THE TRUE STORY BEHIND THE FAMOUS ‘WKRP TURKEY DROP’

Spark News will return with new posts 

on Monday, December 2^nd

WKRP General Manager Arthur Carlson:

“As God as my witness I thought turkeys could fly!”

Almost anyone who has worked in radio has a story about a station promotion that went off the rails. Perhaps the most famous “splat” was in the classic WKRP episode Turkeys Away. What most people don’t know is that Turkeys Away is based on a station promotion that really happened. 

Hugh Wilson

Hugh Wilson created the TV sitcom WKRP in the late 1970s. Wilson ran an ad agency in Atlanta. One of his clients was WQXI, a legendary Top 40 station.

Wilson kept a notebook with funny stories about people at the station.   

In 1976 Wilson moved to Los Angeles to write for Mary Tyler Moore (MTM) Productions. 

At MTM, Wilson pitched an idea for a new series to Grant Tinker, the head of the company. The idea was the beginning of WKRP. Tinker gave the series the green light. WKRP debuted on CBS Television in the fall of 1979.

In 1980, CBS asked Wilson or come up with a Thanksgiving themed show for holiday season. Wilson remembered an incident that happened at WQXI when the station sponsored a turkey giveaway at an Atlanta shopping center.

WQXI DJs in the early 1970s

The WQXI DJ’s planned  to toss live turkeys off the back of truck. They thought people could “catch” their own holiday meal. But it didn’t turn out the day.

When the DJs arrived for the event, they learned that the turkeys were frozen, not alive.

For some unknown reason, the DJs decided to stick with their original plan. They threw the frozen turkeys off the back of a truck in the mall parking lot. As each hit the pavement with a big messy “splat,” people were covered by frozen turkey flesh. One child vomited.  The adults ran for cover.

Wilson spun the incident into the WKRP episode Turkeys Away. Ironically, the episode saved WKRP from being cancelled by CBS.

Here is the famous scene from Turkeys Away: