A History of CB Radios and Truckers

Many consider the 1970s as the heyday for American truckers. At no other time in history have they been idealized and their lifestyle more romanticized.

Country music songs such as Teddy Bear, Convoy, and Hey Shirley filled the airwaves. B.J. and the Bear was the most popular show on TV, and if you don’t know who “The Bandit” was, you weren’t there.

The American truck driver became an icon; nothing symbolized their culture more than CB radios. Everyone had to have one, and everyone had to have a trucker handle (an alias used on the CB ). Suddenly, people who didn’t know a kingpin from King Kong were using trucker slang and calling themselves all manner of names.

No one probably knows why truck driving became the ‘in thing,’ but it is easy to see why CB radios were symbolic of that era.

What is a CB Radio Anyway?

The short answer to what a CB radio is is a two-way radio or transceiver that virtually anyone can own and use for short-range voice communications. There is more to the story than that, however.

The CB in CB Radio stands for Citizen Band.

Citizen band radios were developed by Al Gross in 1945. Al was the man who created the walkie-talkie for the U.S. military in WWII, and the CB was a further extension of his research.

In its early years, these were mainly used as a means of communication by people in remote areas and in some industries like mining, where landlines were impractical or impossible to utilize. This was way before any other type of wireless communication was even dreamed of.

In 1958, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stepped in to regulate the use of CB radios and designated 23 channels in the 460–470 MHz UHF band for their use. This was later expanded to 40 channels, and a surge of popularity occurred in the 1970s.

Why CB Radios Became Popular Among Truckers

Truckers had been using CB radios long before the 1970s, but they were more of a novelty than something people felt they had to have. That changed very quickly with the 1973 oil embargo.

All at once, fuel prices soared, and even worse for the trucking industry, stations ran out of gas and diesel and closed their doors. For truckers who get paid by the mile, this was a catastrophe. Trucks don’t run without fuel.

Truckers began using CBs to notify each other of where they could find fuel. They discovered that sharing information made their lives easier and more profitable. Traffic problems, such as which scales were open or, more importantly, closed, began flooding the airways.

To disguise their identities and avoid repercussions from officials, truckers adopted handles or nicknames to identify themselves on the radio. This practice carried over when other people began using CB radios, and even if they had never been in a rig, almost everyone had a trucker handle by 1975.

As further means of hiding what was being discussed, truckers also developed their slang or language.

A few of the more colorful trucker slang terms included:

• Bear – Policeman
• Super skate – Sports car
• Seat cover – Pretty girl
• Bear bite – Traffic citation
• Brush Your Teeth and Comb Your Hair – Police with Radar Ahead
• Chicken coop – Weigh station
• Evil Knevil – Motocop
• Stay loaded – Good wishes or luck
• Choke and puke – Restaurant

There were hundreds of these terms, and complete conversations could occur without a word of plain English.

CB Radios And Truckers Today: A Fading Necessity

CB radios are still used today, but far from the extent they once were. Less than a third of truckers still regularly use a CB radio.

GPS systems and electronic logs have made it almost impossible for truckers to fudge their logbooks or run fast to pad their checks. There is no gas crisis to pass news about.

Smartphones and social media report traffic and weather issues faster and make it possible to get advisories for the West Coast while you’re still sitting on the East. In short, CB radios go the way of the Carrier Pigeon. They once covered the skyway but are slowly slipping into extinction.