The most famous fictional call letters in radio history are finally home — for real. As of 6a this morning, WKRP is on air in Cincinnati, Dayton, and Northern Kentucky, brought to life by two of the market’s most seasoned operators, and they have no intention of playing it straight.
Randy Michaels and Jeff Ziesmann have spent decades in radio, most recently with the hyper-local, low-commercial brand, The Oasis. When the WKRP call letters came up for auction, they didn’t hesitate long.
For the past 12 years, WKRP has belonged to a 100-watt low-power FM in Raleigh, NC, operated by Oak City Media. Under FCC guidelines, an LPFM can authorize other broadcast services to share its call sign, and Oak City General Manager D.P. McIntire engineered exactly that, bidding off the right to the letters as a fundraiser for struggling LPFMs nationwide.
As Ziesmann and Michaels know, these are far more than just four letters; they are a shorthand for everything radio could be when it stopped taking itself too seriously, and in this exclusive interview with Radio Ink, they lay out their game plan to honor that
Radio Ink: So let’s start with the burning question that everyone in America will be asking – what are your Thanksgiving plans looking like?
Jeff Ziesmann: The Turkey Drop is legendary, right? I mean, “as God is my witness…” We will have something that ties in with that come Thanksgiving. But I really don’t want to let the cat out of the bag as to what it is yet. But it’ll be good. You can’t just let that sit there and not use it.
Radio Ink: Can’t wait. But in all seriousness, you are both dyed-in-the-wool radio guys through and through. What does WKRP, the show, mean to you on a personal level?
Ziesmann: Well, we were both already in radio when it came on.
I think it’s actually the only television series that was ever successful that was about radio. There was a show called Good Morning, World years before that, but I think it lasted for about 10 minutes and got canceled. What I liked about WKRP is that it gave people a look inside the radio station, and it was also surprisingly accurate. This is a fun business. It’s an enjoyable way to make a living. And everybody on the show seemed to love their job, and they have a really, really, really good time doing what they did.
Randy Michaels: Of course, I was in radio when KDKA went on.
Ziesmann: Randy’s first assignment was covering the Harding election.
Michaels: I didn’t actually think it was that accurate. I mean, the studios don’t look like that, and the jocks wear headphones. But it did capture the fact that radio is fun and nonlinear. And I think this gives us an opportunity to do more of that, to make the station more three-dimensional, more theatrical, because the way people get information and entertainment is changing. And the way to compete with Spotify or somebody’s playlist is not by playing a bunch of songs interrupted by commercials.
Being three-dimensional, theatrical, being larger than life — that is the opportunity, and WKRP gives us that because that’s what that was. It was more than just a bunch of songs, and that’s what we will be. And it’s a perfect springboard.
Ziesmann: I would also add to that that one of the things about WKRP was the fact that it was hyper-local radio. Like us, they originated their own programming, they did their own news, they were just married to the market they served. And that’s also a hallmark of what we try to do.
Michaels: And Jeff has volunteered to wear the KRP Carp Suit.
Radio Ink: Just don’t try to slide under any stall doors and you’ll be just fine. Is there a character from WKRP that each of you most related to on your radio journey?
Ziesmann: Well, I think Andy Travis actually probably ran the radio station instead of Arthur Carlson. And so I would say I relate most to him in terms of that. You’ve got this diverse group of people around you, and each of them has their own eccentricities and so on. And your job is to focus it. I see Randy as Carlson’s mother, but that’s just me. I’m just kidding.
Michaels: We both liken to Andy, which makes this interesting.
Radio Ink: Knowing the opportunity and the legacy, as radio operators in the Cincinnati/Dayton/Northern Kentucky area, when you saw the WKRP call letters were coming up for auction through the fellow with the low-power station, was it an immediate “we’ve got to get this,” or more of a slow burn?
Ziesmann: I think there was interest initially, but we did discuss it quite a bit. The Oasis has six figures worth of satisfied listeners, and we don’t want to do anything to drive them off the land as much as we want to create awareness to get new people to sample us.
Randy Michaels: There’s no question that more awareness would do us a lot of good, and these are the most famous call letters in America. We think they’re going to bring a lot of awareness to the brand, and they also give us an opportunity, I think, to have a lot more fun and take ourselves a little less seriously, and I think that plays right into what the audience needs right now.
These are very serious times, and radio, while maintaining its proper role to inform, also entertains and provide some escape. And this gives us the perfect environment, the perfect opportunity to be that escape and to play the greatest music ever made using the most famous call letters in America, in Cincinnati. We think it’s just the perfect opportunity.
Radio Ink: Once you got, as you said, the most famous call letters in America, how did you go about making a fictional radio station that everyone has their idea of from the screen, real?
Michaels: Well, obviously, it’s not the TV show. And it’s not going to be like the TV show, but it’s going to exhibit the character and the spirit and the fun of the TV show. And we’ll make that clear. It’s a reimagining of what WKRP might be in 2026. So we’re going to be a very serious radio station that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Ziesmann: I also think that the danger here is that you become a parody of the TV show, and that’s not our intent at all. It’s more of a tribute — taking the concepts of the fun that WKRP was portrayed as in the television show and translating that to today’s environment.
Radio Ink: I know that you’ve previously brought back some great names from Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati radio, like John Beaulieu. How did they respond when they found out they got to work at WKRP now?
Ziesmann: It’s interesting — we have a great crew of people in Dave Mason and Ernie Brown and John, and these guys are enthusiastic about whatever they do with us. They are great staff, very easy people to work with, very professional people, and very focused. And the excitement level that this brings to the table just gives them another dimension in their preparation and presentation of the product. So everybody is excited.
Radio Ink: One for the road – will the word “booger” be allowed?
Michaels: We’ll have to work it in somehow.
Ziesmann: I’m not sure what the context of that would be, but we’d have to work it in somehow.
Michaels: When the show started, I was programming WKRC, and they got concerned that we were going to sue them. And we got a preview of the first 13 weeks. And the day before the show aired in Cincinnati, we had Jerry Thomas, the morning guy, say “booger” and he got suspended for it, which of course was strange because there’s no way — Jerry did much worse things than say “booger.” And then the show ran, and it all made sense. And of course, the show loved it. It was great for us.
Ziesmann: WKRP, in many ways, transcends being a television show, and it’s almost an attitude about how you present things, about how you tie yourself into the local community, and how your personalities ingrain themselves with your listeners. And I think what we’re going to do is do everything we can to capture that attitude while paying tribute to the television show that laid the groundwork for all of this, which is now 40 years old and only ran for four seasons.
There’s really only so much material there to begin with. Our goal is to put an interesting, entertaining, hyper-local radio station on the air and just call it something that will cause people to be curious enough to try it out. We feel that the product will be good enough that once they try it, they’ll stay.
Michaels: One of the liners is “WKRP in Cincinnati. This is not a reboot, not a remake, not a rerun. This is WKRP reimagined. New voices, new music, same amount of fun.”
Ziesmann: And we’re looking forward to being good stewards of those call letters and providing these two metros with the high-quality radio they deserve.
Michaels: And I should point out another liner is: “Inspired by a radio station that was on TV, operated like a bunch of drunk monkeys fighting over a banana.” That’s the kind of high-quality radio we’re going to bring.
