In October of 1986, Dan Rather was walking to his Manhattan apartment, when two men arrived and proceeded to beat Rather from behind. The first verbal exchange was the words of one man, “Kenneth, What’s The Frequency”? Rather breathlessly replied, “You have the wrong guy”. The response was more punching and kicking while the man repeated the phrase.

 This became a musical question by inspiring a forty-six second song by New York’s Game Theory. W.T.F.K. soon became code for someone who’s out of sorts and who doesn’t have a clue. Why Rather was attacked, who dunnit, and what led to the assailant asking the question that’s in question led to many conspiracy theories. Neither Tanya Harding nor Connie Chung has been connected to the event.

REM literally turned things around in’94 by asking, “What’s The Frequency Kenneth”? The band insisted that, while the title is about Rather’s beating, the rest of the song is about a man attempting to understand what drives the younger generation. Dan was cool with the song and even jumped on stage to sing it with the band.