and the channel number.
If you want to get into the real nitty gritty, click here to read the legalese.
While taking classes at Brown Institute, Minneapolis’ venerable radio training school and also working at a suburban computer store, Tophour founder Brian Davis was introduced to the brand-new World Wide Web. (Yeah, it’s been a minute.) After stumbling on bostonradio.org, hours were spent listening to clips of New England stations, most of which were legal IDs. Several years later, Tophour was started to recreate this early Interwebz experience.
After Brian stepped back for family reasons, management of Toppy was taken over by like-minded radio nerds like current site editor Blaine Thompson.
Wanna contribute? Comments? Questions? Analysis? Send us an e-mail: tophour@gmail.com!
