Breaker One-Nine. Anybody Got A Copy?

Okay, let's have a show of hands. How many people remember CB radios? I can hear the young folks now, "CB what? Is that like an Ipod?" I was taking a picture of the inside of my truck a little while ago and I don't know what drew me to it but I just sat for a minute staring at this outdated piece of equipment sitting on my dash. The only time I even turn it on anymore is if I come up on stopped traffic on the highway and that's only long enough to find out what is going on, accident, construction, etc. Too much trash talk. Too much cursing and way too many "radio Rambos." In case you haven't been on one in a while there are a lot of people on there than are gonna whup everyone on the radio. As long as they're hidden behind that mike they are really bad. Don't even let a woman come on the radio. The abuse starts as soon as a female voice hits the airwaves. I shut mine off shortly after Diane started riding with me. We had fun with it at first and she can pretty well handle herself, but it did make me want to go Rambo on a few heads. It didn't take long to figure the best way to keep my blood pressure to an acceptable level was to turn the knob all the way to the left and leave it there.

CB, or citizen band, radios made their first appearance in the mid 40's for small business and family communications as well as radio controlled airplanes. They really started taking off though in the early 70's after the Arab oil embargo. Gas and diesel prices skyrocketed. In January 1974 President Nixon signed a bill lowering the speed limits nationwide to 55 mph. Both the increase in fuel prices and the lowering of speed limits impacted truckers hard. First it was with the higher cost at the pumps for their fuel, second their trucks started getting worse fuel mileage because they were geared for the higher speeds and third they mostly worked off mileage pay. At $1.00 per mile and an average of 70 mph that was $70.00 an hour they were making. At the same rate and 55 mph they were now making $55.00 per hour and more of that was going into the fuel tanks so they were taking a huge hit. Bring in the CB radio. Now truckers could keep up their old speeds and know where the cops were all the time and they also spread the word by radio of where the cheapest fuel stops were, a win-win. Anybody who had a CB back then knew as soon as a patrol car hit the highway, "Kojak with a Kodak getting on 95 northbound, 26 mile marker." "Ten-four. You're looking good back to the line. We ain't seen nothin'. Scales are open northbound checkin' log books so get 'er right." "Appreciate it, see you on the flip side. This is Night Rider northbound and down." It wasn't long before you had trucker shows coming on tv like Movin' On and then songs like Convoy, Teddy Bear, and then the movie Convoy and Smokey and the Bandit. These all glorified the CB and before long two out of every three cars on the road had a CB antenna hanging on it somewhere. I was one of the first and always regretted not buying stock in Radio Shack. Their stock prices went through the roof as they were one of the largest retailers of the radios.

We had a ball with CB's back then. I was stationed at Camp Lejuene, NC and my wife, at the time, and I would head back home to Augusta, Ga whenever we could. It was a 335 mile trip one way. I kept it reasonable until I hit I-95 and then 'Let 'er roll.' My older brother drove a truck and I saw what the drivers were doing with the radios and just had to have one. I'll never forget I actually financed a freakin' CB radio and antenna, $25 down and about $23 a month for a year but I had to have it. I also bought a second antenna and a removable bracket so I could take it out of the car to keep it from getting stolen. I mounted the second antenna to the roof of the house and made a box with a second bracket so I could switch it from the car to the house. I was scared to talk on it and just listened for the longest time. After awhile a Marine friend came to the house to look at the set up I had and gave me the handle of "Medicine Man" since I was a Corpsman in the Navy. Shortly after that I was recruited to the Onslow County REACT (Radio Emergency Associated Communication Team). We would monitor the radio in shifts and listen for emergency calls from citizens via the radio on channel 9 which had been, and is still, designated as an emergency only channel. Occasionally I would get called out if I was closer than an emergency crew to accidents or other medical emergencies. It was interesting and reinforced my interest in Law Enforcement as I watched what those guys did.

The Medicine Man handle didn't stick long as people seemed to think it was code for me selling drugs. I went through a couple of different names until my brother made the comment on day that I was a lost cause. I adopted that handle and it's been with me until this day.

Everybody in the family got into the CB craze and went out and bought them including my Dad. He used to be in the Army Air Corps and would get on the radio with all the roger-wilko, over and outs and no matter what we would tell him about the way these radios were he couldn't get used to it. I guess some habits do die hard.

My younger brother decided to one-up everybody and he went out and bought one of the most expensive radios on the market along with a top of the line desk top microphone and put a linear in the attic. CB radios were limited to 5 watts of power to keep them from interfering with other electronics, especially TVs and radios. A linear was extra power output for CBs and was a definite no-no. I don't know how much power this thing was pushing but when he would hit the switch and turn it on, he'd key the mic and every tv and radio within a mile would go black. He would get on there and just mess with people. If they wouldn't give him a break (free the channel) he would hit the switch on the linear and key the mic telling everyone if he couldn't talk, nobody would. And he was right. Nobody within 20 miles or more could talk to anyone else. I know we all had our fun with the radios but I guess he did more than anyone. He would get on there talking like a woman and have men for miles around going crazy and wanting to talk to him...er, her. They were all trying to find where (s)he lived. He wouldn't get quite X-rated, but he came real close. He'd have them panting. One day he was riding in the truck with the other brother and got to talking like that to other truckers and Paul told him that if he kept on they would eventually find him and as hot and bothered as he had them drivers somebody was gettin' f***** and Paul said it sure wasn't going to be him and he was going to hand him over. Whatever happened, happened.

I kept a radio for years and even kept one in my cars when I was in police work. Other officers and I could talk back and forth without getting on the main radio and that came in handy. Unless you grabbed the wrong mic and started telling what was on your mind as I did one night while working narcotics and trying to serve several warrants on a suspect who kept eluding us. I only realized what I was doing while hearing cries of, "Wrong radio, wrong radio" coming from my CB and knowing it couldn't be talking while I was. Oh well, water under the bridge. I'm turning red just sitting here thinking about it while I write. I guess it's time to go.

"Breaker one-nine. Time to go 10-7 for the night and shut 'er down. Keep the shiny side up and the greasy side down and we'll catch you on the flip-flop. Lost Cause down for the night, ten four?"