Andy Travis is a fictional character on the television situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–82). He was played by Gary Sandy.
Travis was originally intended to be the lead character, the more-or-less normal person who would anchor the series and provide the focus for most of the stories. He is the subject of the theme song, and one critic went so far as to describe Sandy as "Gary Tyler Moore," a nod to Mary Tyler Moore, who played the similar Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and eponymous owner of WKRP producer MTM Enterprises. As the first season went on, WKRP shifted to being more of an ensemble comedy, where any one of the eight regulars could carry an episode. Despite this change, Sandy retained top billing for all four seasons as the straight man to the rest of the cast.
Program director
In the pilot episode, Andy arrives in Cincinnati to take over as WKRP's program director. He previously worked the same job at a radio station in Santa Fe, New Mexico; but he also ran a station in Albuquerque and in Amarillo, Texas. In that episode, he claims to be from Santa Fe and, in the season two episode "Jennifer's Home for Christmas," he refers to Santa Fe as home. However, in the season three episode "A Mile in My Shoes" Andy tells Smilin' Al, a business owner who advertises on WKRP, that he is originally from Phoenix, Arizona. Andy is young, handsome and friendly, and though he is viewed with suspicion by the old guard at the low-rated station—manager Arthur Carlson, sales director Herb Tarlek, and news director Les Nessman—he soon manages to win them over to his side. Mr. Carlson even defends Andy to his domineering mother, the station's owner, when she wants to fire him.
Convinced that he is not going to last at WKRP, Andy spends about the first month in his apartment without furniture, just in case he has to suddenly leave town. In a flashback episode, it is revealed that Andy got his overweight landlady drunk to charm her into letting him out of his lease, which he does successfully.
Described by Mr. Carlson as a "cowboy", Andy frequently wears boots and a cowboy hat. He also wears very tight jeans to work, which makes Mr. Carlson uncomfortable. "With denim," Andy explains, "I feel comfortable and relaxed. I feel as though I can work better." He wears his hair in the late 1970s "feathered" style, and many of the characters make fun of his abundant hair: Bailey Quarters, asking him to take part in a promotion, asks him to imagine "Your hair flowing in the wind -- now, that stuff will flow!" Though he is usually quiet and low-key, describing himself as "an easy-going guy with a natural ability to lead," he can sometimes lose his temper when his employees will not listen to him, which is more often than not. In response to Johnny Fever's refusal to play his playlist of top 40 hits, Andy jokingly threatens to shoot himself. In fact, a common joke in the series is that Andy often has to literally run to the broadcast booth to stop some unacceptable material being broadcast at that moment.
Andy's first act at WKRP is to change the format from "beautiful music" to top 40 rock n' roll. He has, in his own words, "lived and breathed radio ever since I was a little boy," and his ambition is to turn WKRP around and make it a top-rated station. But he is unable to do what it would really take to improve the station: fire Herb and Les. He has come to feel affection for them, and he also knows a real housecleaning at the station would entail getting rid of Mr. Carlson too.
After his first year on the job, when WKRP only rises from 16th to 14th in an 18-station market, and while the rest of the staff is elated, Andy, though outwardly happy, is furious, and considers it a personal failure. After a conversation with his friend, nighttime disc jockey Gordon "Venus Flytrap" Sims, Andy realizes that he cannot leave WKRP or fire anybody. He likes the people too much, and has made friends here, something that did not happen at the other stations where he worked. Andy decides to abandon his ambition of becoming a hugely successful program director, or as Venus puts it, "You gave up a chance to be Boy Wonder of American radio to be the head guard of a nut farm."