Calling All Radio Signs

[Guest wbottomley]

This topic comes up well too often. So in light of it, post your pictures and a brief description of. This will in turn give others an idea what they may want to build and will show-off your creativeness.

Mine is an 18X24 sign from Holiday Coro. I used blue M6 LED's from Creative Displays. 554 LED's total. The frame is a standard Real Estate For Sale one.




More information about it here: http://www.highcountrylights.com/blog/a-new-radio-sign.html

[Ryan Johnson]

Being on the corner we have two:

The first is in a 24"L x 12"H x 6"D wooden box with a 15 watt bulb inside. I've had two different fronts to to it. The first was a combo sign, but not a frequency sign (this was on hard white acrylic):



I had my radio frequency in a different holder:




In 2008 I replaced the acrylic with coro sign done by my local sign guys:

[Donny M. Carter]

My sign is 24"x36" printed on clear background from a local sign shop. It was created in Photoshop. It's applied to Lexan and back-lit with clear lights.

Attached files

[JeffF]

My father in-law is an old time sign painter so he went to town for us. Thanks again Chuck!

[jstorms]

Super simple sign. Used reflective letters, which reflects headlights really well. I have two white lights shining on the sign. Outlined the sign with green and red LED lights.

[Brian Mitchell]

Lit with florescent tubes.

Attached files

[rescue_653]

Mine is a 24"x24" plywood face cutout with the wording. The frame is 2x4 to give depth and room to mount everything inside. The face where the cutouts are at is covered with a piece of plexiglass to keep it weather resistant. The inside is painted white and the exterior is black, the cutouts are edge with white paint to help it stand out. The inside lighting is 4 rainbow spots that I run off of a LOR DC board.

[Mark Showalter]

The graphic was created in PhotoShop and sent to a local printer. The design was printed as a sticker was applied to a plastic sheet and installed in the back lit frame.

Go Cougs!

Attached files

[bisquit476]

Here's what I did, it's a piece of plexiglass with black letters and red paint on the inside, held into a 18X24 for sale sign frame with 1 X 2 firing strips, and sheet metal screws, with a piece of plain coro on the back side with holes punched for a 100 count mini string of clears. It lit up very well, maybe too well, because I had to limit the output to 40%. I've got to change it this year to read "Tune Radio to" because countless people asked what's this "Tune to" mean? Guess they don't know what FM stands for?


Attached files

[CKSedg]

bisquit476 wrote:

Here's what I did, it's a piece of plexiglass with black letters and red paint on the inside, held into a 18X24 for sale sign frame with 1 X 2 firing strips, and sheet metal screws, with a piece of plain coro on the back side with holes punched for a 100 count mini string of clears. It lit up very well, maybe too well, because I had to limit the output to 40%. I've got to change it this year to read "Tune Radio to" because countless people asked what's this "Tune to" mean? Guess they don't know what FM stands for?

I've had the same question about what "Tune to" means. I can't believe people can't figure it out when it says "FM". I may have to redo mine to reference a radio, also.

[Surfing4Dough]

CKSedg wrote:

bisquit476 wrote:

Here's what I did, it's a piece of plexiglass with black letters and red paint on the inside, held into a 18X24 for sale sign frame with 1 X 2 firing strips, and sheet metal screws, with a piece of plain coro on the back side with holes punched for a 100 count mini string of clears. It lit up very well, maybe too well, because I had to limit the output to 40%. I've got to change it this year to read "Tune Radio to" because countless people asked what's this "Tune to" mean? Guess they don't know what FM stands for?

I've had the same question about what "Tune to" means. I can't believe people can't figure it out when it says "FM". I may have to redo mine to reference a radio, also.

I have had people tell me that they knew it was referring to a radio station, but they thought I was just advertising the station or they were a sponsor or something. Not just one person said this, but multiple. My sign even indicates to "Listen to the Lights." These same people ranted and raved about the lights before they even realized there was music. Sure must look pretty chaotic just watching the blinking without the music.

I have figured that if they "choose" to be that dense, then it is their loss and they don't deserve to listen to the music.

[CKSedg]

Surfing4Dough wrote:

I have figured that if they "choose" to be that dense, then it is their loss and they don't deserve to listen to the music.

That made me laugh! Some people are pretty dense. I also had people tell me they loved the lights, and when I mention music they say "there was music?" Whatever!

