WKRP in Cincinnati

Main ensemble

• Andy Travis (Gary Sandy). For the most part, program director Andy Travis serves as the straight man for the eccentric staff of the station he has been hired to run. Before coming to WKRP, he had an unblemished record of turning around failing radio stations, but meets his match in his wacky staff members, of whom he becomes reluctantly fond. The show's opening theme song is about Andy and his decision to settle down in Cincinnati. In the season 4 episode "The Creation of Venus," Andy echoes the opening theme lyrics in talking about his past ("Got kinda tired of packing and unpacking, town to town, up and down the dial"). Andy usually wears very tight jeans, something to which Jennifer Marlowe alludes, much to Andy's surprise, in the season 2 episode "Most Improved Station".
• Arthur Carlson (Gordon Jump), occasionally called the "Big Guy", is the middle-aged general manager, whose main qualification for the job is that his mother, a business tycoon, is the station's owner. Mama Carlson adopted strict methods in raising him, in the mistaken belief that it would make him strong. Instead, it made him weak, and his bumbling, indecisive management style is one of the main reasons the station is unprofitable. Despite this, he is a principled, kind, decent and sometimes surprisingly wise man. Mr. Carlson has far more interest in fishing than he does in the radio station, often avoiding people who want to see him about business.
• Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) is a burned-out veteran disc jockey from Los Angeles who came to WKRP after being fired from a major station there when he said "booger" on the air. After WKRP changes its format from Beautiful Music to Rock, Johnny is initially uncertain he can handle the format, but when Andy gives him permission to say "booger" on the air, Johnny is empowered and quickly adapts to the format, triumphantly saying on the air, "..I almost forgot, fellow babies: BOOGER!". in the season 4 episode "Three Days of the Condo", always broke Johnny surprisingly receives a $24,000 out-of-court settlement from that Los Angeles radio station for wrongful dismissal. Cynical and neurotic, and an occasional insomniac who consumes large amounts of coffee, Johnny is usually in one sort of trouble or another. He has no money sense, with many of those problems due to his debt load. His real name is John R. Caravella, but Fever has used other monikers on the air, mostly to conform to whatever station format he found himself in; most of these nicknames are printed on his custom-made coffee cup that he keeps at the station.
• Les Nessman (Richard Sanders), the fastidious, bow-tied news reporter, approaches his job with absurd seriousness, despite being almost totally incompetent (a fact to which he is completely oblivious). For instance, he mispronounces golfer Chi-Chi Rodríguez's name as "Chy Chy Rod-ri-gweeze". His best friend is fellow employee Herb Tarlek. The two of them refer to themselves and Mr. Carlson as "the suits" compared to "the dungarees" (as Andy and Johnny consistently wear jeans at the station). As a running gag, Nessman wears a bandage in a different spot each episode. It is suggested these bandages are the result of repeated attacks by Phil, Nessman's monstrous dog (who is never seen, but is heard growling in another room in Nessman's apartment). During taping of the pilot, Richard Sanders bumped his head on a studio light and had to wear a bandage to cover the cut. From then on, Sanders decided the character would always wear a bandage. Other gags are Nessman's fixation on anything associated with agriculture, especially hogs, as news (he is described as winning several "Buckeye Newshawk" awards for reporting on tap-root vegetable production in the tri-state area and northern West Virginia, with his most prized award, the coveted "Silver Sow", specifically for hog reporting), and putting masking tape on the floor around his desk which represent the non-existent "walls" of his office. Johnny Fever ribs him with wordplay by describing WKRP on the air as "the station with more music and Less Nessman."
• Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson) (full name Jennifer Elizabeth Marlowe) is the station's receptionist and highest-paid employee. Despite people's assumptions she is merely "eye candy" for the station, Jennifer is informed, wise, and able to handle practically any situation, no matter how absurd, with aplomb. She herself sees her main job responsibility as deflecting any business calls (in person or over the telephone) for Mr. Carlson, who she often says is dead when people ask for him. Although very aware of her sex appeal, with various wealthy, powerful men at her beck and call, she is friendly and good-hearted with the station staff. She is very strict about the limits of her job duties: she does not type letters (though she is in fact an expert typist), and neither makes coffee nor brings any to the office staff.
• Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner) is the boorish, tasteless and vain sales manager at WKRP, who is sometimes referred to as "Little Guy" to Mr. Carlson's "Big Guy". He often wears loud plaid suits, with his belt matching his white shoes. He is unable to land the big accounts, but is effective in selling air time for products such as "Red Wigglers — the Cadillac of worms!" Although a married man with children, he persistently pursues Jennifer, who has absolutely no interest in him. While Herb is portrayed as buffoonish most of the time, he occasionally shows a sympathetic side. One of Herb's catch phrases is "no problemo". Herb is based on radio executive Clarke Brown.^[4][5] Bert Parks appears in one episode as Tarlek's father, Herb Tarlek, Sr. The elder Tarlek is very much like his son.
• Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid), the soulful, funky evening DJ, runs his show with a smooth-talking persona and mood lighting in the studio. His real name, Gordon Sims, is almost never used, and he maintains an aura of mystery. In an early episode, it is revealed that Gordon Sims is a Vietnam veteran who is wanted for desertion by the US Army. In later episodes, his backstory is elaborated upon and it is revealed that after deserting, he spent several years as a high-school teacher in New Orleans while working part-time as a radio personality. In spite of the fact that he is a nighttime DJ and Johnny Fever works the early morning shift, the two are often seen together and become good friends as the series progresses, with Venus taking the job in part due to his admiration for Johnny as a DJ.
• Bailey Quarters (Jan Smithers), the young ingénue of the radio station, is originally in charge of billing and station traffic. However, having graduated from journalism school with some training in editing, and intent on becoming a broadcast executive, she is later given additional duties as an on-air news reporter, in which she proves more capable than Les Nessman. As the series progresses, she overcomes her shyness and develops her self-confidence. Beginning with the second season two-part episode "For Love or Money", she occasionally becomes linked romantically with Johnny Fever. The dynamic between Jennifer and Bailey has been likened to that between Ginger and Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island. Jan Smithers was one of two WKRP cast members who was the first choice for the role she played, Gordon Jump being the other.^[2] Creator Hugh Wilson said that despite Smithers' lack of experience (she had never done a situation comedy before), she was perfect for the character of Bailey as he had conceived her: "Other actresses read better for the part," Wilson recalled, "but they were playing shy. Jan was shy."^[2]

