Nearly 50 Years Later, WKRP Is Finally Real…and in Cincinnati

It's been nearly 50 years since the greatest sitcom of all time debuted on CBS in 1978. While I still can't get enough of WKRP in Cincinnati as great comedy, I owe a good bit of my career to the classic series; it was my first taste of radio, and I clearly never got it out of my system.

WKRP in Cincinnati

While its ratings were good, they weren't great enough to keep the series on the air past 1982, so I treasure every single one of them. Naturally, all four seasons are now in my possession. It was the right thing to do. Making sure that, at some point in history, there would be a radio station with the actual call letters WKRP was also the right thing to do. Mission accomplished.

The Real WKRP in Cincinnati

I've never known what fictional WKRP's frequency is, but the WKRP that's branded "The Oasis" can be heard on three frequencies in and around the Queen City. They are 106.7, 97.7, and 94.5. Appropriately enough, the station's format is nostalgic rock. It would make Dr. Johnny Fever proud.

Monday at 6 AM, the station rebranded with a welcome from actor Gary Sandy, who played WKRP program director Andy Travis in the show. It had been running the series' theme song continuously since midnight.

Those frequencies, by the way, serve Cincinnati (97.7), Northern Kentucky (106.7), and the Dayton metropolitan area (94.5).

As a longtime fan of this series, I love this development. I've always wondered if this would happen, and now, happily, it has. I just hope the real WKRP is more careful with their first Thanksgiving promotion than their fictional counterpart.