WKRP in Dallas Georgia

[BarryATL]

The person you interviewed was probably Mitch Leopard who was the GM at the time. He could have been exaggerating the story a bit to make it interesting. Back then, the little station was looking for all of the attention it could get. Have a couple of wire stories about the station. I may have a story about the station getting mentioned on Monday Night Football during a slow part of the game.

 

[jovialjay]

when WKRP-Dallas first went on the air....General Mgr was Mitch Leopard --- 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.

WKRP signed on in September '79. R. Griffin White (the "R" stood for Ruff, which was perfect for him) hired me at the 1980 GAB Convention...I think Mitch had been gone for a month or so. I stayed for about a year. There were four owners: Griffin and his wife Maxine owned 25% each, Howard Gordon had 25% and Bill Hathaway had 25%. White was a building contractor and owned P-K-W Building Supplies. Gordon and Hathaway were also in the building business. They badly wanted out and sold their 50% to some idiot whose name I have successfully forgotten. (In my opinion) He was a con-artist who drove a Corvette and knew nothing about radio. I didn't stay long after he arrived on the scene. In almost no time, he was gone and Bill Rucker bought the station. The studio building now houses an architectural firm.

 

[radiorob2.0]

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.

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.

The first couple of episodes had WKRP at 50,000 watts including the lobby coverage map that was more akin to potential skywave coverage. The wattage was backed off to 5,000 watts for the rest of the series. The coverage map, IIRC, was akin to a non-directional low dial position at 5kw. WKRC has a directional pattern day and night. The day pattern has a sharp null to the west along with nulls to the northeast and south-southeast. The revival of the show in the early nineties finally gave a dial position as 1530, in Cincinnati that belongs to WCKY.

Reelradio has an aircheck of WUBE in their last days of a Bill Drake consulted Top 40. The top of the hour jingle sounds reminiscent of the later produced "WKRP Cincinnati".

 

[cjwest]

Mitch Leopard came to Elkins Institute in Atlanta to get his First Ticket while he was working at WKRP. I was teaching Broadcasting there at the time. I knew Mitch from when he was working the afternoon on air news shift at WPLO AM in 1970-71. I was doing the midnite to 6 show at the time. Usually lasted until 6:15. That's about the Time John Fox the morning legend would roll in.

 

[ebnozn]

Mitch Leopard came to Elkins Institute in Atlanta to get his First Ticket while he was working at WKRP. I was teaching Broadcasting there at the time. I knew Mitch from when he was working the afternoon on air news shift at WPLO AM in 1970-71. I was doing the midnite to 6 show at the time. Usually lasted until 6:15. That's about the Time John Fox the morning legend would roll in.

;D

 

[jovialjay]

There were four owners: ...Bill HATHCOCK had 25%.

Correcting one of the owner's names

 

[danhughes]

Mitch Leopard came to Elkins Institute in Atlanta to get his First Ticket while he was working at WKRP. I was teaching Broadcasting there at the time. I knew Mitch from when he was working the afternoon on air news shift at WPLO AM in 1970-71. I was doing the midnite to 6 show at the time. Usually lasted until 6:15. That's about the Time John Fox the morning legend would roll in.

Just got this response from Mitch:

On the 1st ticket thing, the timing sounds right although I believe I got it before WKRP went on the air. Also the name of the guy is wrong. The overnight man at WPLO had a different name but he was a great guy. P.S. - I lost my license a long time ago, or it could be in one of a zillion boxes. Cheerio

 

[BarryATL]

This is very fuzzy memory, but I think Mitch had his 1st license when I first met him.... which was about a month before WKRP signed on the air. I was 16 or 17 years old at the time. I seem to remember asking him why he did not "engineer the station" instead of Dick Byrd? But, that memory could also be the the result of the beanie wienies I had for supper last night.

 

[danhughes]

I seem to remember asking him why he did not "engineer the station" instead of Dick Byrd?

That one's easy! Mitch had a 1st just like I did - from a "Five-Week Wonder" school. We learned enough electronics theory to pass the tests, but we never touched a single engineering tool. Wouldn't know what to do with a soldering iron, much less identify and repair a faulty part or circuit.

 

[trusty]

I was doing the midnite to 6 show at the time. Usually lasted until 6:15. That's about the Time John Fox the morning legend would roll in.

There was a guy named Perry Woods who did overnights in the 60's. I was told that PLO always had a duplicate set of records and carts at the N. Druid Hills transmitter site for overnights and emergencies. You could tell if you listened real close; it didn't "sound" like their studio processing. (lack of reverb or something)???

When did they start doing overnights from downtown?

 

[BarryATL]

I was doing the midnite to 6 show at the time. Usually lasted until 6:15. That's about the Time John Fox the morning legend would roll in.

There was a guy named Perry Woods who did overnights in the 60's. I was told that PLO always had a duplicate set of records and carts at the N. Druid Hills transmitter site for overnights and emergencies. You could tell if you listened real close; it didn't "sound" like their studio processing. (lack of reverb or something)???

When did they start doing overnights from downtown?

I wonder if they did overnights from the transmitter because at that time the directional night pattern required a first class on site? Maybe the night jock had a 1st class phone license?

 

[trusty]

I wonder if they did overnights from the transmitter because at that time the directional night pattern required a first class on site? Maybe the night jock had a 1st class phone license?

There are a couple of neurons in my brain that are saying, "Yeah! I remember now. That's exactly why it was like that."

But it's only a couple of neurons back there... ;D

Matter of fact, I liked PLO overnights because Perry would play records while the Tiger Twins were talking about the stupidest things. I guess it's because he needed the time to take readings...

 

[T.G.]

You are correct. WPLO operated from the transmitter site after sundown because at the time the FCC did not allow remote control of a directional-antenna station.

PLO had a small studio at the transmitter site and they hired jocks with first-phones to man it.

That's the reason many jocks went to Elkins to get their "six-week wonder" licenses. It increased their chances of getting a job.

 

[BarryATL]

In other cases, stations had apartments in their transmitter buildings for the engineer to live. I know he was supposed to be awake when the station is directional, but unless the FCC had a key to the transmitter building, they would never know. I am told that the WAOK transmitter building is one of those with an apartment.

 

[cjwest]

No Mitch the "guys name is not wrong". I used the name Jay West for all of my radio career. I did the all night show on WPLO from APR 1970-APR 1971. Yes the show was done from the North Druid Hills transmitter site. The all night jock had to stop by the station down town and get the log, new carts etc. We also had to watch the FM transmitter. I worked at Elkins Institute in Atlanta from 1976 until 1984. I believe we were still in the Peachtree location when you got your ticket at Elkins. Couldn't have been later than 78 because we moved to West Peachtree around that time.

 

[danhughes]

Got my 1st at REI, Fredericksburg VA. Instructor was Ray Gill, who pretty much talked and diagrammed all day without ever consulting notes. Unbelievable!

Whatever happened to the folks who ran those First Class License schools? Are they teaching for internet schools now?

An awful lot of careers ended suddenly when the FCC did away with license requirements.

 

[danhughes]

By the way, Mitch Leopard is scheduled for a triple bypass operation tomorrow.

You can write to him at his website http://mitchleopard.com.