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September 19, 2019
I'm on the road collecting lots of IDs deep in the heart of Texas - but while I'm traveling, have a big pile of IDs from several Savannah, Georgia trips last year! (See some tower pictures on Site of the Week, with more coming this Friday...)

September 17, 2019
I had a handful of new IDs, and the only connection between them is the same time zone! There's a bunch of 'new' IDs here over the past few days -- I've been editing IDs previously posted.  However, today's new new (is that a phrase?) IDs will be found in the Columbus (Georgia), Fort Wayne (two never-heard-before stations!), Indianapolis, and NYC folders! Happy listening!

September 11, 2019
It's a pretty little historic coastal town, it's been in the news a lot between Hurricane Dorian and that cargo ship that overturned off the coast, and it's at the core of what we call the Brunswick-Waycross, Georgia market here on Toppy. We passed through it three times in just over five months last winter, curiously enough, and recorded most of what there was to be recorded (save for a high school LPFM that wasn't on the air and a rimshot AM that also seemed to be silent, maybe), and in addition to the IDs here, you can see some pretty pictures on Tower Site of the Week. That is all.  

September 4, 2019
It's been a minute, hasn't it? Life has sort of gotten in the way these last few months, and I'm grateful to Blaine for keeping the lights on and the cobwebs cleared out around here. But it's fall now, the kids are back to school, and I'm once again an ENTIRE YEAR behind in posting stuff and trying to catch up. And so: here's a pretty comprehensive run of Macon, Georgia IDs from last September. See if you can catch the two AMs that appear in multiple IDs (even though they were really only being simulcast on one FM at a time.) See all the pretty tower and studio pictures on Site of the Week here and here, too!

September 2, 2019
Thanks to contributor Blaine Stewart here's part one of some older New Orleans IDs.  Enjoy the new sounds, especially the one from 1959!

August 7, 2019
Here's some recent Cincinnati audio, along with two Fort Wayne IDs.  One of our AMs here in Fort Wayne got sold, along with an FM translator.  The new owner started a different legal ID.  Today, he put new call letters on the AM station.  So we have both the 'before' and the 'after' IDs.  Enjoy!

July 22, 2019
Contributor Jim Stanton sent an Austin ID, along with several newer 2019 San Antonio IDs.  Thank you, Jim.  We have a pile of contributor audio that we will be editing and uploading soon to Toppy.  Stay tuned!
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End of Content.

Contribute

We can’t possibly get everywhere to record IDs, so we rely on you to record for us.  Here’s how you can help:

35-yes

Do:

•  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

35-no

Don't:

•  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.

About Tophour
What's A Legal ID?

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.

About Tophour

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.

Contact

Wanna contribute?  Comments?  Questions?  Analysis?  Send us an e-mail: tophour@gmail.com!

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