alt.hn

5/12/2026 at 4:47:38 PM

Nearly 50 Years Later, WKRP in Cincinnati Becomes a Real Radio Station

 https://www.openculture.com/2026/05/nearly-50-years-later-wkrp-in-cincinnati-becomes-a-real-radio-station.html

by bookofjoe

5/16/2026 at 4:41:07 PM

Radio Retrofit took all the station breaks and song announcements from the show, combined them with the full length songs to create around 6 hours of WKRP radio. 3 hours of Johnny Fever and 3 hours of Venus Flytrap. MP3 downloads available.

Really a brilliant idea.

Johnny: https://www.awphooey.com/wkrp

Venus: https://www.awphooey.com/venus

by wishfish

5/17/2026 at 4:53:50 AM

(Wow, was not expecting "Gardening at Night".)

by JKCalhoun

5/17/2026 at 8:28:12 AM

For me, it was Captain Beefheart as the big surprise. But this was a very eclectic mix. Not at all what you'd expect from those two characters. Would think Johnny would be 100% traditional rock and Venus would be soul, funk, and maybe a tiny bit of yacht rock to keep things smooth.

Glad the show didn't do this. The writers let these two DJs be the typical 70's DJs who made their own playlists and to hell with the record companies.

Would be interesting to know how much thought the show's writers put into music selection since every song on the playlist was a song noted on the show. It's a nice cross section of American music from mid 60s to early 80s.

by wishfish

5/16/2026 at 10:27:00 PM

This is awesome! Thanks it made my day!

by lordfrito

5/17/2026 at 12:37:01 AM

Huh.

I heard that they didn't license the original music for DVD, etc when the show ran, only for reruns, so that the DVDs and so on only have snippets of replacement music.

I wonder, is this replacement music, or the original tracks?

by b112

5/17/2026 at 4:37:19 AM

This isn't replacement music. What this project does is take parts of the show where Johnny or Venus announces the song they're about to play and then mixes in the full length song. Project mixes in other things like the DJ patter. Station breaks. Weather reports. Les reading the news. All mixed together so it sounds like six hours someone recorded off a real radio station in the late 70s / early 80s.

by wishfish

5/16/2026 at 10:51:13 AM

I can’t wait until Thanksgiving.

by vibrio

5/16/2026 at 11:10:46 AM

As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.

by PyWoody

5/16/2026 at 12:04:29 PM

They can, but they don't gain altitude so good. I had one fly across the road at top-of-windshield level. Since I figured it would just clear or just glance off, I did nothing to avoid it.

Unfortunately, I had a roof rack on. Fortunately, I was able to find replacement parts for the rack on eBay.

The turkey didn't appear to be harmed. After tumbling ass over teakettle to the ground, it walked into the field on the side of the road looking for all the world like a cat that wanted you to forget you'd just seen it do something beneath its dignity.

by mauvehaus

5/16/2026 at 2:50:44 PM

The absolute favorite activity of my dog is to chase groups of turkeys that are in our yard. She’s only 15 pounds (and 15 years old now) and has never caught one, but I think being in the middle of a group of 20 turkeys all desperately trying to fly up to trees quickly is quite the experience for her.

She’s never caught one, even the younger ones. It seems like they can actually fly easier than the adults.

by Auracle

5/17/2026 at 1:55:53 AM

I walked out one morning and had a whole flock of them on the pergola on our second story deck. I was pretty surprised that they managed to get up there, three stories off the ground.

At the same time, they dont seem to be able to fly well when they panic. I let my dogs out one morning not knowing there was a turkey in their fenced area. The turkey freaked out and flew straight into the fence. Never seen a dog move as fast as my 70lb chow/cattle dog mix moved that morning.