Other characters

• Lillian Carlson (Sylvia Sidney in the series pilot, Carol Bruce afterward) is Arthur Carlson's ruthless, domineering mother - often referred to as Mother Carlson or Mama Carlson - and the owner of WKRP. An extremely successful and rich businesswoman, her only regret is that her approach to parenting (the "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" school of child-rearing) backfired as her son ended up indecisive, weak-willed and afraid of her. As a display of her cutthroat attitude, she has a painting hanging above her fireplace in her living room of two pairs of dangling legs of people just hanged. In the series' final episode, it is revealed she had always intended WKRP to lose money (for the tax write-off), which explains why she allows the incompetent employees to continue working at the station. The only one who is regularly able to get the better of her is her sarcastic butler, Hirsch.
• Carmen Carlson (Allyn Ann McLerie) is Mr. Carlson's sweet-natured wife. The two met in college, he being her chosen date to a "bring a loser" dance at the sorority she was pledging, something he was unaware of until their twenty-five year college reunion as they never did go to the dance and she never did pledge that sorority. Though happily married, they are so anxious to avoid hurting each other's feelings that they rarely tell each other what they really think. They have a son, Arthur Carlson, Jr. (Sparky Marcus appearing in one episode), whom they've sent off to military school. During the second season Carmen has a surprise pregnancy and during the third season gives birth to a daughter, Melanie.
• Hirsch (Ian Wolfe) is Mother Carlson's "houseboy." He is well into his eighties, but is energetic and seems unfazed by any new circumstances. Hirsch regularly expresses his dislike for his employer in otherwise charming and polite exchanges. His coffee is terrible, unless there is a guest, in which case he prepares it with care.
• Lucille Tarlek (Edie McClurg) is Herb's devoted nasal-voiced wife, who, deep down, knows that he chases after Jennifer. Lucille is perhaps the one woman who does see Herb's charms. Herb and Lucille have an adolescent daughter and son, Bunny and Herb III (Stacy Heather Tolkin and N.P. Schoch, who appear in two and one episode respectively).
• Three other DJs at the station are mentioned, but (with one exception) never seen. Moss Steiger has the graveyard shift after Venus and is mentioned as having attempted suicide at least twice; he eventually dies in The New WKRP in Cincinnati. Rex Erhardt (who was seen in the fourth-season episode "Rumors", and played by Sam Anderson) hosts a program after Dr. Johnny Fever's morning show; and Dean the Dream has the afternoon drive slot. Another DJ, Doug Winner (Philip Charles MacKenzie), is hired and fired in the same episode ("Johnny Comes Back").
• Series writer Bill Dial infrequently shows up as Buckey Dornster, WKRP's station engineer.
• Longtime actor William Woodson (though not credited) served as the announcer of the series (imploring the audience to stay tuned for the tag scene, in the episodes that had one) and did various voice-over roles during the run, including the pre-recorded announcer of the intro/outro to Les's newscasts, and the narrator of the trial results in the first-season episode "Hold Up".

"Real" WKRP people

While Andy Travis received his name and some personality elements from a cousin of creator Hugh Wilson,^[8] he was based primarily on innovative program director Mikel Herrington,^[9] who also was the inspiration for the character Jeff Dugan in the 1978 film FM, written by Ezra Sacks who had worked at KMET.^[10][11] Dr. Johnny Fever was based on a DJ named "Skinny" Bobby Harper at WQXI/790 in Atlanta, Georgia (in 1968).^[12] WKRP writer Bill Dial worked with Harper at WQXI, which is considered Dial's inspiration for the show.^[12] Coincidentally, Harper had previously worked at Cincinnati AM Top 40 powerhouse WSAI in 1964, before moving to 11 other stations, including seven in Atlanta.^[12] In 1997, Bobby Harper told WSB's Condace Pressley, "He went on record as pointing out which ones, including myself, that he based the characters on. [That recognition] was a nice little thing. You know? That was nice. I appreciated that." ^[12]

Transmission tower

Although the show aired on CBS, the self-supporting transmission tower seen at the beginning of WKRP in Cincinnati actually belongs to Cincinnati's NBC affiliate, WLWT.^[13] The tower is still standing, and is one of three self-supporting TV towers in Cincinnati.

