Why was the show based in Cincinnati? - WKRP in Cincinnati (1978) Discussion

[–] ruggedrascal 17 years ago

No specific reason. They wanted it to be a city that wasn't too glamorous (the sort of place that a California guy like Johnny Caravella would go to only as a last resort), a Midwestern city, and a city that hadn't been used in a sitcom before. They picked Cincinnati, but it was almost random.

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[–] PillowRock 17 years ago

I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if Cincinnati was picked from among the other mid-major sized cities just because of the way the name sounded in the title.

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[–] yeaux 15 years ago

Because Cincy is the most boring city of any size in the USA

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[–] profh-1 13 years ago

"I NEVER thought I'd wind up at WKRP in Pitts..."

"...Cincinatti?"

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[–] VesDoppelganger 13 years ago

Grew up there most of my life...you sir, are correct...

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[–] happipuppi13 12 years ago

Maniac had it absolutley correct.

I recently watched the Season 1 DVD and on the special "extra" they included,it was either a producer or writer who stated that they didn't want to be yet another big-city sitcom set in N.Y. or L.A. or Chicago.

Before WKRP debuted,thankfully,the sitocm "Alice" was set in Phoenix,AZ. (In the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" it was Tuscon). MAry Tyler Moore was in Minneapolis/St. Paul and One Day At A ime in Inianapolis.

ABC's "Angie" was set in Seattle.

Since then,there's bbe many sitcoms that have chosen cities that are not the "big 3" .

happipuppi13 *arf,man!*!

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[–] jefgg 12 years ago

The TV series "Angie" starring Donna Pescow was set in Philadelpia.

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[–] jersey-3 17 years ago

I figure it was because it was a secondary city, with sports teams and stadiums that made for big name concerts to conceivably come to town.

Also, at the time, the Cincinnati Reds were a VERY POPULAR team in what was at the time the most popular American sport. So all Americans understood the city.

It has very metropolitan-ness, but does have the farming and small town feel right outside it. It is a Northern city in Ohio with a Kentucky southern feel. So it will appeal to all American viewers.

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[–] lester-42 17 years ago

There used to be a very good singer who wrote his own songs named Harry Chapin.
One of his songs called (Cincinnati WKRP) is sung by a man telling the story of his life and he is a worker in various radio stations as on-air talent. I saw Chapin live in concert and apparently at every city in which he gave a concert he found out the call letters of a local station and substituted the local letters for WKRP. The song,by the way is about the ever-declining career of the singer. WKRP is where he ends up and he views this as the very bottom of the barrel.

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[–] jersey-3 17 years ago

There used to be a very good singer who wrote his own songs named Harry Chapin.
One of his songs called (Cincinnati WKRP) is sung by a man telling the story of his life and he is a worker in various radio stations as on-air talent. I saw Chapin live in concert and apparently at every city in which he gave a concert he found out the call letters of a local station and substituted the local letters for WKRP. The song,by the way is about the ever-declining career of the singer. WKRP is where he ends up and he views this as the very bottom of the barrel.

You are remembering things incorrectly.

Harry Chapin wrote his semi-autobiographical song "W*O*L*D" in 1974 (a good three years prior to WKRP in Cincinnati premiering on television.)

It is a great and realistic look at life of a radio D.J. at the time. But it is hardly written about WKRP.

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[–] Alek_Hidell 17 years ago

Harry Chapin wrote his semi-autobiographical song "W*O*L*D" in 1974 (a good three years prior to WKRP in Cincinnati premiering on television.)

It is a great and realistic look at life of a radio D.J. at the time. But it is hardly written about WKRP.

Quite true, but I've always felt that Chapin's song was the basis for the series, and the resaon the show was made in the firet place.

------------------
I'm just a patsy!

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[–] InsideTheCastleWall 17 years ago

Could sounding like an authentic rock radio station have anything to do with their choice? I think choosing a less common city made it more relatable to the viewer.

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[–] Maniac-9 16 years ago

It's a nice change of pace to have a sitcom in a city that isn't New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. It gets so boring that all shows have to be in one of those 3 cities.

