What's Your Handle, Good Buddy?
Before everyone had a username, a bio and a profile picture, there was a more entertaining way to introduce yourself to a stranger: key a microphone and announce a name you had made up.
On CB radio, that name was your handle. It could describe your truck, your personality, your hometown, your job or absolutely nothing you would admit to your mother. The important part was that someone listening might remember it.
A handle was useful because a busy radio channel is not a formal introduction line. You do not have time to read a résumé between bursts of static. You need something short, distinctive and easy to understand over an imperfect connection.
The Highway Had Usernames First
The culture around handles gave ordinary drivers a second identity. A mild-mannered commuter could sound like a character in a road movie. A trucker could become known across a familiar stretch of highway by a nickname rather than a license plate. And unlike today's carefully managed online identities, your reputation could be built in real time by how you behaved on the air.
That last part mattered. A funny handle might get attention; being helpful, clear and respectful made people want to hear you again. Radio etiquette still begins with listening before talking, keeping transmissions brief and leaving room for others.
1970s CB Action Issue No.17
Try Yours On
The best handle is one someone else could actually say without rolling their eyes. It should sound good over a speaker the size of a sandwich, in a truck that rattles, with a stranger trying to understand you through static.
So what is yours? Pick one. Say it out loud. If it sounds like a corporate password, try again.
Next time you hear somebody ask for a handle, you will know what they want: the name you answer to when the highway is listening. 10-4.