Radioactive LLC and Grant County Broadcasters’ Oldies “The Oasis” 94.5 WYDB Englewood OH, 97.7 WOXY Mason OH, and 106.7 WNKR Williamstown KY relaunched with the “WKRP” brand this morning.
The revamp follows Michaels acquiring the rights to the WKRP-FM call letters for WOXY with those moving to WYDB. The new identity debuted at 6am today following a loop of the television show’s theme song overnight. The station will continue to feature longtime San Diego talent Dave Mason in mornings, Ernie ‘The Fat Man’ Brown in middays, and John ‘BMAN’ Beaulieu in afternoons.
Grant County Broadcasters owner Jeff Ziesmann told WVXU, “We play essentially the same music that they played on WKRP. It made more sense for us to do this than any other station in town.” He continued, “The presentation will be a tribute to the TV show — not a parody of a 40-year-old TV show that aired for only four years. For us, WKRP is more of an attitude.”
Gary Sandy, who played WKRP Program Director Andy Travis on the sitcom, is providing some imaging for the station.
Update 5/3: As we exclusively reported in Domain Insight on April 3, Randy Michaels’ Radioactive LLC will be bringing the WKRP call letters to be used on the FM dial in Cincinnati for the first time.
Michaels filed this morning to place the WKRP-FM call letters on what is now 97.7 WOXY Mason OH, while those equally historic call letters in the market move to 94.5 WYDB Englewood/Dayton. Both stations are part of the Oldies “The Oasis” trimulcast with Grant County Broadcasters’ 106.7 WNKR Williamstown KY.
The approval letter from Oak City Media, which has operated 101.9 WKRP-LP Raleigh NC since 2015, states “RadioActive acknowledges, understands and agrees that OCM shall retain its preferential rights with respect to the general use and authorization of “WKRP” call signs, and that RadioActive shall not attempt to contest, deny, inhibit or prevent OCM from (a) using the call sign “WKRP-LP” in association with the Raleigh Market Station, (b) issuing authorizations, without limitation, to other parties with respect to other broadcast stations eligible to use “WKRP” call signs in accordance with FCC regulations, nor (c) transferring the WKRP-LP call sign, and with it those preferential rights with respect to the use of “WKRP” call signs generally as described in this paragraph. In such case the terms of this authorization shall continue with such transferee and RadioActive without modification”.
The call letter change requests the change to take place on Friday, May 8.
Original Report 4/3: After Oak City Media, which has operated 101.9 WKRP-LP Raleigh NC since 2015, put the rights to the call letters up for sale in February, it has apparently found a buyer in Cincinnati.
Executive Director DP McIntire told the Associated Press, “I cannot, by contract, tell you when. I cannot tell you who. But I can tell you, direct to the camera, WKRP, after 48 years, is coming to Cincinnati. Book it! It’s done!”
While McIntire legally cannot state who the buyer is, we can based off recent domain registrations made who is seeking to bring the identity of America’s most famous fictitious radio station to its “home” market.
Domain registrations were made this week for WKRP945.com, WKRP977.com, and WKRP1067.com, which match with the three frequencies of Grant County Broadcasters and Randy Michaels’ Radioactive LLC Oldies “The Oasis” trimulcast surrounding greater Cincinnati and Dayton. The brand is heard on Michaels’ 94.5 WYDB Englewood/Dayton and 97.7 WOXY Mason OH and Grant County Broadcasters’ 106.7 WNKR Williamstown KY.
Benjamin 
Ralph 
Charles Jackson
Broadcasters should not be allowed to sell rights to their call letters. The call letters should belong to the FCC, and they allow broadcasters to use them, and when they’re finished using them, they revert to the FCC.
If and when the FCC removes the straitjacket they place on LPFM radio stations that allow them to generate sustainable revenue using the same standards as commercial stations, or even PBS? Then they can work on call letter rights sales – which every commercial station operator will fight against because they swap call signs among stations like most people change their underwear.
In terms of the first lesson, we actually gave this the first listen, we, I guess I mean, me, and it was actually really good. Despite that I am not quite in demographic for the listener or the station, even though I am in Cleveland ohio, it’s actually a really good station.