The DVD of Season One of WKRP, the TV series that has roots here in Georgia, is available today. To see historic artifacts from WKRP in Dallas, Georgia, go to the "Legendary Stations" section at www.grhof.com . To hear audio from WKRP in Dallas, Georgia, go to the "Audio Archives" section at www.grhof.com . While you're there, enter our latest "Mystery DJ" Contest!
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WKRP in Dallas Georgia
- Thread starter grhof
- Start date
Yes, but unfortunately, it seems it is NOT in its original broadcast form, with the classic rock music that was integral to the show. Check the Amazon review, and you'll see that these "new" discs are just the same old "syndication cuts" that were butchered for fear of the RIAA, et al.grhof said:
A
amitherightcaller
Guest
Regarding an earlier post in reference to the staff when WKRP-Dallas first went on the air....General Mgr was
Mitch Leopard --- morning man was Don Cobbs, brothern-in-law of David Hull and Don also did a Wolfman Jack "take-off", calling himself Big Daddy. Afternoon drive was done by Dan Hughes and the sales chores
were taken care of by Liz Byrd, ex-wife of engineering guru, Dick Byrd. I think it was less than a couple years into the operation of KRP when Jay Braswell took over as GM for a short stint.
Mitch Leopard --- morning man was Don Cobbs, brothern-in-law of David Hull and Don also did a Wolfman Jack "take-off", calling himself Big Daddy. Afternoon drive was done by Dan Hughes and the sales chores
were taken care of by Liz Byrd, ex-wife of engineering guru, Dick Byrd. I think it was less than a couple years into the operation of KRP when Jay Braswell took over as GM for a short stint.
Thanks to amitherightcaller for filling in the names I could not remember. I just remembered the news person that was there at the beginning. Emily Dyer. She was fresh out of college. In the beginning she had a hard time getting news from the locals. Eventually, she fit in and was a a great news person. While there, she got married and her name changed. I remember a couple of years later, I fed an actuality from WKRP to The Georgia Network (the original) and Emily heard my name. She called me up at the station and at that time was in LaGrange.
If I remember correctly, when Emily left, her sister took the job. I do not remember her name... I am terrible with names.
Don Cobbs was a very talented man. He could be a one man morning show. The show he did with Big Daddy lasted an hour and was wildly popular. Callers jammed the phone lines at the station making song requests during that hour. Drove the receptionist crazy. And yes, Don would close the curtains to the control room during that hour and it was considered a station secret who was actually doing the show. I wish we had some air checks of that show.
Mitch Leopard was a great guy... Dallas was just a bit too small for him. If I remember correctly, Mitch came to WKRP from CNN and then when he left went back to CNN.
I was the lowly weekend guy in the beginning... just a high school kid who got the job because I lived next door to the original owner of the station and kept bugging him to death about getting a job when the station went on the air.
If I remember correctly, when Emily left, her sister took the job. I do not remember her name... I am terrible with names.
Don Cobbs was a very talented man. He could be a one man morning show. The show he did with Big Daddy lasted an hour and was wildly popular. Callers jammed the phone lines at the station making song requests during that hour. Drove the receptionist crazy. And yes, Don would close the curtains to the control room during that hour and it was considered a station secret who was actually doing the show. I wish we had some air checks of that show.
Mitch Leopard was a great guy... Dallas was just a bit too small for him. If I remember correctly, Mitch came to WKRP from CNN and then when he left went back to CNN.
I was the lowly weekend guy in the beginning... just a high school kid who got the job because I lived next door to the original owner of the station and kept bugging him to death about getting a job when the station went on the air.
Barry, I've got a couple of Big Daddy's bits - give me your email and I'll send them to you.
---Dan Hughes, http://danhughes.net
---Dan Hughes, http://danhughes.net
grhof said:
i think everybody that's a regular or even semi-regular already knows this, but in case someone passing by doesn't... the WKRP in Cincinnati GA roots are from WQXI. Dr Johnny Fever was somewhat loosely modeled after Skinny Bobby Harper. WKRP in Dallas, GA came on the air in 1979, around a year after WKRP in Cincinnati debuted. WKRP in Dallas had to fight the FCC to allow them to use the WKRP call sign, which they said stood for "We Keep Radios Playing."
amos said:
It wasn't much of a fight - MTM had no legal standing to object, because they didn't hold a broadcast license.
There was talk of having a couple of the TV actors come to Dallas for a promotion (Gordon Jump and Tim (I forget his last name - Venus Flytrap), but nothing ever came of it.
(I did afternoons there from Oct 1979 to Christmas 1980. Mitch Leopard hired me. He's voicing audio books now; has his own company. When he left, I did just about everything but sell ads - program director, music director, sports director, news director, PSA director, DJ.
