More WKRP Trivia

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More WKRP Trivia

Postby jon » Fri Nov 07, 2014 10:40 pm

Although I've seen the WKRP Pilot numerous times over the years, it was not until the last few days that I noticed that the WKRP sign in Reception says "50,000 watts". An episode or two later, the sign looks the same, but now says "5,000 watts", as it did for the remainder of the series. Which makes more sense given the fact that Cincinnati had only two 50,000 watt stations at the time: WCKY-1530 and WLW-700.

Which changes Johnny Fever's mention of "50,000 watts" in the Pilot from Hyperbole or Wishful Thinking into Reality as it existed in the writers' minds when the Pilot was written.

Here is the only picture that I could find on-line of the sign I am talking about:

Image
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Re: More WKRP Trivia

Postby drmusic » Sat Nov 08, 2014 7:31 am

And when they did the "New WKRP" in the early 90s they made it an FM station.
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Re: More WKRP Trivia

Postby jon » Sat Nov 08, 2014 10:01 am

Remember "Here's To You" by Hamilton Camp? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE4WK_swJmg

What radio stations you listened to at the time (mid-1968) would likely have a lot to do with it. It was a Top 10 hit on CKLG-AM in Vancouver, may never have been played in Edmonton and peaked at #76 on the Billboard Hot 100. Lots of great music in 1968, and that certainly qualifies, in my book.

IMDB shows Hamilton Camp with nearly 200 movie and TV credits, including voice acting as early as 1946 and as recently as 2006. Those are Release Dates, as he died of a heart attack in 2005, just shy of his 71st birthday.

He had two single-episode guest roles on WKRP, most notably as 5'2" Del Murdoch in an early episode of Season One. The fast talking Owner of a Stereo Store that gets held up during a WKRP Remote. Lots of great lines, but the one that stuck in my mind over the years is the one uttered twice, once by Johnny Fever and once by Chief Engineer Bucky Dornster (played by WKRP Story Editor Bill Dial): "Speed Kills, Del".
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Re: More WKRP Trivia

Postby jon » Sun Nov 09, 2014 9:15 am

Whether by luck or some research, the line in the same "Hamilton Camp as Del Murdoch" episode of WKRP -- "16th Station in an 18 Station Market" -- is correct, in the sense that there were 18 stations in Cincinnati at the time (1978), according to that year's Vane Jones radio log book. There were 7 AMs and 11 FM frequencies, though two stations apparently shared 88.3 MHz.
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Re: More WKRP Trivia

Postby drmusic » Sun Nov 09, 2014 2:29 pm

By the end of the series there were 23 stations in town (and in the final episode WKRP had risen to 6th overall and first in mornings)
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Re: More WKRP Trivia

Postby jon » Mon Nov 10, 2014 7:27 pm

New comic book illustrates 'WKRP' history
TV and Media Blog
John Kiesewetter
Cincinnati Enquirer
October 27, 2014

For much of his life, Chad Lambert has been obsessed with two things: "WKRP in Cincinnati" and Gary Burbank. Two crazy radio gangs, one fictional and one real.

"I quite literally moved here in 1994 because of 'WKRP' and my dream to work on the 'Gary Burbank Show,' " says Lambert, who was Burbank's producer in the late 1990s at WLW-AM.

Lambert, 43, has combined the two passions in a new comic book, "WKRP in Cincinnati," from Levity Biographies ($4.95 [when available on paper; $1.99 now digitally]). He timed the release with the new "WKRP in Cincinnati: The Complete Series" DVD box set.

The Fairfield Township resident and Jackson native (near Athens) tells the four-year history of "WKRP" in the comic book in the context of preparing for his first day with Burbank. Here's his story:

"I loved WKRP so much that I used to take a cassette with the theme song (recorded from TV) with me to Reds games and listen to it in Cincinnati. That was pretty cool for a little redneck kid from the middle of nowhere. I used to make DJ tapes for fun, and at some point around age 12-13, I declared to my parents that I wanted to be Venus Flytrap when I grew up.

"We moved here in 1994, and it took me two years to find a job in radio. Eventually I landed a weekend on-air gig in Dayton (WXEG-FM), and was listening to Burbank one afternoon when they were saying goodbye to an intern. I called that evening and begged for an internship. ... I started at the show in 1996 as a 26-year-old unpaid intern and wound up a full-time producer when Kevin "Doc" Wolfe left in 1999. Prior to Doc's departure, I was a part-timer who produced Gary's Earl Pitts commentaries and his (recorded) weekend show while commuting to my on-air gig in Dayton on the weekends. …

"Fun fact: I co-edited Greg Hoard's book about Gary, and was the one to suggest adding transcriptions of his comedy bits to break up the narrative. All of those transcriptions were chosen by me and adapted from my archive from the show."

Lambert has authored "Possum At Large," "Kill the Revisionist" and "Return to Point Pleasant" comics, and was one of the writers of the "Megamind" and "Kung Fu Panda" comics from Ape Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation, as well as "BloodRayne" for Digital Webbing Press.

He is editor on Levity's new biography series that focuses on stand-up comedians, TV sitcom stars and other influential funny people from the past 50 years. Titles so far include "George Carlin," "Lucille Ball," "The Three Stooges," "Saturday Night Live" and "WKRP in Cincinnati." He also has written a series of autobiographical stories about his radio days for "Dark Horse Presents" published by Dark Horse Comics.
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