874-SunAug9

comedy4cast #874

Odd News Times Twos for August 9, 2026

"80's Recovery System"

Written by

Clinton Alvord

CAST

(in order of appearance, where possible, otherwise by actor)

ID ANNOUNCER.......................COMPUTER
CLINTON

KITT.............................CLINTON ALVORD

INTRO: COMEDY4CAST STUDIO

CLINTON

This is comedy4cast, episode 874, "80's Recovery System".

MUSIC: COMEDY4CAST NETWORK ID STING

ID ANNOUNCER

The comedy4cast network. Let's dog ear that for now.

MUSIC: ID MUSIC UP AND OUT.

MUSIC: OPENING THEME MUSIC IN AND UNDER.

CLINTON

It's time, once again, for the August Dog Days of Podcasting challenge. For more information and to hear shows from all the participants, go to dogdaysofpodcasting.com.

comedy4cast always take this opportunity to provide you with some interesting, yet totally useless Odd News. In fact, TWO Odd News stories that we thing deserve each other. So, let's have some fun with "Odd News X Twos"!

MUSIC: INTRO THEME MUSIC UP AND OUT.

STORIES 1 AND 2 ARE COMBINED.

CLINTON

For our first story, we could go to New York City OR Chicago. But I haven't been to the Windy City in a while, so Chi-town, here we come!

SFX: JET AIRPLANE WHOOSH.

CLINTON (cont'd)

We're here at the Volo Museum, just outside of Chicago. It's kind of an Odd News story in it's own right. You can explore Jurassic Gardens, see Titanic artifacts, hop on a double-decker bus for a tour or, see exhibits about all types of transportation, including trains, military vehicles, and, of special importance to us today, automobiles, including screen used and replicas of cars such as Herbie, the Love Bug, several TV and movie Batmobiles, Greased Lightning, Christine...all types of vehicles that are both Fast and Furious. But here's where we were headed. This is KITT, from the TV Series "Knight Rider".

SFX: SCANNING SOUND.

CLINTON (cont'd)

I'll wait while you get that thumping base line ear worm theme song out of your head.

"Knight Rider" originally ran for four seasons, on NBC, from 1982 to 1986. It was the story of a man who does not exist. Which sounds pretty odd when I say it out loud.

Anyway, this modified Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am has been here at the museum for years. But, recently, museum officials received a letter from New York City about the car, and it left them scratching their heads.

We'll find out more about that in a minute. But, right now, for our second story, we need to head to Cincinnati, Ohio.

SFX: JET AIRPLANE WHOOSH.

CLINTON (cont'd)

For people of a certain age, a mention of Cincinatti brings back memories of one particular terrestrial radio station: WKRP. And most of those people never lived in Cincinnati. Odder still, WKRP wasn't even an actual radio station!

For those unfamiliar, "WKRP in Cincinnati" was the title of a workplace sitcom that also ran for four seasons, 1978 to 1982, on CBS. If you've ever run across a clip of a radio station doing a Thanksgiving promotion by dropping turkeys from a helicopter, you've seen a moment from "WKRP in Cincinnati".

But don't expect to binge watch it by finding pristine copies of the show on streaming platforms. The show used a LOT of hit song needle-drops. And, like many other shows, negotiating the music licensing for syndication or streaming that kind of show is seldom worth it as far as the distributors are concerned. Uh oh. I think I just made the argument for generic muzak. Yuck! My apologies to Dr. Johnny Fever and Venus Flytrap!

Okay, then why are we here in Cincinnati. Especially when Dayton is just down the road a piece?

Because, as of the 4th of May, 2026, radio station WKRP is live, on the air, in Cincinnati. But it was a bit of a journey to get here.

Co-owner Jeff Ziesmann explains that a low-power North Carolina non-profit station had been using the call letters since 2014. As part of the process to secure the call letters, Ziesmann and his associates made a donation to the non-profit.

Oh. They didn't do it to steal away the name. That wouldn't be very, well, WKRP of them. No. The low-power North Carolina station is still allowed to use the call letters, since they are a different FCC-class of radio station. They've simply given their approval for the co-use of the call letters by the new group.

Now, three stations in Dayton, Northern Kentucky and, yes, Cincinnati, simulcast the new station's programming, all identifying as WKRP.

In the spirit of the diverse music played on the show, all from a surprisingly small on-screen record collection, WKRP's expansive playlist includes music from the early '60's, through the 1980's.

As a bonus, the station occasionally uses the TV sitcom's "WKRP in Cincinnati" ID stinger. And actor Gary Sandy, who played the cowboy-hat wearing station program director, also recorded some promotional spots for the station.

Fun fact, Sandy was actually born and raised in Ohio,

If you don't live in the greater Cincinnati area, relax, you can also stream WKRP 97.7 on iheart radio. Just don't expect to hear Les Nessman, 5-time winner of the Buckeye Newshawk Award, giving you the latest 1980's headlines.

Oh, the award? Yeah, it's given to the best news story specifically about, or related to, tap root vegetable production in the "tri-state area."

Now, back to the Volo Museum outside of Chicago!

SFX: TRANSITION WHOOSH.

CLINTON (cont'd)

Museum officials are still trying to make sense of this letter from New York City. It's a ticket. And not the fun chocolate factory tour kind. It's a speeding ticket. Apparently KITT was tagged as going 36 miles an hour in a section of Brooklyn where the speed limit is 25 miles an hour.

That's a pretty neat trick for a car sitting in a museum 900 miles away. But the ticket includes a photo. Sure enough, it's a black Trans-Am, with a California plate that reads "K-N-I-G-H-T" caught on a traffic cam. We can't tell if David Hasselhoff is behind the wheel or if KITT was on its own adventure.

Wait. No. This can't be the museum's KITT. It must be Michael's evil twin Garth driving a replica KITT. A KITT kit, if you will.

And if there was a pet in that car, would it be a KITT kit Cat?

Where was I? Oh, right. The ticket.

New York City can't explain any of this either. The museum has requested a hearing to fight the ticket, and I get the sense they will probably win. Especially if KITT testifies.

"Your honor. I had nothing to do with this incident. I fully obey speed limits. Besides, my microwave jamming system could easily disable any speed detection systems. Um. I would like to speak with my lawyer."

So, what did we learn today? I think it's that the 1980's never really died. They're living on the air in Cincinnati and in K.I.T.T.

OUTRO: COMEDY4CAST STUDIO

MUSIC: END THEME IN AND UNDER FOR...

CLINTON

That about wraps it up for today's "Odd News Times Twos". But first, a very special shout-out to my Patreon patrons, including Producer-level patrons, Paul Barrie, from the A Window to the Magic podcast, Kirby Bartlett-Sloan, Chuck Tomasi from the Technorama podcast, Kyle Nishioka, Brian Martsolf, Amy Murphy, and Steve Ng from steve ng 5 dot com, that's s-t-e-v-e-n-g the number five dot com. You, too, can support comedy4cast. Just search for comedy4cast, all one word with the number 4, on patreon.com.

Talk to you again next time! But for now, that's it. We're done, done, done, done, done. Bye bye!

MUSIC: 'END THEME' UP AND OUT.

=== THE END ===