CB Radio

Citizens Band Radio had been around for years, but few people knew about it. Twenty-three channels of two-way communication with a limited range (usually just a few miles) linking individuals via different shortwave radio bands.

It was basically a more sophisticated version of the walkie-talkies that kids would play with after watching episodes of Combat! and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

While the CB radio first emerged in the mid-1940s, it gained popularity in the 1960s, and was soon frequented by curious techno-geeks, lost hikers and truckers.

The trucker was his own boss. The trucker was King of the Road – or so the myth went.

The only way these men stood a chance of getting ahead was to drive as fast as their heart rates, which – given the widespread amphetamine abuse amongst truckers at the time – was pretty bloody fast.

Americans don’t like being told what to do, and when the media reported that truckers frequently used CB radios to circumvent the speed limit, the public became enamoured with them.

While only one million people had obtained CB licenses in the USA between 1958 and 1973, more than two million licenses were issued in 1974 alone.

Soon, every freeway driver had to have one, and everyone was on the prowl for ‘Smokey” (State police).

A lot of fun was to be had in ripping off ‘the man’ and driving as fast as you jolly well liked. But there was also tremendous appeal in talking that crazy trucker talk.

Phrases like “Breaker, Breaker!” and “That’s a big 10-4 good buddy” crept into conversations, and people who should have known better began swapping their CB names, or ‘handles’. Betty Ford even had one – “First Mama”.

Americans everywhere demonstrated their talent for talking a lot and saying very little.

A convoy of CB-inspired movies slammed into cinemas beginning in 1977. Director Jonathan Demme’s Citizens Band was a quirky comedy about small-town lives that became entwined via CB hookups. You could watch Chuck Norris put his pedal to the metal in Breaker! Breaker!, while Kris Kristofferson and Ali MacGraw teamed up for Convoy (1978).

Even the X-rated movie biz got CB fever, with executive producer Roy Stud’s Breaker Beauties, which promised “a big 10-4 for sure”.

But no CB-inspired movie could outpace Smokey and the Bandit (1977), which anointed star Burt Reynolds as the king of the road, CB-ing with his trucker good buddy Jerry Reed.

Smokey and the Bandit spawned a franchise and gave Sally Field something to do while she was waiting for Norma Rae.

It also hijacked Jackie Gleason’s career into hot pursuits and car crashes as Sheriff Buford T. Justice. Sheriff Justice’s most famous line could also serve as a metaphor for the entire CB radio/fast-driving craze: “What we have here is a total lack of respect for the law.”

Eventually, there were so many idiots fouling the airwaves that more channels were needed, and the 40-channel models were released.

By 1980, the fad had died. People grew tired of tuning into tedious, trivial talk. Nobody wants to interact when there is no action . . .

CB Speak

At Your Back Door – Behind a truck. “You got a bear at your back door.” Ant. front door: front of a truck.
Bambi – A deer, whether dead or alive.
Bear/Smokey – A county or state cop.
Bear In The Air – A police airplane that monitors highway speeds below.
Bobtail – Running without a trailer.
Bulldog – A Mack truck.
Bumper Sticker – An automobile following you too closely.
Cash Register – A toll booth. “You’re coming up on a cash register at yardstick 154.”
City Kitty – A female city police officer.
Comedian – The median strip.
Got your ears on? – Used when looking for someone on the CB.
Granny Lane – The slow lane on a highway or freeway.
Gumball Machine – Lights on top of a police vehicle. “He’s got his gumball machine going.”
Hammer Down – Go fast, step on it.
Hammer Lane – The fast, passing lane on a highway or freeway.
Kojak with a Kodak – A police officer with a radar gun.
Meat Wagon – Ambulance.
Plain White Wrapper – An unmarked police car.
Reefer – A refrigerated cargo trailer.
Road Pizza – Badly mangled road kill.
Roller Skate – Any small car. Originally referred to a Volkswagen.
Sesame Street – CB channel 19. Named so because of child-like behaviour that sometimes occurs. Especially around urban areas.
Skateboard – A flatbed trailer.
Skins – Tyres
Yardstick – A mile marker alongside a highway.