Miller's fitness boosts recent runner-up South Africa at the T20 World Cup

A fitness clearance for veteran middle-order batter David Miller has boosted South Africa as it heads to the Twenty20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, attempting to improve on its runner-up finish in the last tournament.

The 36-year-old Miller is one of the best finishers in world cricket and his late confirmation in the Proteas squad adds another feature to an already strong lineup. He had an adductor muscle strain and was in doubt until his clearance last weekend.

South Africa has been a regular semifinalist in ICC tournaments in recent years and finally broke its major international trophy drought when it won the last World Test Championship. It hopes that experience will boost it at the coming tournament.

The Proteas have built depth across all three formats, demonstrated when it lost to injuries Tony de Zorzi and Donovan Ferreira from its initial World Cup squad and called in Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs as replacements, both top-class T20 players.

Wicketkeeper Rickelton has a T20 international strike rate of 142 and both are able to bat deep and be closers if needed. Stubbs has considerable experience in the Indian Premier League.

South Africa surprised many when it named a bowling lineup with a heavy emphasis on pace. Those bowlers performed relatively well in recent white-ball series in India.

Kagiso Rabada is fit after recent injuries and joins a pace group including Anrich Nortje, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Kwena Maphaka and Lungi Ngidi. George Linde and Keshav Maharaj provide the frontline spin alternative.

“We are returning to the subcontinent where we recently competed against hosts India,” coach Shukri Conrad said. “The experience we gained playing in those conditions will undoubtedly benefit us.

“Many of the players selected for the World Cup squad were on that trip and experienced first-hand the pitches that we will likely encounter, and that will stand them in good stead.”

A feature of the South Africa squad which will be captained by Aiden Markram is the depth and experience of its batting. Quinton de Kock returns at the top of the order after a short-lived retirement.

“There’s lots of firepower. There are match winners,” former South Africa captain Graeme Smith said. “It’ll be interesting to see what combinations Shukri and the team come up with. Some grounds are challenging to defend, some wickets play flat and then your bowlers are really tested.

“So the bowling combinations will be tested but there’s enough in that squad to go deep in the tournament.”

Smith backs Stubbs to make an impact, pointing to his match-winning unbeaten 63 in the local SA20 final.

“His power, the experiences he has, we’ve seen it in the IPL, for South Africa and in the SA20,” he said. “That innings would have given him a world of confidence. He’s a confident player anyway but he would have grown in stature.

“He’s had to fight back from a few disappointments in the last six months. I always love it when a player under pressure shows his worth on a big stage like a final. Hopefully he takes that feeling, that form and confidence into the World Cup.”

South Africa is drawn in Group D with Afghanistan, Canada, New Zealand and UAE.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

South Africa's bowler Keshav Maharaj, center, celebrates with his teammate Aiden Markram after bowling West Indies batsman Rovman Powell during the T20 International cricket match between South Africa and West Indies, in Centurion, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

South Africa's batsman Ryan Rickelton, right, runs and survive a run out attempt by West Indies wicketkeeper Shai Hope during the T20 International cricket match between South Africa and West Indies, in Centurion, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

West Indies batsman Shimron Hetmyer, right, misplay a delivery as South Africa's wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock watches on during the T20 International cricket match between South Africa and West Indies, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

South Africa's bowler Keshav Maharaj, right, celebrates with his teammates after taking a wicket during the T20 International cricket match between South Africa and West Indies, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

South Africa's batsman Quinton de Kock raises his bat after reaching a century during the T20 International cricket match between South Africa and West Indies, in Centurion, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Hold on to those Thanksgiving turkeys! WKRP is coming to Cincinnati — for real this time.

“I cannot, by contract, tell you when. I cannot tell you who. But I can tell you, direct to the camera, WKRP, after 48 years, is coming to Cincinnati,” D.P. McIntire, who runs the media nonprofit that is auctioning the famous call letters, told The Associated Press. “Book it! It’s done!”