In the winter, when we had short hours (WKRP was a daytimer), Don Cobbs and I were pretty much it. Don (Big Daddy) teaches Dale Carnegie classes in Atlanta now. Gary Kinsey was there for a bit (his wife was the station secretary).
Those were great times! No money, but who cares! We were young and carefree and loved being big frogs in a small (but famous) pond.
One thing I found amusing about the TV show picking the call letters WKRP is that MTM said the calls weren't close to any actual station broadcasting in the Cincinnati area.
However, that's not true. WKRC AM and WKRC TV, plus sister WKRQ were already well established in the market.
I don't remember where I heard that about MTM saying the calls weren't close to any other Cincy stations. I may not have that totally correct.
Another thing, on ME-TV Sunday night they broadcast 2 hours of WKRP episodes. The music isn't totally original, and that's disappointing. Les dancing to Hot Blooded was classic, and that was changed to meet royalty requirements. And Mr & Mrs Carlson dancing to Thank Heaven for Little Girls was also changed. But it's not as bad as those DVD sets, some of the music is actually right.
I found a blog that has some links to videos of the actual shows, with music intact. http://zvbxrpl.blogspot.com/2008/09/wkrp.html they're pretty cool to see again after all these years.
However, that's not true. WKRC AM and WKRC TV, plus sister WKRQ were already well established in the market.
I don't remember where I heard that about MTM saying the calls weren't close to any other Cincy stations. I may not have that totally correct.
Another thing, on ME-TV Sunday night they broadcast 2 hours of WKRP episodes. The music isn't totally original, and that's disappointing. Les dancing to Hot Blooded was classic, and that was changed to meet royalty requirements. And Mr & Mrs Carlson dancing to Thank Heaven for Little Girls was also changed. But it's not as bad as those DVD sets, some of the music is actually right.
I found a blog that has some links to videos of the actual shows, with music intact. http://zvbxrpl.blogspot.com/2008/09/wkrp.html they're pretty cool to see again after all these years.
danhughes said:
Dan Hughes! The man who used to have his phone number listed in his dog's name so he would not have to pay the phone companies fee for an unlisted number. ;D
I have a copy of the AP story with the station signed on the air... somewhere. I have lost all of my tapes. As best as I can figure, they were left in a box that was in the trunk of a car my parents sold. I used to have all of the jingle packages and many air check reels from different people.
Come visit our little Atlanta board more often.
amos said:
The rumor in the Cincinnati market (when I was there in 1990's) was MTM cut a set of jingles for WKRC that sounded just like the WKRP TV jingles as part of an agreement not to get sued. IIRC the coverage map, power and frequency used on the show were very close to WKRC at that time. This was the rumor 20 years after the fact. I never worked at either station in question so all info is second or third handed.
danhughes said:
I am not even sure I can change that. That profile was brought over from the old radio-info boards. I made a mistake. I was working there before the sign-on as a gofer for Mr. White, the owner. I lived next door to him and bugged him for three years about getting a job here.
BarryATL said:
Not to mention that "Skinny Bobby Harper" was a DJ at Cincinnati Top 40 powerhouse WSAI-1360 in 1964-1965 and returned there again as Program Director in 1969....
amos said:
amos said:
I'm not sure where this myth started, but it wasn't the station fighting the FCC it was MTM Productions. MTM filed an objection when the call letters were applied for. The FCC said that since MTM was not the licensee of a station, their objection was moot nor could they file a copyright on the WKRP call sign.
BarryATL said:
Yea, the FCC shot it down pretty quick and there was nothing else MTM could do. I guess that's the perils of picking a legal call sign for your TV show. Now if MTM was truly concerned about protecting the call sign, they could have paid the station owners NOT to take the call sign, but after other station owners learned of that, EVERYBODY would have been filing for the WKRP call sign just for a pay out from MTM.
Bengalsfan said:
i'm not sure, either. but i can tell you my small part of it. back in '79, when the station in dallas first hit the air, it made the news because of the WKRP calls. I telephoned the station (I was in SC at WPDZ) and interviewed someone, not sure who he was. I asked how the FCC allowed them to get those call letters, not realizing that the FCC wouldn't have anything to do with it. The answer I got was that they had to fight to get those call letters, saying they didn't have anything to do with the TV show, and that WKRP stood for We Keep Radios Playing. Since I asked about the FCC, and that was his answer, I thought he meant they had to convince the FCC. But I see now that his answer didn't actually say FCC, and he was really talking about MTM productions.
it all makes perfect sense, as MTM productions wasn't a license holder. but i repeated the FCC in the story because that's what i thought he was saying.
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