A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Nearly 50 years ago, a TV sitcom debut that made a fictional radio station famous.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WKRP IN CINCINNATI (MAIN THEME)")
STEVE CARLISLE: (Singing) I'm living on the air in Cincinnati. Cincinnati WKRP.
MARTÍNEZ: "WKRP In Cincinnati" was about a dysfunctional rock station with a burned-out DJ, a clueless newsman and a bumbling general manager.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
There has never actually been a radio station in Cincinnati called WKRP, but it looks like that might be changing. Those call letters were recently put up for auction. They were most recently owned by a media nonprofit in Raleigh, North Carolina. Executive Director D.P. McIntire grew up watching the show.
DP MCINTIRE: We watched the original episode of the series. And at the end of it, I stood up and told my parents and my sister, I'm going to run a radio station someday, and if I can, it's going to be WKRP.
MARTÍNEZ: And sure enough, in November of 2015, McIntire made it happen. Over the years, his station has had some fun with the legacy of those call letters. In one of the sitcom's most famous episodes, the station's general manager came up with a Thanksgiving promotion. They dropped turkeys from a helicopter. Yeah, live turkeys, though. And it did not end up well.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "WKRP IN CINCINNATI")
GORDON JUMP: (As Arthur Carlson) As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.
(LAUGHTER)
FADEL: McIntire says WKRP in Raleigh plays that episode on loop every Thanksgiving. The station even does its own turkey giveaway.
MCINTIRE: We do not toss them out of helicopters. We do, however, give away gift certificates to pick up a free turkey at a local grocery store.
FADEL: McIntire says, after working 45 years in radio, it's time to hang up his hat. So his company put the call letters up for bid.
MCINTIRE: We didn't take the highest bidder. We took a bidder from Cincinnati simply because they were from Cincinnati.
MARTÍNEZ: Perfect decision. And now it looks like the city might finally get to sing this song with full sincerity.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WKRP IN CINCINNATI (MAIN THEME)")
CARLISLE: (Singing) Got kind of tired of packing and unpacking. Town to town, up and down the dial. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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