Jacksonville doesn't even *have* a train.

March 22, 2013 10:54 AM

What does the "Quad City" in "Quad City DJs" refer to? They're from Jacksonville, with no apparent connection to the Iowa-Illinois Quad Cities.

Further searching has shown that there are a bunch of businesses in Jacksonville that are called "Quad City [something]." But we can't find anything that explains what the Quad part is!

I can't believe I'm asking this. Thank you in advance for your help.

posted by troika to media & arts (6 answers total)

FWIW?

I lived in JAX for years. I'm thinking this is some retro throwback shoutout to quadrophonic audio systems, one of which I owned.
posted by timsteil at 11:06 AM on March 22

The label for the album was Quadrasound/Big Beat so timsteil might be on to something with it being an audio equipment reference.
posted by ghharr at 11:15 AM on March 22 [1 favorite]

My understanding is that it's a Miami Bass-oriented reference to either a car stereo speaker enclosure which holds four speakers, or a speaker with a 4" voice coil, which is a common feature of subwoofer-type speakers.
posted by rhizome at 11:24 AM on March 22

All of the "Quad City" business references in Jacksonville appear to be for the same car audio and accessories business in Springfield.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 11:28 AM on March 22

I am unable to be helpful here, but I love that you asked this question, as I used to wonder it myself!
posted by kbennett289 at 2:26 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]

Per this ancient bit in VIBE, quad is "a local term for bass".
posted by dhartung at 3:14 AM on March 23