Tom Hanks Hijacking Pittsburgh Radio Station's Thanksgiving Playlist

PITTSBURGH, PA — Tom Hanks will move from award-winning actor to radio programmer for a day. All of the music played on 91.3 WYEP-FM from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thanksgiving will be songs Hanks selected for the station's listeners.

Hanks will be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with his family and thus won't be in the WYEP studios to actually play the tunes. But the station suggests his curated playlist will not disappoint.

"He's a dedicated music fan with a far-ranging knowledge and appreciation of early- and mid-1960s rock ‘n’ roll—and the wealth of music that has been informed by those formative sounds of surf rock, R&B, and vocal pop that typified the era," the station noted in a news release. "His directorial debut, 1996’s That Thing You Do!, was an exuberant ode to that music and those musicians."

A connection between WYEP and the production crew of the latest movie Hanks filmed in Pittsburgh - "A Man Called Otto," due for general release in January - led to the unique holiday audio pairing. Hanks also portrayed Pittsburgh icon Mr. Rogers in 2019's "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood."

According to WYEP, Hanks provided an eclectic and very fun list of 100 songs for the station takeover, with a 66-year timespan—ranging between music from 1956 all the way to a duet released a few months ago between Elvis Costello and Hanks’ wife, Rita Wilson.