In Concert (WKRP in Cincinnati)
| "In Concert" | |
|---|---|
| WKRP in Cincinnati episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 19 |
| Directed by | Linda Day |
| Written by | Steve Kampmann |
| Original air date | February 11, 1980 |
"In Concert" is a very special episode of the television series WKRP in Cincinnati. Airing as the 19th episode of the second season, it was first broadcast in the United States on February 11, 1980, and the concept for the episode was described as "admirably ambitious" by William Beamon, writing in the St. Petersburg Evening Independent before he had viewed the episode. The plot is set around the real-life The Who concert disaster in Cincinnati of December 3, 1979, set within the context of the show's fictional universe, and was written, taped and aired within 11 weeks of that deadly disaster.
The radio station promotes a concert by The Who, and employees prepare to attend the concert. Station employees are overcome with guilt after a push for seats by attending fans results in some fans being crushed to death. The next day they discuss the tragic events, the fallibility of festival seating, and the sorrow felt by both the staff and the people of Cincinnati.
The December 3, 1979, concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati was the 14th stop during The Who's 1979 world tour. Of the 18,348 tickets sold for the concert, 14,770 were for unassigned seats known as festival seating, obtained on a first-come, first-served basis. City officials had objected to the use of festival seating at the facility as early as October 1976.
Attendees arrived as much as six hours before the start of the concert to attempt to garner the best available seats, and a crowd had gathered by 3:00 p.m. ET. An hour before the start of the concert, "thousands were tightly packed around the entrance doors", and by 7:20 p.m. ET the crowd consisted of 8,000 people. Some members of the crowd rushed the gates on the plaza level on the west side of the Coliseum, crushing those at the front. The incident resulted in the death of 11 individuals by compressive asphyxia and injuries to 23. In a press conference after the concert, police lieutenant Dale Menkhaus stated that too few gate doors had been opened, and witnesses stated only one door had been opened at the main gate. Menkahus stated that the doors had been purposely kept closed because The Who had arrived late for a soundcheck. An emergency room supervisor stated that the victims had sustained "multiple contusions and hemorrhages".
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