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[–] BossaNova71 16 years ago

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[–] bgva 16 years ago

Agreed...I'm still waiting for Norfolk, VA to get it's due...if Scranton, PA can be on "The Office", Norfolk can get something too! lol

Oh stewardess...I speak jive.

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[–] rexb-2 16 years ago

Amen!

Or Malibu or Miami! Ritzy or messy places. Good ole' Cincinnati was a great choice to focus more on middle America. I always thought it was cute to include Dayton as getting away from the city.

But as I have heard and said in the past, Hollywood doesn't really understand there is more to America than just LA, NY and Chicago most of the time. They are trying to entertain people they don't understand or even really like.

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[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jayframe2001 12 years ago

Middle America?

Have you seen a US map? Ever?

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[–] rexb-2 12 years ago

Jay, you just showed your own ignorance. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_America_(United_States)

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[–] baran_erik 9 years ago

He didn't say middle OF America, now, did he?

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[–] snelling 8 years ago

It was also based partly a radio station movie named "FM" starring Martin Mull.

"'Extremely High Voltage.' Well, I don't need safety gloves, because I'm Homer SimpsonBNZsZsZsZsZsZsZ--" - Frank Grimes

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[–] javajuly 15 years ago

It is a Northern city in Ohio

No, it is a Southern city in Ohio, probably the largest city north of Kentucky!

Cleveland, Canton, Akron and Toledo would be some of the best-known Northern
cities in Ohio. Then there's Dayton, my hometown, which is a mid-sized city
located between Columbus (Central Ohio) and Cincinnati.

Ignorance and apathy: I don't know
and I don't care.

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[–] jefgg 10 years ago

Both Gary Sandy and the late Gordon Jump are from Dayton.

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[–] jayframe2001 12 years ago

It has very metropolitan-ness, but does have the farming and small town feel right outside it. It is a Northern city in Ohio with a Kentucky southern feel. So it will appeal to all American viewers.

Just FYI, Cincinnati is in Southern Ohio.

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[–] jersey-3 12 years ago

I didn't say the city was in Northern Ohio. I said it was a Northern city in Ohio. Meaning a city in the Northern part of America.

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[–] smns65 16 years ago

Why not Cincinnati?

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[–] rexb-2 16 years ago

Good question.

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[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dd1946 15 years ago

I lived in northern KY and worked in downtown Cincinnati in those days and I always suspected that WKRP was based on the very real and wonderful Cincinnati station "102.7 WEBN" The station was total insanity in the 70s. It was the early days of FM and I had a converter attached to my '66 Charger so I could get the new FM stations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WEBN

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[–] pt100 10 years ago

Well, it wasn't really the early days of FM. It had been around since after WWII, and we had an FM radio in the early 1960s. By the end of the 1970s, 50.1% of radio listeners were tuned to FM, ending AM's historical prevalence. By 1982, FM commanded 70% of the global audience and 84% among the 12-24-year-old demographic.

It is better to be kind than to be clever or good looking. -- Derek

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[–] tryingcake 10 years ago

When WKRP was on the air in 1978, I was 16. I had been listening to an FM, hard rock, album station for a few years at that point. I would safely say at least since 73, if not earlier. And it was well established when I started listening. I grew up in the Akron area listening to Cleveland radio. We were also not far from Cincinnati at all. There were a few AM stations still kicking' it. But they were typically only listened to by older people or younger and middle-aged people still listening to doo-wop music (Oldies). I am sure they existed, but I do not remember any "new" rock AM stations in the area. I don't think we could pick up Cincinnati radio, though.

In other words, you are correct. It was not a new radio format or frequency.

How can you expect your life to change if you don't change?

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[–] Doug-Oh 8 years ago

Well, it wasn't really the early days of FM. It had been around since after WWII, and we had an FM radio in the early 1960s.

For most Americans, the 70s were the early days of FM radio, particularly the early 70s.
AM radio was still king of Top 40 music until the mid-late 70s.