The call sign was made famous by “WKRP in Cincinnati,” a CBS television sitcom that ran from 1978 to 1982. It made stars of actors like Loni Anderson and Richard Sanders, whose bumbling newsman Les Nessman presided over a Thanksgiving promotion gone bad when live but flightless turkeys were dropped from a helicopter.

McIntire remembers watching the show’s first episode — featuring disc jockeys Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid) — in the living room with his parents and older sister.

“And at the end of the 30-minute episode,” he said, “I got up and I proclaimed, `I’m going to be in radio. And if I ever have the opportunity, I’m going to run a station called WKRP.’”

McIntire said he got his first on-air job at 13 as a news anchor at WNQQ “Wink FM” in Blairsville, Pennsylvania.

Fast forward to 2014, when his North Carolina-based nonprofit acquired the call sign from the Federal Communications Commission. Stations in Dallas, Georgia, and Alexandria, Tennessee, previously bore the letters.

McIntire laughs as he recalls his chat with a woman in the agency’s audio division.

He had two sets of call letters in mind. She told him he needed a third.

“Being the jokester that I am, I said, `Well, if you need three, and if it’s available, we’ll take WKRP,’” he said. “And 90 seconds later, she came back and she said, `Mr. McIntire. Congratulations. You’re the general manager of WKRP in Raleigh, North Carolina.’”

WKRP-LP — 101.9 on the FM dial — went live Nov. 30, 2015. The LP stands for “low power,” a class of station created to serve more local audiences that didn’t want mass-market content.

“Our format is what radio used to be 35 years ago in small-town America,” he said. “There is Greats of the 80s, Sounds of the 70s, 90s Rewind.”

LPFM is restricted to nonprofit organizations like his Oak City Media, and it’s definitely local.

“Your broadcast capacity is limited to 100 watts,” McIntire said. “So, your average range is between, depending on your terrain and circumstances, 4 and 12 miles (6 and 19 kilometers) in any direction. Enough to cover a small town.”

And, by necessity, it’s a low-budget affair.

The transmitter is in a corner of McIntire’s garage, between a recycling bin and the cleaning supplies. The broadcast antenna sits atop a 25-foot (7.62-meter) metal flagpole in the backyard. The studio — microphones and a mixing board hooked up to a computer — is in McIntire’s basement.

Like the WKRP of television, McIntire and his partners set out to be “irreverent.” One of their offerings is a two-hour show called “Weird Al and Friends,” focusing on the satirical works of Weird Al Yankovic.

They even had an annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway. But don’t call the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — they hand out gift certificates to a local grocery store.

“We don’t toss them out of helicopters,” he said with a laugh.

After 10 years on the air, the 56-year-old McIntire decided it was time to pass the reins.

“We’re in a position where the older members like me who started the station are turning the leadership over to younger members,” he said. “They’re not interested in radio.”

They put out a call for bids to use the call letters on FM and AM radio, as well as television and digital television.

They intend to use the proceeds for a new nonprofit venture called Independent Broadcast Consultants. He said IBC will be “geared specifically toward helping these new broadcasters get up and running, get the consulting that they need in order to be, hopefully, more successful than we have been.”

Oak City Media was all set to hand off the television-related suffixes — WKRPTV and WKRPDT — when another group defaulted on the agreement, McIntire said. But he said the Cincinnati deal is in the bag, he just can’t legally discuss it.

“It will be radio,” he said. “But that’s all I can tell you at this time.”

Whatever they do with the call sign, he hopes they will be true to the show that inspired it.

“It has a special place in the hearts of an awful lot of people,” he said. “And we have been very, very, very proud to have been a steward of that legacy.”

D.P. McIntire leans against a deck beneath the WKRP radio antenna in the backyard of his home in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

D.P. McIntire points to the transmitter for WKRP radio in a corner of his garage in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

The WKRP radio antenna sits atop a 25-foot flagpole behind D.P. McIntire's home in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

A photo of the cast members of the sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati" sits in a window at the home of D.P. McIntire in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

D.P. McIntire stands beneath a WKRP banner in the backyard of his home in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)