Earworms can require a day or two to take hold with me. It might be a song I heard a few days earlier. It might even be a song I merely thought about — maybe I scheduled it while editing a radio-station log. But the earworm waking up on the morning I wrote this was pretty much unavoidable. It was the theme song from WKRP in Cincinnati.
On May 4, the Cincinnati/Dayton/Northern Kentucky trimulcast of The Oasis relaunched as WKRP, marking the first time there has been an actual WKRP in Cincinnati. Since then, I’ve heard the TV theme at least 2-3 times in its entirety. I’ve also heard the coda used a few times as a jingle. By Tuesday, I couldn’t help thinking of it once in a while.
WKRP is still using “The Oasis” in its branding. It’s still playing a broad ’60s-through-early-’80s mix along the lines of KDRI (The Drive) Tucson, Ariz., or KOAI (The Wow Factor) Phoenix. While Gary Sandy (the TV show’s Andy Travis) is now the station spokesperson, it’s not a Stranger Things/”The Squawk”–like recreation of the sort-of-Top-40, sort-of-AOR station portrayed in the late-’70s/early-’80s TV show. “Not a reboot, not a remake” declares one sweeper.
The Oasis is still the friendly, broad-based Classic Hits station I’ve been writing about since Randy Michaels acquired the station two years ago. PD/morning man Dave Mason has a background in full-service AC, and his Classic Hits stations have been doing a broader, older-leaning version of the format, inspired by Adult Hits, since well before KDRI or The Wow Factor. Both of those things remain on display here.
But the new call letters meant that the format change got coverage in Cincinnati and well beyond. I was at Radiodays North America in Toronto this week, and colleagues have wanted to talk about it. Online, ROR readers and radio fans are holding a convention of their own, and even PD Mason has chimed in. (The change has accompanied the station being more active on social media). Many readers have probably already listened to the station in real time, but there is already audio posted.
The calls have also allowed the Oasis to add a little swagger to its positioning, especially for its longer playlist. One Sandy-voiced sweeper declares that WKRP is back “with a record collection and a problem with authority.” (Another Sandy stager calls it “a playlist big enough to require adult supervision.”) There’s also a promo about “big corporate stations that spend a fortune on research and play a small list of the same songs.”
On Monday, with p.m. driver John “B-Man” Beaulieu, there was also a 5 p.m. newscast that was inspired not by WKRP’s Les Nessman but by the rugged “20/20 News” of top 40 CKLW Detroit in the ’70s. The first five stories were a shooting, a car crash, the price of gas, a house fire, and a fired police chief suing for his job back. There were, at least that afternoon, no hog reports. Beaulieu did have some rapid-fire free-association breaks, more easily heard than recreated in print, that would have fit on the same station with Dr. Johnny Fever and Venus Flytrap.
The “problem with authority” promo went into “Sweet Talkin’ Woman” by Electric Light Orchestra. Increasingly, I’ve come to think of this format as “the station that plays ELO.” If you grew up with Top 40 or AOR in the late ’70s, ELO was there with a 1976-79 streak of great radio records. Only one of those, “Don’t Bring Me Down,” made it to the modern-day Classic Hits format, and even that one has disappeared in recent years. PDs of my generation want to play ELO. Not everybody wants a station that does what KDRI or the Oasis does, but there’s proven to be at least a 3 share for that format, and if you’re among them, you likely want to hear ELO.
The Facebook comments on Monday were mostly excited. The detractors are those that feel that The Oasis with new calls is no big deal. The station’s Dayton listeners already have one throwback offering in newer-leaning WGTZ (Z93). It’s interesting to imagine the writing (and access to IP) that would have been necessary to bring the station of the TV show to life. Or to sustain it, when the Squawk only needed enough material for six weeks or so.
But I enjoyed the Oasis before. I’m enjoying the new station. And I like ELO. Here’s WKRP with B-Man just before 5 p.m., May 4:
- Daryl Hall & John Oates, “She’s Gone”
- Aretha Franklin, “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)”
- Steve Carlisle, “WKRP in Cincinnati” — heard full-length here, also heard the coda used elsewhere like a jingle
- Kenny Loggins, “Footloose”
- Spinners, “One of a Kind (Love Affair)”
- Ides of March, “Vehicle”
- Hollies, “Carrie-Anne”
- KC & Sunshine Band, “Get Down Tonight”
- Jean Knight, “Mr. Big Stuff”
- Steve Winwood, “Back in the High Life Again”
- Rick Derringer, “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo”
- Chuck Berry, “No Particular Place to Go”
- Paul McCartney, “Maybe I’m Amazed” (1970 Studio)
- Dire Straits, “Sultans of Swing”
Here’s the station on the evening of May 5:
- El Chicano, “Viva Tirado”
- Argent, “Hold Your Head Up”
- Crosby, Stills & Nash, “Wasted on the Way”
- Queen, “Killer Queen”
- Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Travelin’ Band”
- Nat Kendrick & the Swans, “Mashed Potatoes” — a James Brown side project, staged with a sweeper saluting Brown as a Cincinnati artist (during his tenure on King Records)
- Abba, “Waterloo”
- Rascals, “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long”
- Phil Collins, “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)”
- Fleetwood Mac, “Hypnotized”
- Marvin Gaye, “Got to Give It Up”
- Kingsmen, “Louie Louie”
UPDATE: A week after the launch, I took another listen to WKRP and B-Man. Here’s another sample of the station from May 11:
- Average White Band, “Pick Up the Pieces”
- Michael Jackson, “Bad”–“he’s bad, but you wouldn’t know it from the movie,” quipped B-Man
- Otis Redding, “Love Man”
- Youngbloods, “Get Together”
- Four Tops, “Reach Out, I’ll Be There”
- Hollies, “The Air That I Breathe”
- Sniff ‘n’ the Tears, “Driver’s Seat”
- The Band, “The Weight”
- Elton John, “I’m Still Standing”
- Doobie Brothers, “China Grove”
- Bobby Fuller Four, “I Fought the Law”
- Albert Hammond, “It Never Rains In Southern California”
- Paul Davis, “I Go Crazy’
- Elvis Presley, “Suspicious Minds”
- Jim Croce, “Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues”
- Traveling Wilburys, “End of the Line”
If you’re reading this article, chances are good that you may have already heard WKRP yourself (although it was pretty clear from various comments that readers were expecting a First Listen anyway). Please share your comments below.
