Wyoming’s KGAB Radio Used In Movies & TV Shows

KGAB (650 AM) in Cheyenne, Wyoming, first signed on in 1959 as KRNK at 1590 kHz, operating as a "daytimer" before moving to 1530 kHz in the 1970s. After several call sign changes—including KVWO, KUUY, and KMRZ—it became KGAB in March 1997. Today, it serves as a prominent news/talk station.

For some reason, the call sign KGAB was often used in movies and television shows.

Fictional radio stations using the call letters KGAB appear in notable film and television, most famously as the Dallas talk radio station in the 1988 film Talk Radio, directed by Oliver Stone.

Another instance is a top-40 country station in a 1986 episode of The A-Team, which predates the actual, real-world KGAB-AM in Cheyenne.

A listener to the Wake Up Wyoming morning show, heard on KGAB, pointed out that KGAB was used in an episode of the TV show Murder She Wrote.

Murder She Wrote Storyline. In the Midwest for a book tour, Jessica is to be featured on KGAB radio, whose killer DJ Marcus Rule is broadcasting rumors that may kill David Osterman's state senate campaign. Jessica is visiting little Easton not only to promote her latest book but to visit Jonathan Baker, the son of an old friend.

Movies and TV shows have historically used KGAB as a radio station name primarily because it originated as a fictional, memorable call sign in popular media, most notably the 1988 Oliver Stone film Talk Radio, rather than referring to the real-life station in Cheyenne, Wyoming, that adopted the name years later.

KGAB is often pronounced KAY GAB, which adds to its popularity.

Wyoming's KGAB in Cheyenne, Wyoming (650 AM), did not take on that call sign until 1997—roughly a decade after the 1988 Talk Radio film popularised it. Also, after the Murder She Wrote episode back in 1988 and the A-Team episode in 1986.

SIDE NOTE! A Cincinnati broadcaster has acquired the "WKRP." Now the fictional station will become the real thing.