Andy Travis, a young program director from Santa Fe, takes over at Cincinnati radio station WKRP and changes the format to rock and roll.
While Andy tries to come up with a publicity stunt to get the station in the news, a group of irate former listeners demands a return to the old format.
Mortified by a personal accusation, Les climbs out on the ledge of the Flimm building and threatens to jump.
Andy arranges for the station to sponsor a concert by a rowdy English rock group.
During a live remote from Del's Stereo and Sound, an unemployed DJ shows up with a gun and hijacks the broadcast.
Bailey gets a chance to produce a new public-service interview show, but her potential guests all seem to be out of their minds.
Feeling left out at the station, Mr. Carlson comes up with a top-secret Thanksgiving promotion involving twenty live turkeys.
Andy falls back in love with an old girlfriend, now a famous singer, and must decide whether to follow her on the road.
Mama Carlson conducts a quarterly review of WKRP's personnel and profits, with clips from previous episodes illustrating the show's best moments to date.
When hot-blooded Les wins an award, he asks Jennifer to be his date for the banquet.
After Johnny announces the incorrect prize amount for a song-guessing contest promotion, the crew scrambles to make the contest so difficult that no one can win.
While Japanese radio executives are touring the station, the city experiences a series of tornadoes.
Johnny is offered a job in Los Angeles, so the other staffers throw him a party in which they try to manipulate him into staying.
Johnny returns to WKRP after being fired in L.A., but he has to settle for the late-night graveyard shift.
Herb separates from his wife Lucille and stays at Johnny's apartment while Jennifer tries to reunite the couple.
After a young single mother leaves her baby at the station, Johnny becomes attached to the infant.
The staff sings a radio ad for a chain of funeral homes.
Venus reveals that he is a military deserter, and Mr. Carlson helps him clear his name.
To fend off a childhood sweetheart, Jennifer pretends to be married to Johnny.
Herb wears a carp costume to represent WKRP and fights a rival station's pig mascot, while Johnny and Venus take an on-air test to demonstrate the effects of alcohol on human reflexes.
Mr. Carlson's troubled young son escapes from his military school and visits WKRP, where he manages to offend most of the staff.
WKRP's Sunday morning evangelist (and former wrestler) may be a fraud, but no one has the nerve to fire him.
Johnny forgets about his date with Bailey when he gets a call from Buffy, his old girlfriend from California. He borrows Jennifer's apartment to impress Buffy; however, that plan ends when she tells him she's suing him for palimony.
Johnny calls his friends over to Jennifer's apartment to help him deal with Buffy and her threat of a lawsuit. Buffy arrives and, after having a drink with Johnny, tells him that she put poison in his drink.
The staff plays against the team from rival station WPIG in a softball game.
Herb starts selling insurance as a sideline, and sells a comprehensive policy to Les, who promptly has an accident.
For the first time in her life, Jennifer is in love, with a penniless but handsome repairman who turns out to be even more of a gold digger than she is. Meanwhile, Les tries to get a raise, and Johnny becomes convinced that he's the man Jennifer is in love with.
Mr. Carlson runs for Cincinnati City Council. When Bailey discovers a potentially damaging piece of information about the front-runner in the election, Mr. Carlson considers using that information in a televised debate.
During a citywide garbage strike, Johnny jokingly suggests that his listeners dump their garbage on the steps of City Hall. The joke is on him, and the station, when hundreds of listeners take him seriously. Johnny becomes aware of his power and develops a serious case of mike fright.
Mr. Carlson's wife Carmen announces that she is pregnant. Mr. Carlson is overjoyed, and certain that Carmen feels the same way. However, Mama Carlson points out the potential dangers of middle-aged pregnancy and recommends an abortion.
The new ratings book arrives, and WKRP has climbed from 16th to 14th place in the Cincinnati market. Everyone is happy about the gain except Andy, who knows that the station has not improved enough, in part because of his own unwillingness to fire incompetent employees like Herb and Les.
When WKRP needs an assistant news reporter, Bailey applies for the job and gets it. Les, who doesn't want to work with anyone, least of all a woman, tries to keep Bailey from going on the air.
Jennifer tells her friends that she has nothing special planned for Christmas, and that she doesn't have a tree this year. Everyone begins to suspect that she might be alone for the holidays.
Mr. Carlson hires baseball manager Sparky Anderson to host a new sports-talk show.
When Johnny thinks he's heard God's voice talking to him, everyone, including Johnny, thinks he's going insane.
Andy's sister Carol visits Cincinnati, and Andy sets up a date for her and Johnny. But Carol winds up going out with Venus instead, and Andy becomes instinctively angry about it.
Herb's father, a lifelong salesman who shares Herb's taste in clothes, runs away from the Shady Hills Rest Home and visits the station.
Bailey convinces Jennifer to accept a date with Herb in the hope that he'll get scared and back down.
Bailey and Les attend a press conference given by a group of visiting Russian hog experts. One of the Russians falls for Bailey and asks her to help him defect to the United States.
Les goes out on a date with a female fan, who proceeds to move into his apartment and take over his life.
