Ohio Radio Station Renames Itself WKRP in Cincinnati

In a supreme case of “doing it for the meme,” an Ohio radio station has changed its name to WKRP in Cincinnati.

If you’re unaware of the significance (and were thus likely born post-1999), WKRP in Cincinnati was a beloved sitcom that ran from 1978 to 1982 about the wacky DJs and staff of a top-40 rock ‘n’ roll station. It starred Richard Sanders, Tim Reid, Gordon Jump, Howard Hesseman (who passed away in 2022 ), and Loni Anderson across its 90 episodes. There was also a ’90s spinoff/sequel, The New WKRP in Cincinnati , that ran in syndication.

So, why exactly did Cincinnati’s 97.7 FM decide to make the big change? As station owner Jeff Ziesmann told Cincinnati’s 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.” It’s genuinely hard to argue with that kind of generally sound logic. Plus, absolutely anything beats the station’s old name, “The Oasis.”

The newly rebranded WKRP in Cincinnati didn’t settle for a simple name change. On Monday morning, the station marked the switch by airing the WKRP in Cincinnati theme song for six straight hours. Later in the day, it rolled out promo messages recorded by Gary Sandy, who played program director Andy Travis on the show. Now, that’s a commitment that’s even cooler than Tim Reid’s own Venus Flytrap character.

Advertisement

Related Video

As The Hollywood Reporter points out, other stations have adopted the WKRP call letters before, although this is the first one in Cincinnati to make the change. Meanwhile, 97.7 adds to its credibility with the change, as the station’s tagline of “Bang!” (when it was known as WOXY-FM in the ’80s) became the unofficial mantra of Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man character. Perhaps if other stations had this kind of sustained guts and smarts radio wouldn’t be in such a sadly dire state .

You can check out the new WKRP in Cincinnati right here . Below, relive one of the finest sitcom theme songs ever (which was re-released way back in 2014 alongside the full series OST).

Load More

_Originally reported by [Consequence](https://consequence.net/2026/05/radio-station-changes-to-wkrp-in-cincinnati/)._