The film tells the story of writer Roger Henderson trying to settle relationship issues with his wife Penny while dealing with a whodunit murder mystery in a radio station.

Universal Pictures commenced pre-production and both Steve Martin and Cindy Williams had already been approached for the two leads before Radioland Murders languished in development hell for over 20 years.

Radioland Murders was released on October 21, 1994, to negative reviews from critics and bombed at the box office, only grossing $1.3 million in the United States.

By going through private documents in WBN's file room, Roger finds that the victims all previously worked together at a radio station in Peoria, Illinois, which he then correlates into a secretive FCC scandal.

King (laughing gas) and General Whalen (falls down an elevator shaft) are the next to die after Roger's warning, making the police even more suspicious.

When rewriting one of the programs, Gork: Son of Fire, Roger attempts to write the script with self-referential events, proving to everyone that the mysterious killer is actually sound engineer Max Applewhite.

Max explains that his killings were a revenge scheme that dealt with stockholders and patents, specifically detailing his invention of television, which other scientists have copied.

Cameo appearances are provided by George Burns (in his final feature film, as Milt Lackey, a 100-year-old comedian), Joey Lawrence, Billy Barty, Peter MacNicol, Robert Klein, Ellen Albertini Dow, Candy Clark, Bo Hopkins (as Billy Budget's parents) and Wilbur Fitzgerald, as well as singers Rosemary Clooney and Tracy Byrd.

When Universal Pictures accepted American Graffiti in 1972, Lucas also allowed the studio first-look deals for both Radioland Murders and an untitled science fiction film (which eventually became the basis for Star Wars).

[2] Lucas eventually negotiated a deal to produce Radioland Murders for Universal shortly after the successful release of American Graffiti in late 1973.

Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz prepared a rough draft based on Lucas's 1974 film treatment, and Universal was confident enough to announce pre-production soon after.

[6] Production designer Gavin Bocquet (Star Wars prequels, Young Indiana Jones, Stardust) disguised the film's limited rooms in a beehivelike structure.

Larger areas, notably the exterior of the building and the transmission tower on the roof, were created or augmented with digital mattes added by visual effects supervisor Scott Squires (The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace) at Industrial Light & Magic.

Following a break, in which Lucas, director Mel Smith and editor Paul Trejo reviewed the footage using the new digital Avid Technology editing system (the successor to EditDroid), the cast and crew were reassembled for a further two weeks of filming.

[16] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave a mixed reaction, feeling the filmmakers failed in attempting to woo audiences with nostalgia.

[17] Internet reviewer James Berardinelli called the film a "horrible concoction synthesizing elements of The Hudsucker Proxy and Brain Donors, and setting them in the world of David Lynch's On the Air.