A song by C.W. McCall (real name William Dale Fries, Jr.) about the CB radio craze of the 1970s, "Convoy" reached #1 on Billboard in 1975. The song contained an imagined conversation between truckers via CB radio, with CB slang. Users had handles (call signs or nicknames), which they used to address other truckers while conversing. "Breaker" was how users informed each other of wanting to start a transmission on a channel. Channel 19 was the mostly commonly used channel, hence the term "Breaker 1-9, this is ..."
The references made in the song (see link above for explanations) may seem foreign to people of today who have grown up on cell phones and text speak. I was only a little girl when the song came out and I have very few, if any, memories of anyone using CB radios. This meme has shown up on the web:
I guess, in a way, that was true. Check out this video to see a CB radio.
The song and the CB/trucking craze inspired a 1978 movie of the same name. Earlier movies, like Duel and Smokey and the Bandit were also inspired by the craze. Trucking and CB radios were then at their peak.
The song must have been a favorite of the producers of The Simpsons, as one episode had Homer singing the song and another had a parody called "Christmas Convoy."
10 comments:
I remember that song, but hadn't heard the Simpson's version. That was a fun trip down memory lane.
This song was such a monster hit, because at first the lyrics made absolutely no sense to anyone!
This one is even older than Barbie. This one takes me back to high school and CH craze that was going on. I'm not sure I've heard of thought of this song for a long long long time.
I remember thos song so well. In fact, our bus drivers got them in case they needed help. The bus drivers started using them to talk to each other and have good laughs but they made so.e mistakes while Sri ong. Our principal chewed put our bus driver...I was witness to that and loving every minute of it.
I had a CB Radio when I was a kid.
I remember this one fondly from my childhood. Sounds like you might enjoy my "Songs of my Heart" posts. @samanthabwriter from
Balancing Act
My grandfather had a CB radio. I remember while visiting hanging out in his CB room while he talked to people from all over. He did this for years.
I hadn't even heard of CB Radio!
My husband and I had a CB radio in our car, so talked to truckers or just listened in some on our trips home from MN to ME and back. My "handle" was School Marm. Loved the movie "Smokey and the Bandit". Thanks for evoking old memories of great times!
Fun post! Thanks for sharing.
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