Every Thanksgiving for nearly half a century, somebody has quoted Arthur Carlson. “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly” closed out “Turkeys Away,” the WKRP in Cincinnati episode that first aired on CBS on October 30, 1978, and it has been repeated at dinner tables, in break rooms and on radio stations ever since. Now a real station carrying the WKRP call letters plans to stage the turkey drop for real, on the night before Thanksgiving.
The Cincinnati-area station announced its first Turkey Drop this month, according to Barrett Media and Ultimate Classic Rock, and the money goes to people who need a holiday meal. The organizers have learned from Mr. Carlson’s mistakes, though, and one big change should keep this turkey drop out of the evening news.
How Did A Thanksgiving Promotion Become TV’s Funniest Disaster?
If you watched that fall, you remember how the episode builds. Carlson, the gentle and hopelessly out-of-touch station manager played by Gordon Jump, cooks up a Thanksgiving stunt and tells only his sales manager, Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner). Les Nessman, the station’s bow-tied newsman, is sent to broadcast live from the Pinedale shopping center with no idea what is coming. Then a helicopter appears overhead with a “Happy Thanksgiving from WKRP” banner, and the birds start falling.
Richard Sanders’ Les describes the scene as it happens, and the turkeys hit the pavement “like sacks of wet cement.” He borrows the words Herbert Morrison used for the Hindenburg in 1937, crying “Oh, the humanity!” Back at the station, Howard Hesseman’s Dr. Johnny Fever can only offer “Film at 11!” Carlson and Herb finally stagger in covered in feathers, and that is when Carlson delivers the line that made TV history.
The joke works because you never see a single turkey hit the ground. Everything comes through Les’s voice on the radio, so the whole disaster plays out in the viewer’s imagination. TV Guide later ranked “Turkeys Away” No. 40 on its 1997 list of the 100 greatest television episodes, and Ultimate Classic Rock credits it with helping the young sitcom find its audience. What most fans never knew is that the stunt was not entirely made up.
Was The Turkey Drop Based On A Real Radio Stunt?
It was. Series creator Hugh Wilson, who co-wrote the episode with story editor Bill Dial, knew Atlanta radio well, and he modeled parts of Arthur Carlson on Jerry Blum, the longtime general manager of Atlanta’s WQXI. Blum ran a turkey promotion of his own, though his birds were tossed from the back of a pickup truck into a shopping center parking lot in Dallas rather than dropped from a helicopter.
Blum told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1996 that he cracked after the stunt, “I didn’t know turkeys couldn’t fly.” He said the public “went nuts” over it, and the promotion was never repeated. Wilson only had to put the birds in the sky and give the line to Carlson.
The cast that made the moment work went on to long careers. Gordon Jump became the lonely Maytag repairman in commercials and died in 2003. Loni Anderson, Howard Hesseman and Frank Bonner are also gone now, and our look at the WKRP in Cincinnati cast members still alive today follows the rest of the station staff. For many fans, though, the role they remember best is still the newsman ducking flying turkeys in a parking lot. So what happens when a real radio station decides to try it?
What Will Fall From The Sky This Time?
The new WKRP is a real station. Jeff and Laura Ziesmann and their partner Randy Michaels bought the WKRP brand, including the WKRP Cincinnati call letters, in April 2026, according to Barrett Media. Its first Turkey Drop is set for 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 25, in Hamilton, Ohio. Ultimate Classic Rock reports it will happen outside the Casual Pint taproom.
Here is the big change: no live birds. Listeners are buying small rubber turkeys for $10 each, and Ultimate Classic Rock says 3,000 numbered turkeys are being sold. They will be dropped from a fire truck ladder onto a target on the ground, and the turkey that lands closest to the center wins its owner a cash prize. The station is also selling commemorative T-shirts. All net proceeds from the turkeys and shirts go to the Open Door Food Pantry, which serves Butler County.
Even the switch from a helicopter came down to good sense. “Due to darkness and potential weather concerns, a helicopter is not a reliable option,” Laura Ziesmann, the station’s vice president of sales, told Barrett Media. “Using a fire truck allows us to ensure the promotion can take place regardless of weather conditions.”
Hamilton has a soft spot for this joke. In 2023, Fox19 reported that local businesses and the Hamilton Fire Department dropped rubber ducks dressed as turkeys from a helicopter there to raise money for the Butler County Veterans Memorial Wall. This year the tribute carries the real call letters, and general manager Jeff Ziesmann could not resist borrowing his fictional predecessor’s most famous words. “WKRP is bringing the legend back,” he said, “but this time, as God is my witness, this time we’ve got it right.”
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