How "WKRP in Cincinnati" depicted organized labor in Reagan's first year

[alp227]

I was about to put this in V&M but decided
(a) because of the non stop SI Swimsuit buzz here and
(b) because of more text than video in my thread I'll put it in GD and
(c) to surprise my older fellow DUers that a millennial cares about this stuff more than the SI Swimsuit issue
(d) I'll post one short clip to V&M and add a link to this thread from there
(e) Of course the recent events in Chattanooga, Tenn.

I recorded WKRP in Cincinnati from my local Antenna TV subchannel on the week before the Super Bowl. This third season episode "The Union" aired in the fall of 1981, about ten months into President Ronald Reagan's first term and two months after the air traffic controller union was decertified.

I have the full episode on my computer but for now have uploaded just these short clips on YouTube. For some reason YouTube doesn't filter out any particular WKRP scene but does filter the opening sequence of WKRP as blocked worldwide by Fox. For now I'm splitting the episode apart by scene and will put it up on youtube later.

This from the opening scene: Bailey shows Johnny and Venus a letter from the Brotherhood of Midwestern Radio Workers. They discuss what unions do (such as providing a living wage) then spontaneously sing "Look for the Union Label" jingle made famous in 1978 by the ILGWU. Notice that station manager Arthur Carlson is looking through the window!

In this scene, Bailey hears Les calling unions "communist" and "Slavic" and tries to convince Les otherwise.

Then, Arthur and Andy argue about unions. Arthur expresses the typical Randite boss's anti union worldview.

Arthur then shows up at the KRP staff meeting to address the union issue. Notice the double-talk he gives the workers after asserting that the station will not be sold. As a result, the workers vote 5-4 against the union (in a later scene I didn't upload).

Arthur's statement about WKRP not being sold BUT a union shop being unappealing to potential buyers reminds me of Tennessee legislators threatening to withdraw tax breaks from VW for unionizing the Chattanooga factory. In that episode, a rumor started in the workplace implying that the station would be sold if the staff unionized. Senator Bob Corker started a false rumor about an SUV production being taken away from a unionized 'Nooga factory.

Things haven't really changed over 30 years. We've got a uphill battle for working Americans in the post-Reagan era.

[Jenoch]

1. I wonder how they could have had a 5 - 4 union vote on WKRP?

They only had maybe six staff people that would be eligible to join a union.

[Dr. Strange]

2. As God as my witness...

I thought turkeys could vote on union certification.

[Crepuscular]

6. Best

Best sitcom episode of all time. Evah!

Still brings tears to my eyes every time I see it.

[okaawhatever]

7. Hilarious, the turkey video was posted at Thanksgiving. nt

[alp227]

3. Unseen characters, I suppose. nt

[pinboy3niner]

4. Probably Phone Cops working undercover on the Dr. Johnny Fever case

[Jenoch]

5. What is interesting is that back then a radio

station needed more on air staff than what was shown on WKRP.

Today, a radio station could be operated by two or three fulltime people. They would not make much money however.

[okaawhatever]

8. AND there was some rule about foreigners on the radio. A friend of mine (probably 70 yrs old) was

Canadian and he had to pay someone in the broadcasting business (American citizen) to be in the station/booth with him while he was on the air. I'm not sure of the exact rules, but i remember him telling me that story. He eventually became a station manager or program director for a large station.

[Jenoch]

9. I don't remember any regulation like that one.

There still are diversity rules that radio stations have to follow. Back in my radio days the station owner was an old lady (not unlike Mama Carlson) we had female announcers, and one Mexican-American (he had Speedy Gonzalas tattooed on his bicep).

[Boom Sound 416]

12. May have been a union shadow

[alp227]

10. true

Q. How come WKRP only has two disc jockeys?

A. Though only two DJs are regular cast members, WKRP does have other DJs, most of whom we never see. The late-night "graveyard shift" is done by the suicidal Moss Steiger (sometimes called Moss Steiner). The DJ who comes on right after Johnny, for the late-morning and early-afternoon shift, is Rex Erheart, who is played by Sam Anderson in the episode "Rumors." In "Ask Jennifer," we are told that the afternoon DJ (between Rex and Venus, presumably) is "Dean the Dream," who quits radio to go to law school. In the episode "The Union," all of WKRP's on-air personalities gather together; in addition to DJs Johnny and Venus and newscasters Les and Bailey, there are at least four other DJs there (though we don't see their faces).

http://www.oocities.org/wkrpvote/faq.htm

[Jenoch]

11. Thanks for the info.

I'm sure I saw every episode of WKRP, but I don't remember too many details.