KIMN-AM was a Top Denver top-40 station through the mid-70s. I recall my older cousins having it on in their car back then.

Most car radios were AM-only until the late 70s and those that were AM-FM had FM mono only, at least on my mom's Plymouth then.

Yes, FM radio had been invented after WWII, but there were few (if any) FM stations. So no one owned FM receivers.
Why would one buy an FM receiver if there weren't any stations broadcasting on the band?

In a late Leave It To Beaver episode (1963), Eddie Haskell tells Wally he has an FM radio in his car, but it's staticy and the only station on it plays classical music.

Like COLOR TV, sure, it was "around" but again, few (if any) TV stations were broadcasting in color until the mid-1960s.
Though some programs were produced in color, it wasn't widely adapted.
Many people didn't get color TVs until the late 60s or early 70s when prices became more affordable.

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[–] stevenackerman69 12 years ago

Why not? Where did you want it-NYC?

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[–] jefgg 11 years ago

Dr. Johnny Fever was based on the late "Skinny" Bobby Harper. He was a DJ who worked at Cincinnati Top 40 station WSAI AM before moving to 11 other stations.

I heard that large and/or blue collar Midwestern cities were strong markets for rock and roll music.

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[–] tryingcake 10 years ago

You are right. A lot was ran through Cleveland (grow up in the area). But I think Cleveland would have been too large for a the show's premise. We would drive to Cincinnati for concerts, though. So, it was still close enough to the hub of the pulse of R-N-R, but far enough away to be it's own entity. It's large enough to draw crowds, but small enough for no professional DJ trying to strike it big to want to end up there.

How can you expect your life to change if you don't change?

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[–] mactach 10 years ago

Expect everything to be based in L.A.?

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[–] vinsane 10 years ago

Why was the show based in Cincinnati?

According to show creator Hugh Wilson:

...Wilson created "WKRP" from his days as an Atlanta advertising executive, when he listened to Atlanta radio stations. He had never been to Cincinnati, but picked this city as the setting because it went with "WKRP," the call letters he chose because they stood for "crap." ~ John Kiesewetter, [email protected]

This agrees with research I did earlier that suggested the call letters led to the choice of city, at least roughly. Once he picked the name of the fictitious station, it narrowed his choices down to that geographical area and WKRP in Dayton just didn't sound right I suppose. All of the guesses of which particular old AM station in Cincinnati the show was based on are wrong. It was just inspired by Wilson's time in the Atlanta area listening to radio. The real life basis for Johnny Fever worked morning drive in the Atlanta market, though he may have once worked in Ohio too.

Eeek!!! I'm getting dressed.

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[–] pepperdog61 10 years ago

Wait wait wait, I always suspected KRP was a subversive hint at "Crap" but how does this address the question? Why is Cincinnati more KRPy than St. Louis or Pittsburgh or KC or Atlanta for that matter? Did Wilson have a bad experience with Cincinnati, or was there a specific reason for him picking it?

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[–] vinsane 10 years ago

how does this address the question?

The geographical area (of Cincinnati) corresponds with the (then at least) fictitious call letters. American broadcasters can't or couldn't choose any random set of letters since sometime between the World Wars. The W or K was based on east or west side of the country and there was a specified list of available choices for the 2nd thru 4th letters assigned by state/region on a next available letter basis. You can find a detailed wiki about it if you do a search.

There were and still are exceptions to all this but it's the common reasoning. They certainly could have gotten away with any of the cities you mentioned too - after all it was just a fictional comedy. In that case people would now likely be pointing out various errors based on the historical naming convention and so on.

Eeek!!! I'm getting dressed.

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[–] macpro75 10 years ago

Wait wait wait, I always suspected KRP was a subversive hint at "Crap" but how does this address the question? Why is Cincinnati more KRPy than St. Louis or Pittsburgh or KC or Atlanta for that matter? Did Wilson have a bad experience with Cincinnati, or was there a specific reason for him picking it?

I think that phonetically WKRP simply sounded better with Cincinnati than say, Albuquerque which has the same number of syllables.

"It's a real burden being right so often." Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly

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