Poorly done "fictional" radio stations

[Yabadabado1]

There were a number of jocks who did the AFN morning show in 'Nam. Among them was Cramer (last name "Haas"), who spent decades at Y-100 in Miami. The model for some of the more "morning zoo" stuff came from him.

Well, who actually started the "Morning zoo" style of show? I've heard [from at least one of the horses mouth involved ] that it was first done at WRBQ by Scott Shannon & Cleveland Wheeler. But I can remember hearing , not quite that "zoo style" but close enough, on stations in the 70s long before they claimed to have first done it. Heck, you can probably go back to the 40s and find stuff like that going on, that today,would no way in hell be classified as a "zoo" style show but back then would have been called "zany" or whatever euphemism you want to use.

 

[davideduardo]

Well, who actually started the "Morning zoo" style of show? I've heard [from at least one of the horses mouth involved ] that it was first done at WRBQ by Scott Shannon & Cleveland Wheeler. But I can remember hearing , not quite that "zoo style" but close enough, on stations in the 70s long before they claimed to have first done it. Heck, you can probably go back to the 40s and find stuff like that going on, that today,would no way in hell be classified as a "zoo" style show but back then would have been called "zany" or whatever euphemism you want to use.

There were a number of zoo-like morning shows with multiple people and things like phone bits and games. tanner in the Morning on Y-100 in Miami and on 13Q in Pittsburg before it was the same concept, and there were several other team shows simultaneously with Shannon starting his zoo in Tampa.

The difference was that talents like Robert W. Morgan and Dr Don Rose did their shows pretty much alone, and ones like on KMPC might have had more than one person, but they were not “wild” and seemingly spontaneous.

 

[gr8oldies]

I don't remember that much about "FM", which I only saw once on late night TV, but maybe some of you can refresh my memory. Obviously there are no such call letters as "QSKY" (though it could, of course be a slogan). I remember "Jeff Dugan" running late for the morning show (that's accurate). Were there any real-life examples of a staff rebelling against the station running army recruiting commercials?

 

[michael hagerty]

Were there any real-life examples of a staff rebelling against the station running army recruiting commercials?

I don't know if there was a specific case of army recruiting commercials, but KMPX imploded in 1968 when the owners tried to cash in on the station's burgeoning popularity and the airstaff went on strike over the increasing number of ads.

Well, that was their stated issue. The actual point (as divulged later) was that the owner didn't intend to give the jocks raises with all this new money:

KMPX San Francisco Radio Workers Strike 1968 | Global Nonviolent Action Database

nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu

When Tom Donahue moved across the street to KSAN, he sat the people he brought with him down for their first staff meeting. Wanting them to understand that they now worked for a major media corporation---Metromedia---he rather bluntly told them that commercials and profit were a fact of life.

His exact words:

"When you get in bed with the devil, you'd better be ready to f**k."

 

[Yabadabado1]

There were a number of zoo-like morning shows with multiple people and things like phone bits and games. tanner in the Morning on Y-100 in Miami and on 13Q in Pittsburg before it was the same concept, and there were several other team shows simultaneously with Shannon starting his zoo in Tampa.

The difference was that talents like Robert W. Morgan and Dr Don Rose did their shows pretty much alone, and ones like on KMPC might have had more than one person, but they were not “wild” and seemingly spontaneous.

Did bits with a morning DJ [on and off through the years] and we talked about what we're going to do....always made it seem "spontaneous" but it many cases, it wasn't. Sometimes just started off with a "let's do this...." and just went with it to see where it went.

 

[michael hagerty]

Did bits with a morning DJ [on and off through the years] and we talked about what we're going to do....always made it seem "spontaneous" but it many cases, it wasn't. Sometimes just started off with a "let's do this...." and just went with it to see where it went.

The masters of that approach were Lohman and Barkley (KLAC, KFWB, KFI).

 

[rhead]

Of course, the short answer is that this is fiction. So there will always be a lot of leeway when it comes to reality. It's not just radio, but anyone who sees their profession or industry portrayed on TV and the movies almost always finds fault with what they see.

On that note, what really bugs me is when they use an incorrect frequency allocation for the fake station. Like FM 108.0, or the AM 510 I saw once.

One of the most egregious examples of this I saw was on a so-called "reality" TV show called Southern Fried Stings, which aired on TruTV back in the late 2000s or early 2010s. One episode involved a radio shock-jock (appropriately named "DJ Dustin, So Disgustin'.")

On the exterior shot of the radio station building was a sign that read "WKLFY 83.5 FM."

Not only did they use a frequency not used for FM anywhere in North America, but also a five-letter callsign, of which there are none in the United States. That confirmed for me that this "reality" show was totally fake.

 

[radiofollower]

In the really old movies from the 30s and 40s in scenes where there was a
broadcast event they often used mike flags from real stations at the time like WHN and WJZ in New York or KFI or KFWB in Hollywood. You also see a lot of Mutual mike flags. Product placement?
And in Akron native Jim Jarmusch's film, "Down in Law", one of the characters is an unemployed DJ who taks about how he supposedly worked at the best stations like WHLO, WAKR and WKYC.

WHN was owned by MGM at one point and KFWB was owned by Warner Brothers for a time, so the studios were plugging their own radio stations.

 

[kevtronics]

On the exterior shot of the radio station building was a sign that read "WKLFY 83.5 FM."

Not only did they use a frequency not used for FM anywhere in North America, but also a five-letter callsign, of which there are none in the United States. That confirmed for me that this "reality" show was totally fake.

Bugs Bunny's TV station was WABBIT:

Bugs vs. Daffy: Battle of the Music Video Stars - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[inter1097]

WKRP is actually a real radio station down in Cincy now, as of May 4.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

WHN was owned by MGM at one point and KFWB was owned by Warner Brothers for a time, so the studios were plugging their own radio stations.

KFWB was referenced to a LOT in the Warner Brothers "Loony Toons" and "Merrie Melodies".

 

[K6JHU]

Going a little off topic in fictional radio stations - Meow Wolf in Houston

 

[Dick's History]

Being late to the party for "Stranger Things" they have a town station WSQK [don't bother googling, call letters for a real station are non-existent but the station's design is based on a real station in NC, WPTF] If I could reach through the TV screen and strangle The Duffer Brothers or whomever wrote the Season 5 Episode 1 story, I would. I have NEVER seen on any show that I can recall how a radio station is portrayed so badly. This is the one time I would have endorsed them talking to a consultant or even a part-time DJ from some podunk station in Bug Whistle, Mississippi. It's like an old Mickey Rooney "Hey kids, let's put on a show" version of a radio station where they have high school kids running the station. The only part they got correct was when a doo-dad at the top of the tower broke and two guys decide they're going to climb it and fix it and the DJ says "Uh, let me turn off the power first unless you wanna get fried." And the DJ plays a record, not once but twice, and TALKS through the whole damn song. I know there's such thing as "hitting the post" but they don't mean the very last word on the record as it's sung. Why, why, why, oh why, do they continue to portray stations so badly on TV?

For laughs and to make themselves feel they are above such things.