# Fake Radio and TV Stations in Fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 23, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048 "2005-09-23T14:12:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/1 "2005-09-23T14:12:18Z")
What fake radio and TV stations exist in fiction? Obviously, there’re a lot, but I thought it might be fun to compile a bit of a list. There’s WGBS broadcasting in Superman’s Metropolis. In Airplane!, there’s WZAZ-FM, “Where disco lives forever” - call sign modelled on the names of the writers : Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/2 "2005-09-23T14:14:23Z")
WKRP in Cincinnati KBBL (from the Simpsons) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/3 "2005-09-23T14:57:39Z")
**WXYZ** was Billy Batston’s station in the original **Captain Marvel** Just before I left Salt Lake City, **WKRP** started broadcasting from there. No joke (as they had to keep repeating). And, yes, **W** KRP, even though it was west of the Mississippi. he rule’s not ironclad. Back when I was an undergrad, **WTBS** used to be the MIT student radio station, by the way. Turner musta paid big bucks to buy it. It use to be _Tech_ Broadcasting System. Now they have some undistinguished name with numbers in it. ---
**Author:** ![JerH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@JerH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerH)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/4 "2005-09-23T15:01:12Z")
WNYX in New York, from _Newsradio_. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/5 "2005-09-23T15:32:32Z")
WABBIT in various Loony Tunes shorts. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/6 "2005-09-23T15:34:21Z")
> [@Max Carnage](#): > > WKRP in Cincinnati And their chief competitor: WPIG. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/7 "2005-09-23T15:44:55Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > And their chief competitor: WPIG. And in Wayne’s World 2, we see a different WPIG, in Aurora. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/8 "2005-09-23T15:49:18Z")
**KCUF** in Thomas Pynchon’s _The Crying of Lot 49_, a set of call letters that quite clearly would never meet FCC approval. 😉 Spell it backwards. **WPLJ** in the Frank Zappa song. Later, a station in New York City took the call letters, so it now exists, but it was fictional when Zappa wrote the song. **WINO** from George Carlin (“Wonderful Radio Wino!”) **Network 23** from _Max Headroom_ ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/9 "2005-09-23T16:34:29Z")
WENN, on the show “Remember WENN” on AMC. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/10 "2005-09-23T17:00:34Z")
The 275-watt Radio OKKK in the _Tuna_ two-man plays. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/11 "2005-09-23T17:37:49Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > And their chief competitor: WPIG. [Arthur Carlson] Those _swine_! [/AC] \*\*WOLD \*\*in the Harry Chapin song. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/12 "2005-09-23T17:58:36Z")
The Wireless Wizarding Network (WWN) in the Harry Potter books. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/13 "2005-09-23T18:09:06Z")
**KBLY** (K-Billy) - _Reservoir Dogs._ **ZBC** (Zoblotnick Broadcasting Corporation) – David Lynch’s _On The Air_. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/14 "2005-09-23T18:12:28Z")
**Rutland Weekend Television** , from whence came the film _The Ruttles_ . ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/15 "2005-09-23T18:23:26Z")
Babylon 5’s ISN, which provided a seemingly objective view into the doings of Earth. Until season 3’s “Severed Dreams”, when… [spoiler]"… and we’ve been unable to determine at this time how many have been killed on the recent attacks on Mars by Earth Gov. Forces. President Clark has announced that the attacks will continue until the Mars Provisional Government accedes to Martial Law. So far there’s been no reaction from any of the outer colonies concerning these attacks…" ‘I’m sorry, Jane. I’m sorry I jumped in like this, but we have to… the colonies at Orion 7 and Proxima 3, have just broken away from the Earth Alliance in protest over the bombing of Mars. They’re setting themselves up as independent states until such time as President Clark is impeached. Clark doesn’t want this information released but we have to go with this now cause we don’t know how much longer we can stay on the air. Armed troops have begun moving in on the ISN Broadcast Center here in Geneva. We just saw them coming around the corner. We’re trying to get a camera down there to document what’s going on. I can hear gunfire now, up here on the fourteenth floor. Listen to me, there’s information you don’t have, that’s been going on for the last year that we haven’t been allowed to tell you…’ - ISN News Reporters, “Severed Dreams” [/spoiler] Yikes. That, to me, is the most chilling scene in that arc. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/16 "2005-09-23T18:32:12Z")
From the Grand Theft Auto games : Chatterbox Head Radio Flashback CSR 103.2 K-Rose KDST ( The Dust ) Playback Radio X WCTR Radio Los Santos Emotion 98.3 Fever 105 Flash FM K-Chat V-Rock ( the Vulture ) VCPR Wildstyle Wave 103 ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/17 "2005-09-23T18:48:44Z")
WKOMA from The Simpsons Season 3 Homer Alone “This is Coma-WKOMA. Restful, easy listening. Coming up next, a super set of songs about clouds.” ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/18 "2005-09-23T21:26:19Z")
WJM from the Mary Tyler Moore show. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/19 "2005-09-23T21:38:07Z")
> [@Max Carnage](#): > > WKRP in Cincinnati Clearly fictional, since women as hot as Bailey Quarters simply don’t exist in real life. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048/20 "2005-09-23T21:43:50Z")
I don’t remember the call letters of the station, or even if it had call letters, but I loved the dismal little rural radio station in _O Brother Where Art Thou_, and I especially loved the blind radio station manager. “Hooooeeey, that’s some mighty find pickin’ and singin!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-radio-and-tv-stations-in-fiction/323048.md?page=2)