List of fictional radio stations
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This is a list of notable fictional radio stations. At least eleven different TV shows have used a radio station as a setting.[1]
According to Michael Hawk of Real TV Addict, the top five fictional stations on (American) television are WKRP, WNYX, KBHR, WENN, and KACL.[2]
- KACL 780 AM – is the radio station in Seattle which is the setting for Frasier.[2] It was named after creators, Angell, Casey and Lee plus the standard letter K for stations located west of the Mississippi. Its format is talk radio and briefly was a salsa station. Several other fictional radio stations, KPXY, KQZY, KJSB, KAZW and KTLK are also mentioned or featured in the show. In 1997 an actual FM station in Bismarck, North Dakota signed on with the KACL call letters.
- KBBL and KBBL-FM (AM 970, FM 102.5) – radio stations in The Simpsons. The letters of the call-sign suggest babble and the Tower of Babel.[3] Nominal competitors are KJAZZ-FM and KFSL – Fossil 103 (there is a real KFSL-LP in Fossil, Oregon) KUDD Radio is a commercial radio station located in the town of Weevilville in Spittle County. KUDD's broadcast area includes Springfield. There is actually a real-life station with the KUDD call letters in Salt Lake City, Utah on 105.1 FM, with a Top 40 format, named "Mix 105.1"
- KBHR 570 AM: from Northern Exposure,[2] it is the local station of fictional town Cicely, Alaska.
- WENN: set in Pittsburgh,[2] an old-time radio station that was the focus of the Emmy award-winning television series Remember WENN.[4]
- WKRP—Cincinnati, Ohio, WKRP in Cincinnati and The New WKRP in Cincinnati TV shows (formerly easy listening, turned into rock and Top 40 for both series). The show was considered revolutionary for its use of music for the fictional station.[2] WKRP's rival is WPIG, whose mascot was a pig (and which is not to be confused with the real WPIG). In 2015 an actual FM station, WKRP-LP, began broadcasting in Raleigh, North Carolina.
- WLT – Minneapolis, Minnesota, setting for the Garrison Keillor novel WLT: A Radio Romance. Call sign derived from the slogan "With Lettuce and Tomato".[5]
- WNYX 585 AM – AM news station in New York City from NewsRadio. The entire series takes place in, about and around the goings on at the station.[2] Other stations mentioned in the show are WRMH, WYXP, and WXYP.
- Radio Roo – a fictional radio station featured in the children's program of the same name.[6]
- Radio Norwich in I'm Alan Partridge
References
[edit]- ^ Raymond Edel (July 11, 1997), "Mixing Media, from 'Frasier' to 'Remember WENN'", The Record, archived from the original on November 4, 2012
- ^ a b c d e f Michael Hawk. "TV's Top Radio Stations Archived 2013-02-01 at archive.today." Real TV Addict. March 29, 2010
- ^ Davis Walter; Dreibelbis Gary; Blythe Teresa; Scales Mark; Ashburn Donald; Winans Elizabeth (January 2001), Watching What We Watch, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 9780664226961
- ^ Emmy, vol. 19, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, 1997
- ^ "WLT: A Radio Romance — 1991"
- ^ CHILDREN'S TV – RADIO ROO to RUNNING THE HALLS Archived 2011-02-27 at the Wayback Machine memorabletv.com