𝄞 Baby, if you’ve ever wondered ♫ wondered whatever became of me…

WKRP in Cincinnati was an absolutely fun late 1970’s sitcom. It was a workplace comedy about a low-rated radio station whose new employee helps steer the broadcast entity into the popular world of rock and roll.

Trust me, that show had plenty of iconic characters and moments. Right from the first episode, when new music director Andy Travis helps the bored on-air talent turn into Dr. Johnny Fever.

I’m telling you, I watched this clip twice and I’m still laughing.

Over the show’s three seasons, the characters developed from stock one-dimensional tropes into full-flushed characters with deep backstories. The night DJ, Venus Flytrap, who hid behind that radio identity let someone discover he had dodged military service. The lecherous sales manager Herb Tarlek, who over the years we learned was actually a devoted husband and father with a sense of professional inadequacy. And the voluptuous secretary Jennifer Marlowe, who was probably the smartest person in the entire station, but rarely let anyone know.

I loved this show. I watched it during its original run, I watched it in reruns, heck I’ll still watch a few clips here and there. And everybody has their favorite WKRP episode.

For me, it’s the one where the station’s fictional characters intersect with one of the darkest moments in rock and roll history – The Who concert at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum. The show handled the tragedy with poise and respect.

That being said, there wasn’t a real WKRP radio station. Just like there isn’t a Scranton paper manufacturing company from The Office, or a Seattle Grace Hospital from Grey’s Anatomy.

In fact, the station’s call letters were originally reserved from the FCC by the TV show’s production company; I do remember reading a long time ago about a station in Atlanta that wanted to rebrand their call letters are WKRP, but were unable to do so.

Several of my readers alerted me of this news. Starting this week, three Ohio-based radio stations have rebranded themselves as the new WKRP, nicknamed “The Oasis.” Here’s a link to that article. The stations will play a mixture of 1960’s-1980’s oldies and classic hits. They even enlisted actor Gary Sandy – who played Andy Travis on the TV series – to reprise his role with on-air promotional messages.

This is cool. This is tremendously cool.

Now I’m not sure if I can stream the station from where I am … it would be nice if that were possible …

But if this station stays with this format for the next few months …

You know I’m waiting to see if this new WKRP “The Oasis” offers the greatest Thanksgiving Day promotion in television history.

You know where I’m going here, don’t you?