There’s nary a thirty-something male stuck in a suburb that doesn’t secretly desire to become a big time radio disc jockey.  Well, at least according to television.  When Gary Unmarried recently gave a career change to its title character by placing him on air in his own sports talk radio program, I got to thinking about just how many television characters work in radio.

The CW’s lackluster Life Unexpected circles around a morning radio show.  David Silver spun the ones and twos over the mono hallway speakers of Beverly Hills 90210‘s West Bev High much like the far superior high school sitcom legend Parker Lewis Can’t Lose and its KFLM 89.8.  Come to think of it, Parker and David dressed a lot alike too.

 Separated at birth?

Everyone’s favorite sea sponge with the square pants has had a number of “problematic for electrical equipment” underwater radio stations like KBLUB and KRUD.  It is much safer from an “electrified to death” stand point to animate a radio station in The Simpsons, which they’ve done a lot.  Almost too much.  KBBL, KJAZZ-FM, and KFSL The Fossil are but a few.

But nothing beats my Top TV Radio Stations for pure frequency and/or amplitude modulation power!!

Honorable Mention: KORN from Hee Haw

Long before Bakersfield turned Long Beach Nu-metal Gods KORN were rocking their drop-A seven strings at Ozzfest (wow, that was too many off the top of my head band facts), the moniker was being used by Aunt Pearl and the gang in reference to the tasty field crop that is the cause of America’s obesity problem.  Yeah radio!

5. KACL 780 AM from Frasier

One of the longest running characters on American TV, Frasier Crane ditched his boring career as a shrink in Boston for the big city glamor of talk radio shrink in sunny Seattle!  Wait… is that right?

4. WENN from Remember WENN

20 years before AMC raised eyebrows with Mad Men and Breaking Bad, their first ever original series Remember WENN was winning Emmy statues.  Based in a Pittsburgh radio station leading up to and during World War II, WENN was both nostalgic and entertaining, dramatic and funny.  I highly recommend it.

3. KBHR 570 from Northern Exposure

The smooth talking nirvana of Chris Stevens’ ex-con turned DJ banter between songs in one of Alaska’s most under served radio markets was both amateur philosophy and a play by play on the happenings of Cicely.  He was like a one man Greek chorus but with a coffee cup and borderline hockey hair.

2. WNYX 585 from Newsradio

While some fictional stations have become real life call letters, Newsradio fixed that problem by setting your fake dial to 585, an impossibility on your car stereo.  Go ahead, try it, I’ll wait.  Plus, in one episode WNYX was both a radio and a space station!!

1. WKRP from WKRP in Cincinnati

Well, um… duh!  When you have a DJ named Venus Fly Trap, there is very little standing in the way between you and the title of greatest TV radio station ever.  Besides being one of the funniest show I’ve ever watched, WKRP was revolutionary in its use of music, often integrating songs into the plot.  Chrysalis was so grateful for the show’s use of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass,” they gave them a real gold record which can be seen hanging in the station from season two onward.  Unfortunately, all this music also made the DVD release a licensing nightmare with the final product omitting many of the original tunes.  Even without the music, the show is still tremendously funny.