[Paul Roberson]

EDIT. This is an older picture. The new sign is the same but has a different freq., and there is no " ' " on Robersons anymore. : )

Ours is a black piece of vinyl with the letters cut out. The vinyl is then put on a piece of lexan. There are light coats of paint sprayed on (white, or red) the lexan behind the letters. This sign it double sided. We made a frame out of 2x4 with grooves cut into it for the lexan pieces to slide into. Inside between the two pieces of lexan are 4 fluorescent lights that light up the inside/letters.

We also use video in our display and have a 'tune to advertisement' from time to time.

[Dan Ancona]

Incorporated a scroll sign into a tune sign. Not finished yet, I will have the station ID painted on below. The scroll will also have other info such as date of Santa's visit.

Attached files

[james campbell]

I ask for help a few weeks ago about radio tune to signs ,and I recieved plenty thanks everyone this is what I came up with. it is 24 x 36 inch coro and I have two ,one for each way of the traffic. I will light them with one flood light each

Attached files

[taybrynn]

side note/opinion -- A tune-to sign should be readable at a distance ... so that viewers do not have to drive up in front of others to determine how to listen ... which create a couple of problems.

[Jim Saul]

Holiday Corro 500 watts of incandescent lights heating up the cold nights. My other sign is in the attic so you have to wait for that one. That one was done by the local sign shop on aluminum and I use a flood light in front of it.

[Steven]

To the left is the original sign I built the first year of my display in 2007. To the right is one I built in 2010 to put on the other side of the road. Both are tied to trees.


I have a spot light on one, and ambient light on the other, but this is how the first one looks in the dark:


The first one was built with rice lights:


The second one was custom-wired with red LEDs:

[taybrynn]

This is just an opinion, maybe it helps someone. My experience is with a show on a cul de sac, which is probably different than being on a through street.

No matter what you put on the sign, some will be confused. You can work and work on the exact text, but will never get through to everyone. Some even make the sign into a giant radio with the station showing on the tuner ... but some may still not 'get it'.

I personally think the lit-up "tune to xxx.xx FM" or "xxx.xx FM" is about as clear as you can make it ... or "TUNE YOUR RADIO TO xxx.xx FM" ... are all variants that all work. Once they have been to your show, they will be much faster on the second trip.

If the sign is not well lit, thats asking for trouble. If the sign has too much text, or has small or fancy fonts ... it can often be difficult to read, even when well lit. I personally think the sign gets the line of communication established ... then the radio can say all your want about your show and your family and/or other messages you want to deliver (like courtesy messages).

For that reason, I think short and simple (sign text) is best. If a viewer arrives and wanders or drives around trying to figure out what to do ... they basically drive in front of ... and drive the other viewers and sometimes your neighbors bonkers ... and shine their headlights into the show, block their view, etc. And aggravation can sometimes follow.

So getting the sign visible early and either in advance of the show, or viewable from a good distance ... so people don't get in front of everyone else constantly ... is really helpful. YMMV

[CKSedg]

taybrynn wrote:

This is just an opinion, maybe it helps someone. My experience is with a show on a cul de sac, which is probably different than being on a through street.

No matter what you put on the sign, some will be confused. You can work and work on the exact text, but will never get through to everyone. Some even make the sign into a giant radio with the station showing on the tuner ... but some may still not 'get it'.

I personally think the lit-up "tune to xxx.xx FM" or "xxx.xx FM" is about as clear as you can make it ... or "TUNE YOUR RADIO TO xxx.xx FM" ... are all variants that all work. Once they have been to your show, they will be much faster on the second trip.

If the sign is not well lit, thats asking for trouble. If the sign has too much text, or has small or fancy fonts ... it can often be difficult to read, even when well lit. I personally think the sign gets the line of communication established ... then the radio can say all your want about your show and your family and/or other messages you want to deliver (like courtesy messages).

For that reason, I think short and simple (sign text) is best. If a viewer arrives and wanders or drives around trying to figure out what to do ... they basically drive in front of ... and drive the other viewers and sometimes your neighbors bonkers ... and shine their headlights into the show, block their view, etc. And aggravation can sometimes follow.

So getting the sign visible early and either in advance of the show, or viewable from a good distance ... so people don't get in front of everyone else constantly ... is really helpful. YMMV

I agree with what you are saying here. My signs say "Tune To 99.9". I have two of them---once on each side of the yard. During a show they dim way down, but between songs, they come on bright so everyone can see them. Still, you have some people who just don't get it.