I worked at a radio station the same time WKRP was on the air. There were two episodes in which the station engineer was seen. One was the softball game where Bucky the engineer played 2nd base. He had a lot of black hair and a bushy black beard. He resemble the engineer at our station. He did not like it much when we called him Bucky. The GM did not mind when we called him Big Guy or AC.

I know we've strayed from the point of the WKRP union vote. Years ago I knew of a small radio station that had an owner who was a real dick. His small staff, maybe seven, told him they were going to form a union. He told them he would fire them if they formed a union. They did and he did. He and his wife operated the station by themselves for a while until they could hire scabs. It was a union town with a big papermill, but there were a lot of people who needed jobs. I think they ended up selling the station a couple of years after that.

Back to WKRP. If you were a fan of the show back in the day, avoid the DVD. they could not get licenses to the music so that has been edited out. There was a lot of dialoge with music in the background so the show is so disjointed it is impossible to watch.

[alp227]

13. Ah. I knew someone would bring up the music issue.

For Antenna TV's broadcast, Fox was able to keep the 2 songs Johnny played in the beginning - "Promises in the Dark" by Pat Benatar and "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones - in the episode for syndicated broadcast. The episode ended with the "20th Television" logo, so I know this is a Fox-distributed episode.

Wikipedia explains the licensing issue well. Basically, Hugh Wilson chose to videotape not film the show because it would be cheaper to license songs, using a fee intended for variety shows like The Ed Sullivan Show that were going out of fashion by the time KRP went on the air. I've heard of all the ways the season 1 DVD was butchered. And even seasons 3 and 4 had a bunch of edits by the time the '90s came along and the licenses expired. But oddly, the two episodes I watched on Antenna TV had the real music instead of Muzak.

Because Antenna TV is owned by Tribune Broadcasting, whose station WGN began airing repeats of KRP in 1985, I wonder which version of the show Antenna TV uses, the ones that WGN used as opposed to the newer ones with edited music that were circulated after the late '80s?

Wow I can't decide what's more messed up in America, the copyright laws or the anti-union sentiment.

[Jenoch]

14. Back in my radio days,

our AM studion looked basocally like the one in WKRP. Our FM studio was better equipped. On the AM side we played 45s and LPs. The FM was partly automated but we also played LPs. One week a year we had to make a list of every song we played. This was for the music licensing.

Another thing about music licensing. There are rules about public perfomances so stores that played local radio stations over their in-store sound system technically had to pay a license fee. I knew of a furniture store who got around that by plugging in small rqdios throughout their store all tuned to our FM. they did not have to pay a license fee because they were demonstrating the radios which were all for sale, but they never sold one. The master switch that turned off the lamps for sale also shut off the radios.

[Boom Sound 416]

15. Great Post!

On the first vid

It sure seems to reflect the changing sentiment (thought I was just a little guy at the time). That the ticket to big money was not through hard work, advancement, but something less 'earned.' Which is what get's Johnny excited. He's a guy who won't or can't or didn't do the former but can through the latter.

On the second vid.

It's funny. Who is Les playing? (Though it's an obvious fit for 'the skeptic') Is it the McCarthy right or the war weary middle class. Regular folk who felt skeptical then because of the constant battle of trust, much like we do now about our Congress as described in the Jimmy Hoffa joke. As a kid in those days in the south, you really didn't hear the word union too far ahead of a Hoffa joke.

Again this changing sentiment. Les is just off the prime of his career, younger than Johnny but beginning that long road of stasis. Why shouldn't he jump on board? His seniors and his juniors are. Why is he missing what he's got to gain?

On vid three

Two things: One, this scene is about Arthur's character. The long term maturation of Arthur Carlson. (And it's a setup)
And
It's the unions argument and Andy delivers it. And doing it from "the side of the station" because unions aren't business busters. And it's a great argument.

Plus, WKRP was a union show. Top to bottom organized. The episode won't be a carpet bombing.

On the last vid.

Also, two things.
1. Aahhh, mgmt has the biggest heart. So special. Again the changing sentiment.

And B, I don't know if the "wouldn't want to buy it" joke is relatable to that joke. Their are always jokes take aim at the station and usually landing around some semi-serious undertaking of an issue.

And while, VW has struggled with their bottom line on that plant, the new CEO (or may have been US chief) has committed to it. So one would think it's going to be 'pretty valuable' one day and thusly to afford to be union.

--

On a personal note, the baby bath water bit is one of my fav all time. Thank you. I never new what ep it was in.