The last blast of summer arrives 9:07 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4, when the Western & Southern/WEBN-FM Rozzi's Famous Fireworks light up the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
WKRC-TV again will broadcast the fireworks live during a one-hour special at 9 p.m. hosted by news anchors Kyle Inskeep and Paul Toti.
WEBN-FM begins broadcasting from Sawyer Point Park and Yeatman's Cove when Riverfest opens at noon Sept. 4.
Those planning to reserve a spot on the Serpentine Wall may spread their tarps or blankets beginning 7 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 3. They can be secured only by "painter tape, gaffer tape or masking tape," according to the
"You cannot secure your tarps with duct tape, rocks, bricks or sand. Please be considerate of others and only reserve a reasonable amount of space," the website says.
This is the 46th fireworks show for WEBN-FM, which began the tradition on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 1977 — yes, a Tuesday! — to celebrate the station's 10th birthday. The huge crowd prompted the city to create the end-of-summer Riverfest party culminating with Rozzi's Famous Fireworks.
The fireworks were not televised in 2015 — ending a 31-year Cincinnati television tradition dating back to 1984 — after WXIX-TV did not renew its contact with the radio station and its owner, iHeartMedia.
It's the seventh consecutive telecast for WKRC-TV, which acquired the rights in 2016 to resume the Labor Day weekend TV tradition. Although the WEBN-FM fireworks have always been one of the highest-rated local programs every year, it's also expensive to produce due to the multiple cameras on each side of the Ohio River to capture the pyrotechnics up close and from a distance.
More information and general policies about the event are posted on the .