Studios and offices

In the show, WKRP's offices and studios are in the Osgood R. Flimm Building, an art deco office building. When mentioned, the exact floor varies: in Season 1's episode "Les on a Ledge", WKRP is on the 9th floor, but in season 4's episode "Fire", it is on the 14th; the entranceway door is shown as 1412. The building shown during the show's opening credits is actually the Cincinnati Enquirer Building at 617 Vine Street in downtown Cincinnati.^[14]

Real stations using WKRP

In 1986, a Salt Lake City FM station (now called KUMT) changed its calls letters to KRPN and branded themselves "WKRP". (This was cleverly alluded to in the station's legal ID at the top of each hour: "You're listening to W-K-R-P (N/in) Salt Lake City!") The calls were changed to KZQQ-FM in 1992.

In 2008, an unrelated independent television station in Cincinnati, WBQC-LD, took advantage of local nostalgia for the sitcom, promoting its conversion to digital broadcasting by renaming itself "WKRP-TV Cincinnati".^[15]

There is a radio station operating under the call letters WKRP that serves the Raleigh, North Carolina market; it operates at 101.9 FM, and is a community radio station that first aired in 2015.

Musical themes

WKRP had two musical themes, one opening and the other closing the show.

The opening theme, a soft rock/pop number called "WKRP In Cincinnati Main Theme," was composed by Tom Wells, with lyrics by series creator Hugh Wilson, and was performed by Steve Carlisle.^[16][17][18] An urban legend circulated at the time that Richard Sanders (who had comparable vocal characteristics to Carlisle) had recorded the song. Wilson stated in the commentary for the first season's DVD set that this was not true. Sanders would later "sing" the lyrics in a promo spot on VH1 for The New WKRP in Cincinnati, which parodied the U2 song, "Numb."

A full-length version of the original theme song was released in 1979 on a 45 rpm vinyl single on the MCA Records label. It peaked at 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1981^[19] and at 29 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1982.^[20] The lyrics refer to the life of character Andy Travis, who actually casually recites part of the lyrics as dialogue in one episode, The Creation of Venus.

The closing theme, "WKRP In Cincinnati End Credits," was a hard rock number composed and performed by Jim Ellis, an Atlanta musician who recorded some of the incidental music for the show. According to people who attended the recording sessions, Ellis didn't yet have lyrics for the closing theme, so he improvised a semi-comprehensible story about a bartender to give an idea of how the finished theme would sound. Wilson decided to use the words anyway, since he felt that it would be funny to use lyrics that were deliberate gibberish, as a satire on the incomprehensibility of many rock songs.^[21] Because CBS always had an announcer talking over the closing credits, Wilson knew that no one would hear the closing theme lyrics. In one pop-cultural nod to the closing theme, a character performs the song in the film Ready to Rumble. The closing theme is also played at the end of the syndicated morning radio show The John Boy and Billy Big Show.

Music licensing

The show's use of Blondie's "Heart of Glass" was widely credited with helping the song become a major U.S. hit, and the band's record label Chrysalis Records presented the producers with a gold record award for the album Parallel Lines, on which the song appeared. This gold record can be seen hanging on the wall in the "bullpen" where Les, Herb, and Bailey worked in many of the episodes in the second, third, and fourth seasons.

The songs were often tied into the plot of the episode, and some pieces of music were even used as running gags. For example, the doorbell to Jennifer's penthouse apartment played "Fly Me to the Moon" (which was later replaced by "Beautiful Dreamer" due to copyright reasons).

Music licensing deals cut at the time of production were for a limited number of years.^[22] Hugh Wilson commented that WKRP was videotaped instead of filmed because when the show was originally produced, a loophole in music licensing deals reduced fees for using songs in videotaped programs. The loophole was intended to accommodate variety shows.^[23][24] When the show initially went in syndication shortly after its 1982 cancellation, the original music remained intact because the licensing deals were still active at the time.^[25] Once the licenses expired, later syndicated versions of the show did not feature the music as first broadcast, but rather generic "sound-alikes" by studio musicians to avoid paying additional royalties. In some cases (when the music was playing in the background of a dialogue scene), some of the characters' lines had to be redubbed by sound-alike actors. This was evident in all prints of the show issued since the early 1990s, which included its late 1990s run on Nick at Nite.^[22][25]

The expense of procuring licenses for the original music in the series delayed any release of a DVD set for years.^[26] When it finally was released, much of the music was replaced by generic substitutes. Some scenes were shortened or cut entirely, and voiceovers were used to avoid using unlicensed musical content.^[27] However, some scenes that were originally edited out for television (and therefore never seen before) were added back into the episodes to give viewers the back story which further explained a later scene.