‘WKRP in Cincinnati’ Fans Can Now Hear the Show’s Actual Radio Broadcast
If you’ve ever watched WKRP in Cincinnati and wondered what it would be like to actually listen to the station, now’s your chance to find out: a fan created a six-hour listening experience that will make you feel like you’re really there, tuning into Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman)’s and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid)’s radio shows live.
Bluesky user David Daniel posted on August 14, 2025, “This is awesome: a ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’ fan created a three-hour Johnny Fever radio block, by using clips from the TV show and dropping in the full songs on his intros and outros, plus commercials and Les Nessman news breaks.”
Everett Collection
Radio producer and editor Jon Nelson crafted two three-hour audio mixes, splicing together Johnny Fever and Venus Flytrap‘s actual song intros from the show with many songs mentioned on the series. Nelson created the mixes as part of his radio show, Radio Retrofit, which airs on New Jersey’s WFMU.
On Radio Retrofit, Nelson uses audio samples to recreate famous radio programs in pop culture; in addition to WKRP, he has also created a version of Hard Harry (Christian Slater)’s radio show from the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume, the “Chris in the Morning” program anchored by Chris Stevens (John Corbett) from quirky ’90s sitcom Northern Exposure, Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams)’s show from Good Morning, Vietnam, and Clem Clements (Nick Offerman)’s show from animated series Bob’s Burgers.
“This started as a mix tape, just for myself, with breaks collaged together from recordings found on WKRP in Cincinnati,” Nelson writes on his website. “I had way too much fun editing it all together, in honor of one of my favorite fictional DJs. I ended up playing the finished recording at WFMU, when Hesseman passed, and I’ve just been brainstorming how to keep it going.”
Nelson’s WKRP audio mixes are available on his website, and can also be downloaded if you’d prefer to listen offline. They’re all free to listen to, but if you’d like to send him some cash so fund future work, you can drop him a few bucks here.
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