Educators

Visitors and new staffers often ask how did WBFH/The Biff acquire its nickname. Who better to settle the call than Mr. WBFH, himself: Pete Bowers.

So...why “The Biff”?

How WBFH become known as “The Biff”

For marketing purposes, radio and television station licensees often use a nickname rather than their station’s actual call letters. This offers a more memorable way to brand their operation and allow an easier recall for ratings diaries and sales calls. In Detroit, past examples of this practice would include stations such as WLLZ, “Detroit’s Wheels,” WMGC, “Magic” and WRIF, “The Riff.”

The call letters W-B-F-H were selected to bring attention to the location, hence W-BloomField-Hills. When giving the Legal Station ID at the top of the hour, we would have to say WBFH, Bloomfield Hills. Other times, the W may be dropped and one would just say “BFH.”

At some point—and I’m not sure what year—someone said “BFH” often enough and fast enough that it evolved into “BIFF.” That led to the nickname The Biff. There was never an official staff vote on accepting The Biff as our nickname; it was just generally agreed that The Biff was cool enough to use all the time and people might remember The Biff over the call letters WBFH.

I do know that a Biff staffer, Jeff Lawson, designed a BIFF bumper sticker and he graduated in 1995. That may be the first logo using The Biff, 19 years after we went on the air.

The name Biff was a character in the Back to the Future film trilogy but there were no radio or TV stations using The Biff so we ran with it and still use it to this day.

—Pete Bowers

April 3, 2024