Trucker 1: Back off the hammer and don’t feed the bears. We’ve provided a translation so you can follow along: Here’s an example of a conversation between two truckers over their CB radio. In the colorful language of the trucker, CBs were gone “faster than a raped ape.” As the “Miami Vice” clean and flashy ideal was established, CB radios became unwanted detritus from a gritty unclean age and were cast aside. Truckers were no longer rock stars of the road. And once the Reagan era came into effect, the lust for lowbrow was over. Millions of users jammed the frequencies, making communication almost impossible – or, at the very least, annoyingly noisy. McCall’s “Convoy” (1976) became a number one hit.Īll this popularity actually helped bring about its own demise. Television also featured the CB via shows like Dukes of Hazzard, Movin’ On (1974) and BJ and the Bear. Numerous trucker movies flooded the theaters, all prominently spotlighting the CB (Convoy, Smokey & the Bandit, Coast to Coast, etc.). And it didn’t take long for the popular media to capitalize on the craze. People got to know each other anonymously, used a fake name, and developed their own culture and language. It was only a matter of time before their colorful means of communication captured the public interest. Well, it was around this time that America became fascinated with the blue-collar lifestyle, and nothing epitomized the fad more than truckers – they were the cowboys of the 70s, wild and free, answering to nobody. Truckers started making up their own handles and things got interesting. However, once the CB became widely used on the interstates throughout the US, all rules were thrown out the window. As novel as this seems, just a few decades ago there was another trendy lingo sprung from a new technology: CB Slang.Ĭitizen’s Band radio had been around since the 1950s, but you had to be licensed and had to use a registered call sign. THE INTERNET has created its own slang, saturated with efficient abbreviations and a constantly evolving jargon that only insiders know.

Gary funnel trucker lingo