Sounds musically just like the Big 8, CKLW, except for a few.
I’m a big ELO fan, but ELO was never the same in terms of radio airplay after Disco?Very! and the Xanadu soundtrack. Two disco-flavored albums in a row pretty much expelled them from AOR, and for some reason CHR dropped them too. I think CHR was taking more and more of its cues from MTV, and despite “Hold On Tight” being the most expensive video made to that point in 1981, it didn’t get much rotation.
All this despite ELO getting a lot of media syncs and a lot of “yeah, I love ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ too…” But try hearing “Mr. Blue Sky” on the radio. Maybe ELO doesn’t test well in hotel ballrooms, with not that many five-second hooks.
Much the same thing happened to KISS after Dynasty (“I Was Made For Loving You”). “Rock and Roll All Nite” gets Classic Hits/Rock airplay, but that’s about it. Neither Classic Hits nor Classic Rock will touch “Beth” anymore.
I’d love to see a Lost Factor analysis on both ELO and KISS.
Of all the pop acts that flirted with disco, Kiss was the only one that I think really got punished, even if we recognize “I Was Made for Loving You” as a rock record now (or at least a Duran Duran record before there was Duran). Even with “Shine a Little Light” and “Xanadu,” I don’t think ELO ever self-destructed as much as got usurped in a new generation. I still remember them fondly and programmers of my generation definitely do.
Sean, between Randy, Jeff Ziessman, the staff and I . We have more years of experience than Marconi and his descendants. I’m thrilled to be part of it appreciate your thoughts and support and understanding that we’re trying to make radio worth listening fo again.
Very listenable station.
And ELO is one of those bands that shouldn’t have disappeared from play. There are some great sounding ELO songs that have fallen through the cracks. Probably not a case of the music not testing well. Mostly likely, the songs aren’t being tested at all.
Through the ’10s at least, before Classic Hits started to weed the ’70s down to “Hot Stuff” and “Hotel California” where ELO did get tested because the PDs who grew up with them really wanted to play them. Usually, only “Don’t Bring Me Down” came through, and that song is often so polarizing that it would test every other time because stations would overplay it for a year then have to rest it. Even “Mr. Blue Sky” never got any lift from its reappearance in pop culture.
Music selection is great and I appreciate the local artists added in. They need to order some of their own production elements. The TV stripping is getting repetitive.
I wouldn’t go with the “CKLW 20/20 News” comparison. They have the deep-voiced anchor and a quick delivery, but no audio, no clever phrases, no hotline promo, and no teletype underneath. Of course, CKLW had a 23-person news staff to make that happen.
Now I’m curious what CKLW’s Ted Richards, one of the first commenters in this story, thought of the news, if he got to hear it? In the same way that The Oasis/WKRP draws on ’70s Top 40 but with a more relaxed presentation, what I heard in the newscast was the combination of an insistent delivery and an emphasis on police blotter/tragedy, but certainly without the stylized writing/production of CKLW.
“Love Man”? That was on the real “WKRP”! The one that opens with Dr. Johnny filling in for the overnight guy, playing a one-hour Otis Redding marathon and giving away a “ghetto blaster”, although apparently that phrase was swapped out on the DVD.
Between “WKRP” and “Dirty Dancing,” I think “Love Man” has more of a footprint in TV and movies than it had on the radio at the time.
If I had a nickel for every person who said “Oh, you were on the radio in Cincinnati – what station? WKRP?” followed by <> . C’mon Dave, Randy and Jeff – give me a chance to answer that question differently!!!!!
Mark Elliott would sound great on WKRP. Based on the response to this article, I’m guessing Dave has received T&Rs in a way that no radio station has in a long time.
I have listened to “The Mighty ‘KRP” online a few times so far in my travels. The station this reminds me of is when the resurrected WCFL premiered on 104.7 FM in 1992 as a rimshot from Morris, IL *barely* reaching Marina City in downtown Chicago and points north and east of town.
Like WKRP, WCFL-FM didn’t pigeon-hole itself into what station formats had to be — if it was a hit and caused the toes to tap at the office or the hand to tap the steering wheel in the car regardless of decade or genre, it was likely played on those stations.
Perhaps now, with the advent of LPFM translators all the rage — and in WKRP’s case, simulcasting on different stations within a region covering a larger overall area — someone could replicate a “consultants be damned” WKRP or WCFL format in the Chicagoland area and try to grab the listenership of those who either channel hop between multiple stations, or stream internet stations to get the wider mix and larger music playlists that WKRP currently plays.
Tim – Why wouldn’t you see Me-TV FM as filling this hole? It’s not trying to be a presentational throwback (although, really, neither is The Oasis/WKRP), but it does play ’60s hits and lost ’70s, like the new station. In many ways, it was first into the category.
Also wanted to share an e-mail response to the column from veteran rock/AC consultant Alan Sneed.
“I really enjoyed reading your take on WKRP and I am glad they kept the Oasis as part of the branding. I’ve known Randy [Michaels] since the ’70s and am happy to see him still making noise.”