List of fictional radio stations

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]

United States

• GNR – Washington DC station where Three Dog talked about the wastes and hosts a one-man radio show, Galaxy News Radio, in the videogame Fallout 3.
• 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.^[3] 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.
• KBAL - SportsTalk radio station where Ryan King is a personality on the NBC sitcom, Go On. While an exact location isn't explicitly listed, its alluded to be somewhere in the southern California region.^[4]
• 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.^[5] Nominal competitors are KJAZZ-FM and KFSL – Fossil 103
• KBHR 570 AM – from Northern Exposure,^[2] it is the local station of fictional town Cicely, Alaska.
• KFLH – a radio station (FM 95.6) based in San Francisco, featured in several episodes of Full House as an employer of two of the main characters. The number for the station is impossible to dial on standard FM radios, given the .2 MHz spacing and all frequencies ending in odd numbers on the FM band in the United States.
• KGAB - Dallas, Texas - KGAB is a real radio station in Cheyenne, Wyoming, but the call sign was used in the movie Talk Radio. The movie was made in 1988 and as KGAB's current call sign only dates back to 1997, it is unknown if the call letters was taken as a result of the movie.
• KJCM/98.3: San Francisco talk radio station which aired "Jack Killian, The Nighthawk" on "Midnight Caller".
• KLOW – Portland, Oregon station where Larry Alder worked on the sitcom Hello, Larry.
• KSAD- Los Angeles, California, heard in Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult. Its slogan is, "All depressing, all the time".
• WENN – set in Pittsburgh,^[2] an old-time radio station that was the focus of the Emmy award-winning television series Remember WENN.^[6]
• WHOGG - Hazzard County's only radio station on The Dukes of Hazzard.
• WJBB - Cleveland, Ohio, Hot in Cleveland
• 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 station). In 2015 an actual FM station, WKRP-LP, began broadcasting in Raleigh, North Carolina.
• WOLD – Boise, Idaho = from the song W*O*L*D by Harry Chapin.
• WPIG 95.7 – unrelated to WPIG Cincinnati. Rock station set in Aurora, Illinois in the movie Wayne's World 2. Partially based on a real-life country music station with the same call sign and frequency in Olean, New York.
• WREQ - from Homefront, it is the local station of fictional town River Run, Ohio. WREQ was also the callsign of a competing station to WKRP which offered Venus Flytrap a job.
• WYBS 88.3 - from Under the Dome, is a radio station in the small town of Chester's Mill.
• WUSA – is the setting of the film of the same name, which depicts it as a talk radio station in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• WTNV, of Welcome to Night Vale.
• WNYX 585 AM – a fictional AM news station in New York City from NewsRadio. The entire series takes place in, about and around the goings on at the station. The number for the station is impossible to dial on standard AM radios, given the 10 kHz spacing on the AM band in the United States.^[2] Other stations mentioned in the show are WRMH, WYXP, and WXYP.
• WQEF 98.6 - The Southern Breeze - A parody of a typical radio station Facebook page, including "stolen" Internet memes and shock jock morning DJs like Beefcondom & Scrote.^[7]

The game series Grand Theft Auto also has a large number of fictional radio stations.

Canada

• CIBJ-FM – a fictional campus radio station set in Toronto, Ontario from Drop the Beat, a spin-off of Straight Up.
• Radio Free Roscoe – a fictional pirate radio station created by four teen characters in the show of the same name.
• Radio Enfer – in the show of the same name, a high school radio station.
• CKFD – the fictitious Toronto, Ontario radio station featured in the 2006 apocalyptic pseudo-documentary audio drama, The Last Broadcast.

United Kingdom

• Crucial FM – a fictional pirate radio station on the Lenny Henry comedy TV series on BBC 1.
• Forever FM – a fictional commercial radio station in Peter Kay's Car Share.
• Radio Active – from the radio series of the same name. (There is a real Radio Active in Wellington, New Zealand)
• Radio Fab FM, the setting for the Smashie and Nicey sketches in Harry Enfield's Television Programme.
• Radio Norwich – I'm Alan Partridge
• Radio Rock – pirate rock-and-roll radio station broadcast from an offshore boat; from the movie The Boat That Rocked (known as Pirate Radio in the United States)
• Radio Roo – a fictional radio station featured in the children's program of the same name.^[8]
• Radio Shuttleworth – from the radio series of the same name.
• Radio West, workplace of the TV detective Shoestring.

Australia

• PirateNet is a school-based community radio station which first appeared in Neighbours in 2009. Later that year, British singer Lily Allen made a cameo appearance at the radio station.^[9]

Netherlands

• Radio Bergeijk is a Dutch satirical radio programme of which Peer van Eersel and Toon Spoorenberg are the anchormen. They are played by the comedians George van Houts and Pieter Bouwman respectively. The first episode was broadcast on April 3, 2001 from 00:44 to 01:00. From then on, a new episode could be heard every weekday. In January 2004 the programming of the Dutch radio changed dramatically and Radio Bergeijk was forced to broadcast just every Saturday from 13:30 to 14:00 on Radio 1.
• Radio Fiets is a Dutch fictional radio station created in 1999. They are active on social media and on their own website. In 2012 they posted 10 tips to ride your bicycle through snow.^[10]

Extraterrestrial

• LIVE 34 – Earth Colony 34 news station in the Doctor Who audio drama of the same name.

See also

• List of fictional television stations

References

1. Raymond Edel (July 11, 1997), "Mixing Media, from 'Frasier' to 'Remember WENN'", The Record
2. Michael Hawk. "TV’s Top Radio Stations." Real TV Addict. March 29, 2010
3. Justin Mitchell (23 Jul 2002), Weekly World News
4. http://www.nbc.com/go-on
5. Davis Walter; Dreibelbis Gary; Blythe Teresa; Scales Mark; Ashburn Donald; Winans Elizabeth, Watching What We Watch
6. Emmy, 19, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
7. https://www.facebook.com/wqef986/
8. CHILDREN'S TV – RADIO ROO to RUNNING THE HALLS memorabletv.com
9. "Lily Allen fans can take the Neighbours Tour in Australia". Mail Online. 6 November 2009. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
10. "10 tips to ride your bicycle through the snow". 7 December 2012.