Well hey howdy hello out there all you tapa-tapa-tappers. Wooking popping in on the “airwaves” with another WDTCF post for your reading enjoyment. I’d say listening pleasure but of course that would mean you’re hearing voices in your head and that’s a whole different subject. Does make me wonder what folks think I sound like but I’ll save that rambling for later.
This post is about the Level 9 Friendship Prize, KBBL Radio. I for one am super stoked this building is finally in our game. Heck, I’ve been jabbering about it in at least three different posts, one all the way back in November of last year.
While I know EA probably doesn’t listen to this fuzzball, I’m thrilled to finally have one of the iconic buildings of Springfield even if I gotta find space for it. It’s a sweet 6×7 building and a little squatter than I imagined it would be in TSTO but that’s ok. It generates money and XP for you based on the jobs you set for it. Let’s take a quick look at those jobs.
Those are all so cool and one of my goals in this post is to not only show you some cool appearances of this building, but also why these jobs make sense. So let’s look at KBBL.
No we’re not talking about the Killer Brigade Bergisch Land, the Indiana basement basketball league or the defunct TV station out of Springfield, Missouri, we’re talking about the hilarious radio station from The Simpsons. KBBL broadcasts on FM (102.5) and AM (580, 640 and 970). They do everything from talk radio to public service announcements to ball games and disc jockeying. Basically when a character of the Simpsons is listening to the radio, it’s probably KBBL radio.
When you’re dealing with a radio station, it’s only natural that your first appearance will be audio rather than an actual outside view of the building. In “Some Enchanted Evening” (S1:E13), poor Marge is left alone and feeling unappreciated. Is it any surprise she would turn to KBBL’s therapist of the airwaves, Dr. Marvin Monroe? We also hear KBBL stands for K-Babble because it’s all talk 24 hours a day. After she dials 555-PAIN, we do get a look at the control booth though.
Another audio appearance is in “Bart Gets an ‘F’” (S2:E1). After Bart prays for a miracle, it actually snows overnight. We hear Bill & Marty doing their show (two grown men who can’t get enough of each other) announcing closures due to the snow.
For folks who can’t stand just inside views or audio, we finally get to see KBBL in “Like Father, Like Clown” (S3:E6). It’s a night view but definitely our new friendship prize.
Every Sunday night, KBBL does a radio call-in show featuring Reverend Lovejoy, Monsignor Daley & Rabbi Krustofski called “Gabbin’ About God”. In order to keep their broadcasting license, KBBL devotes Sunday night dead time to public service shows of limited appeal. Also cool that there are posters on the wall for the Larry Davis Experience and Bleeding Gums Murphy on the night DJ’s walls.
One of the episode highlights of “Homer Alone” (S3:E15) is when Bill & Marty crank call a man over the radio and tell him his wife is dead after she walked through a plate-glass window. Pranks apparently are part of their schtick.
When I think of KBBL Radio, the first episode I always remember is “I Love Lisa” (S4:E15). The beginning of the episode is so great with this dialogue from Bill & Marty.
Marty: Doin’ the “Monster Mash” with ya on this beautiful Valentine’s Day.
Bill: Marty, why’d you play that song today? There must be thousands of love songs.
Marty: Well, it’s… it’s kind of a love song. All the monsters, enjoying each other’s company… dancing… holding their evil in check.
Bill: You played the wrong record, didn’t you?
Marty: Why are you doing this to me?
Whenever I do the 24 hour task to play classic hits, this is the song I plan on imagining. Well, either that or “Baby Elephant Walk”. Also good to note this episode gives us a daytime view of KBBL.
“Bart Gets an Elephant” (S5:E17) – We definitely love KBBL Radio for this episode. Bart wins Stampy in the “KBBL is gonna give me something stupid” contest. I know I’d have been the boy who’d have picked a fully grown elephant over $10,000. Those kind of decisions just make sense when you’re 10.
For the origin of the 60 minute TSTO task, we head to “Sideshow Bob Roberts” (S6:E5). (Nerd Note: This is also where we hear one of KBBL’s slogans: “No sports, no rock No information For mindless chatter We’re your station KBBL talk radio.”) At KBBL, we get our first glimpse of Right Wing KBBL Radio Announcer Birch T. Barlow IV. Author of “Only Turkeys Have Left Wings”, he appears in a later episode of the show seemingly addicted to prescription drugs when Marge has a yard sale (We’re on the Road to D’ohwhere, S16:E11). I’m sure most of us can guess who this is making fun of.
