CB Radio
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40 free CB Radio trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
For a few years in the 1970s, a two-way radio bolted under the dashboard was the social network of the American highway. Truckers used it to trade warnings and jokes, and soon millions of ordinary drivers were inventing nicknames and learning a new vocabulary so they could join in. This quiz covers the whole story: the slang and number codes that let drivers talk in shorthand, the channels and rules that kept the airwaves usable, the technology inside the set, and the films, songs and television shows that turned a working tool into a national craze. It is written for anyone who remembers those years, drives for a living, or simply enjoys the language of the road. The early questions are friendly; the later ones will test seasoned operators.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which First Lady of the United States chatted on CB radio in the 1970s under the handle First Mama?
Betty Ford
Betty Ford was summed up by The New York Times as a symbol of her times: wearing a mood ring, dancing the Bump along White House corridors and chatting on her CB.
Q 02Which small rounded car did 1970s truckers nickname a 'pregnant roller skate' in CB slang?
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle had a second CB nickname as well: one with a man at the wheel was a 'dung beetle'.
Q 03Which ten-code, borrowed by CB users from police radio, means a message has been received and understood?
10-4
10-4 even has a reverse form: CB users ask 'four-ten?' to check that the other driver heard them or agrees.
Q 04Which cartoon voice actor chatted on CB radio around Los Angeles using Bugs or Daffy as his handle?
Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc often talked on the air in his character voices, and a 1978 NBC programme about CB showed him entertaining children from his home station.
Q 05Which toolbox staple do truckers jokingly call 'Alabama chrome' in CB slang?
Duct tape
Duct tape is the joke substitute for the real thing: in CB slang a rig dressed up with extra chrome and extra lights is admired as a fancy truck.
Q 06Which CB channel, officially reserved since 1969, does the FCC restrict to emergency calls and roadside assistance?
9
Channel 9 is wired into many radios as a preset switch, so a driver in trouble can jump straight to it without turning the dial.
Q 07Which two-word CB term for a friend on the airwaves became the stereotype of 1970s trucker talk?
Good buddy
Good buddy was the 1970s stereotype, while many truck drivers simply call each other 'hand' or use the name of the company they drive for.
Q 08Which 1970s event brought the national 55 mph limit that pushed American truckers onto CB radio?
The oil crisis
The oil crisis of 1973 also brought fuel shortages, so drivers used CB to find service stations with supplies and to organise a 1974 strike against the new limit.
Q 09Which CB channel do most highway travelers and truckers in the United States keep their radios tuned to?
19
Channel 19 started as the highway channel west of the Mississippi, while eastern drivers used channel 10, before 19 won out across most of the country.
Q 10On CB radio, a driver asked for their 'twenty', shorthand for a ten-code, is being asked for what?
Location
Location is what the full ten-code 10-20 reports, and CB talk clips it to a bare 'twenty' when asking where a driver or a third person is.
Q 11Which coin-based CB slang term describes a stretch of road with a 55 mph limit?
Double nickels
Double nickels reads the two fives of the limit as coins, and CB slang has a breezier cousin: a 45 mph zone is a 'flag in five-mile wind'.
Q 12Which CB phrase, now everyday slang, means driving flat out with the accelerator pressed to the floor?
Hammer down
Hammer down comes from 'hammer', CB slang for the gas pedal, which also names the passing lane: the 'hammer lane'.
Q 13In CB slang, which poultry-themed name do truckers give a highway weigh station?
Chicken coop
Chicken coop also gave truckers the phrase 'flying the coop': rolling past the scales without stopping, which is illegal.
Q 21In CB slang, which household term names the first truck in a group, watching for police ahead?
Front door
Front door has a partner at the rear, the back door, and the drivers in between sit in the 'rocking chair' because they can relax while the other two keep watch.
Q 22On CB radio, a trucker announcing a '10-100' is about to pull over for what?
A restroom break
A restroom break sits just ahead of a far more serious code on the trucker's list: 10-200 means police are needed at a given place.
Q 23Which Tennessee city do truckers call 'Guitar Town' in the CB slang for places?
Nashville
Nashville also answers to a less flattering trucker name on the same list of places: 'Crashville'.
Q 14Which truck maker's rigs are called a 'Bulldog' in CB slang, after the mascot on the hood?
Mack
Mack owes the bulldog to British soldiers in World War I, whose nickname for its AC model became the company's trademark hood ornament.
Q 15In C. W. McCall's hit song Convoy, which CB handle belongs to the trucker leading the line?
Rubber Duck
Rubber Duck came back in a 1976 sequel song that sends him round the world, and again in a 1978 film built on the original hit.
Q 16In which TV series do cousins Bo and Luke share the CB handle Lost Sheep?
The Dukes of Hazzard
The Dukes of Hazzard ran the joke through the family: Uncle Jesse answered to 'Shepherd', for always rescuing his lost sheep from their mishaps.
Q 17In CB slang, which reptile names a long strip of shredded tire lying on the highway?
Alligator
Alligator fits because, from a distance, the torn tread can look like one sunning itself on the road.
Q 18In CB slang, an officer running a speed trap is called which TV detective 'with a Kodak'?
Kojak
Kojak with a Kodak cast the radar gun as a camera, and the joke ran on: an officer working radar from the median was said to be taking pictures.
Q 19CB slang named a police officer on a motorcycle after which celebrity famous on two wheels?
Evel Knievel
Evel Knievel was the popular motorcycle stuntman of the day, and CB slang raided television too: a pair of officers could be 'Starsky and Hutch'.
Q 20On CB radio, a trucker hauling a 'reefer' is pulling which kind of trailer?
Refrigerated
Refrigerated trailers have an opposite number in trucker talk: a box trailer with no cooling unit or insulation is a 'dry van'.
Q 24Which roadside stop do truckers call a 'cash box' in CB slang?
Toll booth
Toll booth slang reaches the road itself: a toll road such as the New Jersey Turnpike can be a 'green stamp', after its green route signs.
Q 25Which volunteer network, founded in Chicago in 1962, was set up to monitor CB radio for motorists in trouble?
REACT
REACT grew out of a sick infant, a disabled car on a freeway and a January blizzard, which gave founder Pete Kreer the idea of calling for help by CB.
Q 26The ten-codes heard on CB radio were devised from the late 1930s for state troopers in which US state?
Illinois
Illinois communications director Charles Hopper put 'ten' before each code because the first syllable was often lost while an early transmitter reached full power.
Q 27Which country singer's 1976 recitation Teddy Bear tells of a disabled boy calling truckers on his CB radio?
Red Sovine
Red Sovine's story ends with the truckers who heard the call lining up at the boy's home to give him rides, then taking up a collection for his mother.
Q 28In which Stephen King novel is Ralph Brentner's radio signal from Boulder, Colorado picked up over CB?
The Stand
The Stand came out in 1978, when the CB craze was being written into films, television series, songs and books alike.
Q 29What is the maximum legal AM output power for a CB radio in the United States, measured at the antenna connector?
4 watts
4 watts replaced an older rule of 5 watts measured as input power, a bigger-sounding figure some makers kept advertising long after the rule changed.
Q 30Which wavelength name do hobbyists still use for the CB band, inherited from an old amateur radio allocation?
11 meters
11 meters was taken from radio amateurs in 1958, when 22 of the first 23 CB channels were carved out of their band.