The WKRP Thanksgiving Turkey Drop Was Real And Happened In Dallas, Texas

Being in radio for a number of years I have been a part of some pretty crazy promotions. Once we filled an entire dunking booth with pork and beans to give away some Christina Aguilera tickets.

We called it "Beanie In A Bottle" as a play on words of Aguilera's hit song "Genie In A Bottle". Listeners climbed inside the dunking booth to try to find the winning film canisters.

After opening so many cans of pork and beans, a lid got into the mix, and one of the participants got a cut. In retrospect, we should have just used dry beans and added some water, but hindsight is 20/20.

The Turkey Drop Was A Real Promotion at KBOX Radio In Dallas, Texas 

Just like that promotion, this one started with great intentions. According to MeTV the idea for the episode came from Jerry Blum.

WKRP creator and co-writer, Hugh Wilson, was told by Blum that he once was fired from a Texas radio station for throwing turkeys out of a truck for a Thanksgiving promotion when he worked for the Dallas, Texas station, KBOX, in the early 1960s.

Although there was no helicopter involved, they did try to throw live turkeys from a pick-up truck in a shopping center parking lot, and it made a huge mess. Nothing like the description of Les Nessman on the show exclaiming, "The turkeys are hitting the ground like bags of wet cement!". "Oh, the humanity!" indeed.

If nothing else, this story did get the word out about one thing. Turkeys cannot fly. Happy Thanksgiving!