“The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace” (S10:E2) starts off with Billy and Marty’s 5 o’clock News Flush. Basically them riffing about silly news while using a lit of sound effects. Remind you of anyone around here minus the sound effects? (Note to Alissa: We need sound effects especially a flush, ooga horn and boing sound.)
“Make Room for Lisa” (S10:E16) – After the song “Safety Dance” finishes on KBBL Radio, Marty chimes in with this: “That was Men Without Hats… or as they’re known today, Men Without Jobs!” Just another example of KBBL playing music.
The origin for the 8 hour task at TSTO’s KBBL can be found in “Monty Can’t Buy Me Love” (S10:E21). Mr. Burns is trying to become a beloved billionaire and when raining silver dollars on helpless people and donating to charity don’t work, Lisa suggests he get his face out there or at least on radio. Burns’ remembers when Don Mclean and the Breakfast Club were popular, but in Springfield, the most popular program of the day is Jerry Rude and the Bathroom Bunch. Obviously a Howard Stern parody but the dialogue with Burns is funny. Honestly, this episode just makes me want Nessy for my Squidport.
Next up is “They Saved Lisa’s Brain” (S10:E22). KBBL Radio holds a “How Low Will You Go” contest sponsored by Grandma Plopwell’s Pudding. It’s basically a gross out contest where the winner gets to go to Hawaii. Bill & Marty are present to announce the festivities including the change of prize to New Hampshire. Otto shows up swallowed by a snake, Bart eats everything thrown at him as the human garbage disposal, Barney drinks a whole 6 pack at one go, Homer pops a popcorn suit, well… you get the idea. After Wolfcastle announces himself the winner for “being seen with you freaks” even though he was one of the judges, things turn ugly and a riot ensues.
“A Tale of Two Springfields” (S12:E2) – More Bill & Marty goodness. This time giving away tickets to The Who which is actually one of my favorite bands.
“The Parent Rap” (S13:E2) – Everyone listens to KBBL Radio, even Judge Constance Harm. How else would she have knowledge of the $40 prize awarded by the KBBL Party Penguin Prize Patrol? Gotta love a radio station with a wampam wagon, penguin antennae toppers and Blue Oyster Cult medallions.
“Poppa’s Got a Brand New Badge” (S13:E22) – Homer’s SpringShield service is so much more effective than the regular police, for once he’s actually the town hero for not doing dumb things. This leads to low crime and unsurprisingly, it irritates Fat Tony. Tony announces his intent to gun down Homer on Bill & Marty’s radio show.
“Fraudcast News” (S15:E22) – When Burns almost dies and realizes no one in Springfield cared and were in fact happy, he is bothered with Springfield’s “accurate representation” of him. To improve his image, there is only one thing to do so he buys every media outlet in town i.e. Channel 6, KBBL Radio and the Springfield Shopper. This of course means the firing of Bill & Marty.
Wowza…. So many episodes with KBBL stuff and this next one is no different. In “The Boys of Bummer” (S18:E18), the Springfield Isotots little league baseball game is broadcast by KBBL. It’s also broadcast in Spanish by Que BBL… hilarious. Also why we most likely got our 12 and 16 hour tasks for the station in TSTO.
Additionally, in this episode we also get to see the KBBL building looking a lot more like our new TSTO decoration, squatter than other views (guess it’s like taking a selfie from different angles). KBBL has become the official Bart Sucks Headquarters but at least we know Bill & Marty weren’t fired forever.
In “O Brother, Where Bart Thou” (S21:E8), Springfield is hit by another snow storm. The next morning, it’s no surprise that Bart is tuned to KBBL to hear the school closures. What is a surprise is that Super Nintendo Chalmers and Principal Skinner are doing the announcements.
KBBL just loves broadcasting little league because they do it again for the Isotots in “MoneyBART” (S22:E3).
The last episode I feel like mentioning is “A Tree Grows in Springfield” (S24:E6). Main reason is KBBL is moving into the modern age as evidenced by them having an app on Homer’s myPad.
Probably also important to note that KBBL Radio is part of KBBL Broadcasting Inc. and a sister network to Channel 6. KBBL is a callsign and would be used by AM, FM and TV. Also the K indicates it’s a network that broadcasts west of the mississipi. It’d be a W if it was east. There are exceptions but I think it’s interesting it all goes back to the days of the telegraph and some federal mumbo jumbo.
Well there you go. KBBL with Bill and Marty amazingness and explanations of how EA figured out the other tasks. I’m very happy with this new addition and even happier that it comes gratis provided you visit and are visited by good neighboreenos. I’m off to listen to my local hilarious DJs Kevin and Bean. Hope you have a smashingly good day and don’t forget to stay classy.
TTFN… Wookiee out!
LOVE having KBBL in my town! I broadcast the Jerry Rude show over and over and spelled out Baba Booey in shrubs! 🙂
I WANT MY ELEPHANT!!! All I said when I was waiting to win stampy…anf the kbbl
My tower shows no animation. What gives?! Anyone else have this problem? I tried storing it and replacing it but still no animation that I’ve seen in neighbor SFs.
Hmmmm… so the letter don’t light up when you do a radio task, right? You could try storing it and then replacing it to see if that fixes it. Otherwise, it’d be something to let EA know about.
Letters only light up on my station when someone spied on it. When I start a broadcast, nothing.
Hmmmm… I don’t have this one yet so I can’t experiment.
Wookiee, you forgot an episode featuring KBBL that I have referenced in my town!
“The Otto Show” (S03:E22) features the infamous guest appearance of Spinal Tap!
When asked to record station promos, they are asked to say “Nobody rocks like KBBL!” But of course, the band declines… “What if someone rocks better than you?” LOL
I’ve had that promo text in 2D (shrub text) in my town since about 30 mins after the update hit and I noticed it was the new friend prize!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/98541165@N05/14342461527/in/pool-tstoaddicts
Of course, well done as always Wookiee!
Great episode and love the 2D. Thanks for sharing!
Cool! One of my nerdy things I love about living in Minneapolis is that we have both K and W stations because the Mississippi passes right through downtown.
lol that’s pretty cool!
Grateful for this building, just kinda seems like a missed opportunity with no Bleeding Gums related broadcast.
That would have been really cool. Maybe they’ll add it in the future.
Great article Wookiee, thanks 🙂
Two questions: Who is Birch Barlow supposed to be?
And
Aren’t you a bit young for The Who? 😉
Rush Limbaugh and absolutely not. I’ve loved The Who since I was a youngin and I’m not that young any more. Let’s just say my folks had great taste in music.
Took me back to watching Wally George for a sec on KDOC… thx
I only know The Who because my (much older) sister got their albums fresh of the presses and listened to them all the time when I was young. Well, I say all the time, but she had a couple of favourite bands; The Who, AC/DC, Bee Gees, Bay City Rollers. Strange mix, right? Anyhow, the ones I liked were The Who and AC/DC, the others I could do without. Figuring you are still much younger than I am, you couldn’t have been around for their heyday either. Of course, telling that story I realize there is always the possibility of ‘second hand’ knowledge, like I learned about them from my sister 🙂
Literally seconds after I posted the first answer I found this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o5mcbr1ypcfom1a/Who.jpg
Very rad!
Music that’s good transcends all ages 🙂
Then there’s the WTHeck songs that can’t be forgotten LOL
Cracks me up that my son, who was born in ’85, listens to covers of music from the 70’s, all the way up til now. Some of it is better than the original! I take credit for his love of music, I started singing before I could talk. (yes, I still sound terrible LOL)
Yeah… he probably started earlier to drown you out lol. Wookiemama is admittedly a little tone deaf. When I was little, sHe used to drive me crazy singing “I want to hold your hand” by the Beatles unless I would hold hers. Funny though I still remember the lullaby she’d sing to me when I was little and still think she sounded great when singing it. I think I got my singing chops from other family members lol.
LOL! I like your mama, I grew up on the Beatles, my fav was always “Yesterday”. For my granddaughters, I always sang “You are my sunshine”, and replaced the “you’ll never know dear” with “you’ll never know (their name)”. Even at 13 & 15 they still ask me to sing it for them LOL.