# What IS the frequency, Kenneth???
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-frequency-kenneth/70730
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 30, 2001, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-frequency-kenneth/70730 "2001-06-30T14:59:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Chivalry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chivalry)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2001, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-frequency-kenneth/70730/1 "2001-06-30T14:59:52Z")
Hey all. I’m a new member here and I hope to be a properous and useful one. May none of my questions be in vain!
I was just listening to one of my favorite songs by R.E.M, What’s the frequency, Kenneth. I decided to ask, that’s a good question. What is the frequency, Kenneth? Or more precisely, what the heck does that mean?
I did a bit of researching and found that [http://www.thepetdetective.com/kenneth.htm](http://www.thepetdetective.com/kenneth.htm) gives some silly story about Dan Rather and his supposed attacker back in the 80’s but the “from the future” makes it, unfortunately, unbelievable.
My question to the general public, and maybe even to Cecil Adams, if he still comes here, is “What IS the blasted frequency he’s talking about?”
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2001, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-frequency-kenneth/70730/2 "2001-06-30T15:23:33Z")
From [ratherbiased.com](http://www.ratherbiased.com/bizarre.htm):
> [@](#):
>
> The mystery may be solved: Dan Rather has identified the man he says beat him up on the street in 1986 while demanding to know ‘Kenneth, what is the frequency?’ The CBS anchorman said his assailant was William Tager, now in prison for killing an NBC stagehand outside the Today show in 1994. Tager was convinced the media had him under surveillance and were beaming hostile messages to him, and he demanded that Rather tell him the frequency being used, according to a forensic psychiatrist who examined Tager after the NBC shooting.