September 20, 1999 Sticker shock Tim Carlson hopes to get in the Guiness Book of Records for his unusual hobby—collecting radio station bumper stickers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By MARTY MORRISON The Free Lance–Star -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tim Carlson started collecting bumper stickers out of boredom last spring. Now, the Stafford High School sophomore is primed for a spot in the Guinness Book of Records. In just three months, he’s amassed nearly 1,500 bumper stickers from radio stations as far away as Australia and Finland. “It’s infectious,” Tim said as he showed off his room, which is pasted with stickers advertising radio stations all over the world. He filled closet doors and walls in his room, windows in his bathroom and several walls in the basement of his family’s Woodlawn subdivision home. That’s in addition to the stickers he stores in a box waiting to tally for the record books. He has even covered his hockey helmet with extra stickers from Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas and Dayton. The one space in his room he won’t paste with stickers is the area set aside for a poster of his ice hockey hero, Patrick Roy of the Colorado Avalanche. “He’ll never come down,” Tim said. Guinness officials have sent Tim the requirements to gain entry into the record book. As of now he has little competition for the spot, since there’s no official record listed for radio station-related bumper stickers. “One man holds a record for over 2000 airplane vomit bags,” Tim said. “Now, that was weird.” He knows of only one bumper sticker collector who has a larger stash than he does, a man in Dallas. He told Tim he has no plans to compete for a record. “He couldn’t believe I’ve been collecting for only three months,” Tim said. “He said he had been collecting for 20 years. He told me to have fun with it.” Tim is doing just that. He expects to continue his collecting as long as stations send stickers. I'm just going to let it grow" he said, thumbing through the pile. Tim has averaged 100 stickers a week since June. Unlike many collectors, Tim has no particular preoccupation with radio stations, nor does he plan to fill Howard Stern’s shoes. He started his hobby on a lark during a family trip to Nags Head, N.C. Bored, with nothing to do, he decided to track down local radio stations and get bumper sticker souvenirs. Curiosity sent him looking for more. He found two Web sites with lists of more than 10,000 radio stations around the world. So far, he’s contacted nearly 4,000 companies requesting bumper stickers. That’s consumed only an hour or two a day. “It’s the first thing I do when I wake up and the last thing I do before I go to bed,” he says. “All I asked for was stickers.” He got more than he bargained for. His family mailbox is stocked daily with packages from every state and U.S. territory with a radio station. He’s heard from 41 countries in Europe and Asia and even got a World Air delivery from Singapore. The deliveries don’t stop at stickers. He’s received 28 T–shirts and countless baseball hats, hat pins, license plates, key chain flashlights, compact discs and computer mouse pads with colorful radio-station call letters emblazoned on them. “My entire school wardrobe is made up of radio station T–shirts,” Tim said. He’s reaped seeds from Idaho, candy from Austria and a lint glove from Las Vegas. His windfall of stickers has won him a bit of fame. He’s been interviewed on radio talk shows in New Jersey, New York and Florida. Earlier this month, Tim created his own Web site: www.angelfire. com/va2/KingTimstickers/KingTimstickers5.html. He hopes the site will spark even more interest. Several radio stations have agreed to include a link to his page on their Web sites. His mother, Rosemary Carlson, is intrigued by her son’s pastime. “I knew it was getting out of hand when I couldn’t get to my computer,” she said. She’s happy to see her son so intent on a goal and hopes that commitment will pay off in other areas, she said. “I just hope he can get this excited about his schoolwork.”