And, yes, he destroyed that turkey.

by mason55

5/17/2026 at 2:47:35 AM

I am guessing you live in a place where turkeys were introduced as game birds (such as California). Because in their native range turkeys are wary of humans and other preditors. That’s why turkey hunting involves calls and camouflage and patience…

by brudgers

5/16/2026 at 2:10:12 PM

Turkeys are one of the animals in that general category that, knowing what we know now, you look at them and you're like "How could smart scientists not look at them and not see that they are obviously a form of dinosaur?"

by ghaff

5/16/2026 at 4:55:45 PM

Even their footprints look like a dinosaur track

by grosswait

5/16/2026 at 5:21:27 PM

It's almost worse that, if you go back a ways, a lot of the theories were that extinction was fairly incremental--even comet/meteor notwithstanding. So, given essentially total extinction, convergent evolution may not have been a bad theory and may not even have been totally wrong.

by ghaff

5/16/2026 at 6:54:34 PM

The idea that birds are descended from dinosaurs is nearly as old as evolution itself, first being proposed by Thomas Huxley in 1868 (Origin of the Species dates from 1859).

The only reason there was a competing evolutionary theory is because it was erroneously thought that birds have a clavicle and dinosaurs don't, so instead it was proposed that birds and dinosaurs have a common ancestor, and that dinosaurs lost the clavicle. Now that they have excavated many more bones paleontologists have since discovered therapod clavicles.

by QuesnayJr

5/16/2026 at 11:36:31 PM

But now we know birds didn't descend from dinosaurs. They are dinosaurs. The ones that lived.

by dreamcompiler

5/17/2026 at 4:23:48 AM

We don't "know" that, because that's not a category of thing we can know or not know. It's a matter of semantics of whether we consider birds dinosaurs, just like it's a matter of semantics of whether we consider people a kind of fish.

by QuesnayJr

5/17/2026 at 4:59:35 AM

"Know" in science is used informally to mean "the preponderance of evidence supports this conclusion. Which could turn out to be wrong if enough contrary evidence is later found."

The scientific consensus today is that the evidence supports the idea that not all the dinosaurs died out when the Chicxulub comet struck 66 million years ago. The ones that could fly or quickly learn how to fly survived and even thrived, and their grandkids are in your back yard right now.

https://www.birdlife.org/news/2021/12/21/its-official-birds-...

by dreamcompiler

5/16/2026 at 11:24:06 AM

like wet sacks of cement...

by justbees

5/16/2026 at 11:30:20 AM

I always wondered if there was a relationship between this and the Oregon exploding whale in 1970 ? https://www.google.com/search?q=whale+explosion+oregon

by asah

5/16/2026 at 3:02:12 PM

Evidently it's from a true story. Luckily not actually thrown from a helicopter!

https://classictvhistory.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/turkeys-aw...

CLARKE BROWN: The turkey drop was actually a real incident. ... Although the turkeys were thrown off the back of a truck, as opposed to how it was depicted on the [show].

by justbees

5/16/2026 at 11:41:35 PM

Loved WKRP in Cincinnati. Always looked forward to the hog report. Not only can turkeys fly they bounce, too. A lot of unknowns, at the time, made appearances on that show before becoming famous themselves.

by SilentM68

5/16/2026 at 7:47:52 PM

I was thinking of this episode the other day and wondering how it could have stuck with all of us independently after all these years given that there was no social media / meme sharing back then.

by TurdF3rguson

5/16/2026 at 7:57:05 PM

There were plenty of reruns. Not as much content back then as we have now.

by mcculley

5/16/2026 at 2:08:33 PM

Oh thank you, I came here to make that joke. Great show.

by wiremine

5/17/2026 at 6:59:46 AM

WKRP's handling of the Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum (Cincinnati, 1979) really sticks out in my memory.

