This Is Your Life (and Mine) in Six Minutes and Eight Seconds

Originaly posted June 8, 2019–


(WKRP intro)
Almost every episode of WKRP in Cincinnati I ever watched had something
that resonated with me and my radio experience – the rivalries, the
sales department that always wanted to “change the format” just to sell
some time, no respect from management for the air staff and vice versa,
saying things with the mike open, hitting on the girls in the office and
vice versa, having the runs during your air shift (I think TV skipped
that) etc. WKRP was about all the fun of being in radio and on the
radio. Mr. Carlson’s mother WAS Jessica Longston!

And my self-doubts – am I ever gonna “make it” or even make a buck that
I can put away for a rainy day? Will I ever work at a station my
friends have listened to or even heard of? Does my wife hate me or just
my job?

WOLD covers all that kind of stuff for me.

(Harry Chapin-WOLD-1974)

Dick Ellingson

A man and his dogs in a little country town. Parcel post crusher; blood'n'guts laundry serf; parking lot fender bender/bumper jumper; Lazy B flunkie with 7-word job title; P-I down crew; bobtail trucker; Sunbeam breader; retail store mangler; bothersome boiler roomie; fake real estate agent; d.j./copywriter/p.d./ripper/reader - 600 KGEZ Good Advertising, Kalispell; Community Radio 1510 KURB, Mountlake Terrace; 1540 News/MOR/92.5 Solid Gold Rock & Roll KFKF, Bellevue; 1150 Kountry KAYO America's Own Music, Seattle; 1300 KoMPaSs Radio 13 Modern Country, Seattle; 1360 KLFF Good Music & Great Memories, Glendale/Phoenix; 106.3 Koncert 106 KONC, Sun City/Phoenix; 1580 KCWW Real Country Network, Tempe/Phoenix. Four-year Volunteer P-I/Times/TNT news reader for Evergreen Radio Reading Service broadcasting from the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library, Seattle; dotcomboom day trader who came out alive; King County Metro Bus Driver; Seattle Streetcar Operator. I threw it in at 78 and frequently have bizarre dreams about radio and bus driving, my two preschool dream jobs. More articles by Dick

10 thoughts on “This Is Your Life (and Mine) in Six Minutes and Eight Seconds

    • Cool guy/cool tv show

      August 22, 2025 at QZVX

      JASON REMINGTON says:

      That show, other than a few technical errors, was a pleasure to watch. The GM, sales manager and newsman (Les), I have worked with the real life versions. You may have also.

      Reply

  1. Well, whadayaknow?

    August 3, 2025 at QZVX

    Dick Ellingson says:

    I’m just reading that Loni’s husband is Bob Flick, founding member of Seattle’s and U-dub’s Brothers Four. They married in 2008 and he survives her.

    From Fox News, 5/18/2008

    LOS ANGELES – Loni Anderson was married Saturday to Bob Flick, a founding member of the 1960s folk group The Brothers Four.

    The ceremony was attended by friends and family, including son Quinton Reynolds, who walked the “WKRP in Cincinnati” and “Nurses” star down the aisle. Reynolds is Anderson’s son with Burt Reynolds, whom she divorced in 1993.

    Flick met Anderson at a movie premiere in her native Minneapolis a few years after his group hit No. 2 on the pop charts with “Greenfields” in 1960. A local newspaper had sent her out to pose with the group as the “lucky young fan,” an image that was used Saturday night as the couple’s wedding poster, her publicist, Cheryl Kagan, told The Associated Press.

    Anderson’s granddaughters wore the same diamond hearts the actress wore in the 1983 movie “Stroker Ace,” in which she starred with Reynolds.

    Anderson, 62, plans to keep her maiden name.

    Reply

    • So...

      August 3, 2025 at QZVX

      Jason Remington says:

      She waited more than 40 years to hook up with Flick? Greenfields was a hit in the 1960s, when she posed. Something is missing in this story. I need a Lifetime Movie Channel version.

      Reply

  2. Bye bye Jennifer Marlowe!

    August 3, 2025 at QZVX

    Dick Ellingson says:

    Loni Anderson died today, two days before turning eighty. At Loni’s insistence, there was no dumb blonde working at WKRP.

    Reply

    • Which did I prefer?

      August 3, 2025 at QZVX

      Jason Remington says:

      Bailey Quarters was smart and funny, Jennifer Marlowe was sexy and in-charge. Long-term, I would choose Bailey. To each his own.

      Reply

      • Me too

        August 3, 2025 at QZVX

        Dick Ellingson says:

        In or out of character, I thought Bailey was a lovelier and more desirable woman.

        Reply

      • Bailey

        August 4, 2025 at QZVX

        Mike Barer says:

        Bailey would be much more fun to hang out with on a casual basis.

        Reply

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