FINALLY: A real WKRP radio comes to Cincinnati, decades after the sitcom about a fictional station.
CINCINNATI (AP) — WKRP isn’t dead — as of Monday, it’s living on the air in Cincinnati.
The call letters from the fictional radio station featured in a CBS sitcom were adopted by a trio of real “adult hits” stations in time for Monday’s morning drive, and co-owner Jeff Ziesmann described listeners as “stoked.”
“Our phones have been mobbed this morning, as I’m sure you can imagine,” Ziesmann said.
Three stations in Cincinnati, northern Kentucky and Dayton, Ohio, simulcast the station’s programming and listeners are now hearing them all identified as WKRP. They will continue to follow the format — music from the ‘60s to the ’80s, with an emphasis on the 1970s — they’ve had under “The Oasis” brand.
The owners obtained the call letters by making a donation to a North Carolina nonprofit whose low-power radio station had them since 2014. Ziesmann said a full-power station like his can use the same call letters because WKRP-LP in Raleigh is considered a separate class of station under federal regulations.
What sorts of promotions will they be running on Thanksgiving?