New comic book illustrates 'WKRP' historyTV 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.