The real live – IRL – WKRP in Cincinnati is planning to re-create one of the most “successful” radio stunts and hilarious TV episodes for Thanksgiving.
the ‘Turkeys Away’ episode of the TV show “WKRP in Cincinnati” featured the station giving away turkeys at a shopping center for Thanksgiving – complete with a live broadcast by newsman (and Buckeye Newshawk Award-Winner) Les Nessman (Richard Sanders). Well, it didn’t go as planned – like most radio ‘stunts’.
The fictional giveaway featured LIVE Turkeys being cast out of a helicopter to the crowd below. The stunt goes sideways quickly when the flightless fowl plummet to their deaths to the parking lot below “like sacks of wet cement”. Triggering the classic quote from fictional WKRP general manager Arthur Carlson (Gordon Jump), “As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”
Real life WKRP General Manager Jeff Ziesmann tells Radio Ink: “Everyone, from the minute we signed on WKRP, has been demanding the return of the turkey drop. Now, they will have their wish.”
Now listeners will gather on November 25 at 7:30p at Casual Pint and Municipal Brew Works in Hamilton, OH, where rubber turkeys, purchased in advance, will go soaring from the top of a fire-truck ladder. The turkey that lands closest to the targets wins cash and a permanent place in WKRP lore.
WKRP owner Randy Michaels told Radio Ink, “We’ve been experimenting and it turns out, with enough thrust, turkeys will fly pretty far.”
All net proceeds from turkey and commemorative T-shirt sales will support Open Door Food Pantry in Ohio’s Butler County, helping local families during the holiday season.
[ YouTube: Crosscut Films ] [ Radio Ink ]