The radio station was portrayed as promoting a big concert through most of that episode, barely mentioning The Who by name that I recall, and it seemed like a "normal" installment for the first part of the television programme. The latter minutes somberly dealt with the tragedy and tried to bring attention to problems with "festival" (general admission) seating for such venues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who_concert_disaster

A search says WKRP "In Concert" episode is viewable at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qSeWECDb3YM

Edit: s/never/barely/;s/20 minutes or so/part/

by Rediscover

5/16/2026 at 5:34:39 PM

This is wonderful. I grew up watching WKRP and wanted to be Doctor Johnny Fever when I grew up. Managed to work in radio for a few years part-time, but by then DJing was “here’s a program sheet. Play these songs, exactly” - not the dream of being a DJ doing their own programming. I also realized why Johnny was always broke.

Still, very cool, and a little jealous of the on-air staff that get to work there.

by jzb

5/17/2026 at 6:03:58 PM

I am so happy that my local town has a non profit radio station where the DJs pick their own music. You never know what you are going to hear when you turn it on.

by amanaplanacanal

5/16/2026 at 1:53:28 PM

It's a bummer that the show will never play with original music on some streaming service due to (as I understand it) music licensing problems.

by criddell

5/16/2026 at 6:37:03 PM

The most horrible example is the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Early commercial VHS tapes of it have the original music. Later tapes, and the DVDs, have all the music replaced with just awful generic music. That bad music just makes it unwatchable.

Music is an enormous factor in movies, I wonder why nobody mentions it. For example, the Lord of the Rings soundtrack is spectacular and adds greatly to the pleasure in watching it. In contrast, the soundtrack to The Hobbit sounds completely generic and boring, and the result is unwatchable.

Another example is Star Wars. The first two movies had amazingly good soundtracks. The later sequels had boring music, and whaddya know, the sequels were boring.

by WalterBright

5/16/2026 at 7:03:56 PM

Beavis & Butthead. The best part was the music videos with their commentary.

by jghn

5/16/2026 at 6:41:08 PM

I don’t know if perfect soundtracks would save your examples; I’d argue that the malaise infects everything: you can’t make a great soundtrack for a mediocre movie.

by bombcar

5/16/2026 at 11:05:18 PM

"you can’t make a great soundtrack for a mediocre movie."

The Hackers soundtrack made more money than the actual movie. There was a sequel to the soundtrack but not the movie and unless you are involved in development, almost nobody knows the movie but you still hear songs from the soundtracks at nightclubs today.

by hunterpayne

5/16/2026 at 6:46:53 PM

> you can’t make a great soundtrack for a mediocre movie.

I'm having trouble coming up with an example, but my dad told me that "Warsaw Concerto" was composed for the movie "Dangerous Moonlight". The movie was bad, but was popular because people really liked "Warsaw Concerto".

by WalterBright

5/16/2026 at 6:55:29 PM

I think an amazing song or piece could come from or certainly be used in a crappy movie, but I don’t think you can have a definitive entire soundtrack for a bad movie.

I could probably be proved wrong( I don’t think it’s entirely causal but more “they won’t pay for good music if they won’t pay for a good script” kind of thing.

by bombcar

5/16/2026 at 7:35:47 PM

The "Warsaw Concerto" was composed for the movie. I haven't seen the movie myself, but movies often use themes from the main song throughout.

by WalterBright

5/16/2026 at 7:39:34 PM

Xanadu was a terrible movie, but the soundtrack was a critical and commercial success -- it went to number one in 11 countries, was certified double platinum in the US and had six charting singles, some of which still get radio airplay over four decades later. (And all the songs on the soundtrack were written for the movie; it wasn't a collection of already-existing pop songs.)

by chipotle_coyote

5/16/2026 at 9:53:58 PM

Xanadu is not even really a terrible movie. Terrible movies are worth seeing, at least once, because of how awful they are. I've seen at least three disco movies on roller skates, (roller skates) released at that time. The Apple is certainly terrible; I think it was made to cash in on West Germany film subsidies (the same subsidies that paid for The Neverending Story), even the songs are charmingly terrible. Xanadu has a great soundtrack, but the movie is just boring. Skatetown, U.S.A. is probably terrible, but I'd need to watch it again and I don't want to. :P I haven't seen Roller Boogie.

