In 1986, CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather was mugged by a man in
On October 4, 1986, Dan Rather was the victim of an unprovoked attack by a man who punched him from behind and demanded to know, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" As the assailant pummeled and kicked Rather, he kept repeating the question over and over again.
The story entered popular lore and remained unsolved for some time. The phrase soon became the subject of many jokes and slang for a confused or clueless person. The incident inspired a song called "Kenneth, What's the Frequency?" by the band Game Theory in 1987. In October 1990, the phrase "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" appeared in an issue of the Daniel Clowe’s comic Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron. In 1994 the band R.E.M. released the hit song "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" on the album Monster.
In 1997, a TV critic writing in the New York Daily News solved the mystery, and published a photo of the alleged assailant, William Tager. Rather confirmed the story and Tager also admitted assaulting Rather. Tager is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for killing a NBC stagehand in 1994.
A December 2001 issue of Harper's Magazine speculated that postmodern fiction writer Donald Barthelme had somehow orchestrated the attack citing unusual passages in his writing, including the phrase "What is the frequency?", a recurring character named Kenneth, and a short story about a pompous editor named Lather. The article was adapted into two plays, both entitled "Kenneth, What Is the Frequency?"
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Rather and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What's_the_Frequency,_Kenneth%3F
Dan Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years (1981 – 2005).
Dan Rather sings "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" with R.E.M. at
Additional links about this topic:
http://www.ratherbiased.com/bizarre.htm
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2001/12/0075777
http://www.citizenparanoid.net/?p=81
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