That said, I would absolutely buy (and wear) a Xanadu jacket if I saw one for a reasonable price.

by toast0

5/16/2026 at 11:44:11 PM

Yes you can! For example, The Bodyguard. Shite movie, second best soundtrack of all time and possibly the buggiest selling, I know it was at one point.

by jamiek88

5/16/2026 at 3:25:23 PM

The solution there is to not bother with "streaming services" and just download the readily available alternative captures, which include the original music.

by pwg

5/16/2026 at 6:36:44 PM

I did this for Married With Children.

by gosub100

5/17/2026 at 11:39:41 AM

Same for super natural season 1. The original music was badass, the replacement really changed the show

by freedomben

5/16/2026 at 2:07:17 PM

Northern Exposure had similar problems but, as I understand it, at least some was resolved for the (somewhat relatively) recent DVD box set release.

It just wasn't an issue that was seriously considered by a lot of studios(?) at the time and it's not like back catalog TV shows are usually these big money-makers that warrant a lot of time and cost to get in order.

by ghaff

5/16/2026 at 3:03:15 PM

There's a DVD box set that has almost all of the original music!

by justbees

5/16/2026 at 6:35:36 PM

That's so stupid when these rights disputes come up! Think of how many people will stream or buy the songs legally after (re) discovering them on an old show.

And think of how few people will watch the show solely because it features copyright music.

It should be the other way around, i.e. Stranger Things should send the record company a bill for the resurgence of "Running up that hill".

by gosub100

5/16/2026 at 5:16:23 PM

Shout out to Bailey Quarters. I'm still waiting for your call.

by tanseydavid

5/16/2026 at 6:40:22 PM

I was always going to name my daughter Bailey after Bailey Quarters. But I never had a daughter, and my wife wouldn't let me name our son that. So the dog got the name.

by technothrasher

5/16/2026 at 1:47:11 PM

Will Les Nessman be in his "office"?

by noefingway

5/16/2026 at 2:53:46 PM

We had a shared office at one point with three of us with desks. One guy was absolutely ANAL about nobody touching his stuff or approaching him unannounced.

So we taped off the area around his desk and started calling him Les. He was like 22 and had no idea what that was about, but he liked the nickname. It's decades later and he still goes by Les. Love it.

by Loughla

5/17/2026 at 5:56:22 AM

And when I get confused, I watch TV. Television is never confusing. It's all so simple somehow.

by embit

5/16/2026 at 1:06:11 PM

That's funny, especially since the callsign was part of the humor of the show.

by JKCalhoun

5/17/2026 at 5:08:49 PM

The best thing I remember reading related to WKRP in terms of actual radio is when a station in Salt Lake City changed their call to KRPN and used creative wording to attach themselves to WKRP. From Wikipedia:

> Other stations have adopted similar branding in reference to the series. In 1986, a Salt Lake City FM station (now KUMT) changed its calls letters to KRPN, and branded itself as WKRP, using the similarity of the spoken letter "N" to the word "in" for a sound-alike station identification: "W KRPN Salt Lake City".

by LocalH

5/16/2026 at 4:02:26 PM

Funny, I didn't watch this show much but was well aware of it as a kid, maybe it went over my head. And like many things introduced as a kid, I never thought to consider what KRP was supposed to mean. But I did just now, cheers.

Meta: I'm still learning new things about the 70s and 80s.

by mixmastamyk

5/16/2026 at 5:24:53 PM

They even had a parody of a reality show in "Real Families." This was in 1980.

There's a scene where Herb is talking his family up as he attempts to casually throw a football with his kid. It quickly becomes obvious Herb has never played with his son, who makes no attempt to catch the ball and just keeps getting hit with it.

Ooh, it's even better than I remembered-- Herb steals his son's stuffed animal from him to get him to play catch:

https://youtu.be/1Tk6NpIncXg?t=444

by jancsika

5/18/2026 at 1:48:11 AM

Help me out with KRP's hidden meaning.

by riddley

5/18/2026 at 3:02:30 AM

"crap" ...?

by slater

5/16/2026 at 4:15:07 PM

I think it went over a lot our heads at the time…

The conceit of the show (pilot episode) was that the station had been a staid and lame radio station (out of Cincinnati) that suddenly came under new ownership (I think?). The staff now get to build a new (and cooler) brand for the station and there are no longer any guardrails.

by JKCalhoun

5/16/2026 at 10:53:51 PM

We also need Station H.A.P.P.Y. Radio

by socalgal2

5/16/2026 at 6:20:09 PM

Man, a bygone era where TV theme songs were an art in itself.

by snapetom

5/16/2026 at 11:12:30 PM

Other than game of thrones, I can't hear any relatively new show themes in my head. But shows like newhart, wkrp, mash and the like I still know.

by Loughla

5/17/2026 at 2:29:47 AM

What did you love about this show?

by esafak

5/17/2026 at 2:31:38 AM

It wasn't JUST the music, but the music was an incredible part of the show which has made the re-issues that replaced the music with other selections (because of the licensing) just not hit right.

by linsomniac

5/17/2026 at 2:09:25 AM

I live in Cincinnati and thought at first glance maybe somebody set up some kind of weird indie radio station and somehow got those call letters, which would be epic. Sad.

by api

5/16/2026 at 10:33:15 AM

I think I'm getting this show mixed up with another. I thought that Phil Hartman was in it but looking at the wiki page he's not listed... ah, Phil Hartman was in News Radio. WKRP was almost 20 years earlier. Everyone that watched it is probably dead or in a nursing home.

by comrade1234

5/16/2026 at 12:51:21 PM

The last episode of WKRP was 44 years ago. What age do you believe people die or go into a nursing home?

by bityard

5/16/2026 at 1:12:10 PM

Reruns were on for a long time after that. I remember the show fondly even though I was 8 when it ended.

by PaulHoule

5/16/2026 at 5:23:43 PM

I saw it in passing as a kid. It was clearly for adults, so by now, yes most are either in nursing homes or at least senior living communities.

by paulryanrogers

5/16/2026 at 6:44:36 PM

I was a pre-teen when it came out and I loved it. We all used to watch it as a family.

by technothrasher

5/16/2026 at 11:54:25 AM

Thanks for the chuckle. But a lot of us are hanging on for dear life, and still living independently.

by quantummagic

5/16/2026 at 2:37:31 PM

There was also two seasons of 'the new wkrp' from ten years after the old one. I don't follow the show (either version), so I don't know if the new seasons are any good; or the old ones really, but there'a a following, obviously.

by toast0

5/16/2026 at 11:49:25 AM

I watched it. I am not dead, in a nursing home, nor retired.

by alsobrsp

5/16/2026 at 12:09:22 PM

I watched and (apprently!) still know the entire theme song, which is wild because they stopped making new episodes when I was a toddler. Must have been in reruns; I wonder if it was that after school / pre-dinner time slice when we watched Happy Days and 321 Contact?

by skeeter2020

5/16/2026 at 11:56:31 AM

Single-question aptitude test: choose one

a. dead

b. in a nursing home

c. retired

d. one of the above

e. none of the above

by bookofjoe

5/16/2026 at 12:00:02 PM

Calm down with the questions, he's not the President

by mixdup

5/16/2026 at 12:11:54 PM

Where's my Xanax...

by bookofjoe

5/16/2026 at 11:55:57 AM

One of the actors of the show recorded promos for the station, so guess not.

The fact that someone posted a link to the article that you probably didn’t read also refutes this premise.

by kmbfjr

5/16/2026 at 5:26:19 PM

Um. I grew up watching WKRP. I’m in my mid-50s.

by jzb