At a concert by the Who in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979, eleven kids were trampled to death when the crowd rushed to get seats. The first part of this episode takes place before that concert; the second act takes place the day after, and presents the characters' reactions to the tragedy.
Johnny's daughter shows up and moves in, and Johnny has to decide whether to express his disapproval of the shiftless boyfriend she's brought along.
Venus is offered a job as program director of WREQ radio, but is disillusioned when he discovers how the station is run and why they want to hire him. Meanwhile, Herb circulates a rumor that he, too, has received a job offer.
Everyone starts bickering after the station loses a broadcasting award.
Mr. Carlson convinces Jennifer and Andy to pose in bathing suits for a "Surf's Up in Cincinnati" poster. After the photo session, the photographer secretly takes nude photos of Jennifer while she's changing.
Trying to compete with WPIG's traffic helicopter, Les starts doing traffic reports from a World War I biplane piloted by a crazy war veteran.
The staff helps Jennifer move into her new $125,000 house in the quiet suburb of Landersville. But she soon finds out that life in Landersville isn't as pleasant as she thought it would be.
When Herb's family is featured in the show "Real Families", he is sure that they can serve as an example of a clean living family. Unfortunately, the image Herb wants to convey is different from the reality shown on screen.
Mr. Carlson's wife goes into labor and the WKRP staffers all visit the hospital to be there when she gives birth.
Andy, Mr. Carlson and Herb visit Dayton to try and land the advertising account for Vicky Von Vickey jeans. While Mr. Carlson worries about the notorious Dayton poisoner, Herb romances an old high school acquaintance and Andy has trouble with his slide projector.
When Herb is called for jury duty, Andy takes over as sales manager and soon discovers just how tough it is trying to sell advertising time or collect from deadbeat clients. Meanwhile, Venus becomes acting program director and has to deal with Les's plan to disguise himself as a black man so that he can do a series of reports based on the book Black Like Me.
Once again, Mr. Carlson plans to give the staffers almost no Christmas bonuses. But in a dream brought on by eating one of Johnny Fever's brownies, the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future visit him to show him the error of his ways.
On a day when the furnace has broken down, Mama Carlson pays a surprise visit to the station and catches Johnny drinking in the broadcast booth.
At Mr. Carlson's church auction, Herb buys a painting that Bailey loves. He tries to get Mr. Carlson or Bailey to buy it from him...until he learns that it might be valuable.
When Mr. Carlson rehearses a dull speech in front of the WKRP staff, all the staffers drift off into daydreams about what they would most like to be: Herb as a Latin-American dictator, Jennifer as a '30s movie star, Les as a reporter covering the Blitz in 1940, Bailey as the President of the United States, Andy as a radio Mafioso, Venus as a standup comedian, and Johnny as a rock star.
Herb has accidentally spray-painted his daughter's pet frog Greenpeace pink, and brings the frog to the station trying to find a way to save its life. Meanwhile, Les convinces Johnny that he is suffering from the dreaded "schistosomiasis."
The station's cleaning woman asks Venus to convince her big, tough teenage son not to drop out of school.
Johnny signs a contract to host a music TV program unaware that the songs will be disco.
When Herb's choice as host of a new call-in advice show proves unable to go on the air, Jennifer takes over and becomes an instant success.
When it is announced that the Flimm Building is to be torn down, Bailey starts a campaign to have the building declared a Cincinnati landmark. Everyone pitches in to help, until Mr. Carlson gets his mother's permission to build a new and better building.
The Secret Service refuses to grant Les credentials for a Presidential press conference, suspecting him of having radical affiliations. It turns out that the man who raised Les wasn't his father, and that his real father was a card-carrying Communist.
Herb's three-martini business lunches with an ad agency representative are causing him to mess up even more than usual, and it begins to seem that his use of alcohol as a sales tool is turning into a drinking problem.
In honor of their 25th anniversary, Arthur and Carmen Carlson plan to get married again. They want a small, private ceremony, but Mama Carlson has other ideas.
Everyone is in the grip of urban paranoia after the station is robbed.
When Johnny learns that his first ex-wife is planning to remarry, he is overjoyed at the thought of not having to pay alimony, and celebrates by inviting Bailey to take a trip with him. But he feels less happy about the situation when he meets the obnoxious womanizer his ex-wife is going to marry.
Dr. Bob Halyers, head of the organization Clean Up Radio Broadcasting (CURB), visits Mr. Carlson with a list of obscene songs that he wants the station to stop playing.
When the station receives a bomb threat, Johnny and Venus broadcast from the remote transmitter tower.
Andy is unable to warn Johnny and Venus when he realizes that the bomb is at the transmitter.
The staff of WKRP considers joining a union and Andy is caught in the middle.
While his apartment is being fumigated, Johnny stays with Bailey, causing everyone at the station to jump to conclusions.
Herb secretly checks into the hospital for heart tests.
With Herb in the hospital, Mr. Carlson pretends he is Herb and is impersonated by Les for an advertising client.
Johnny receives a large legal settlement and buys a condominium.
When her elderly friend dies, Jennifer must handle the will and the man's nasty relatives.
A sleazy radio consultant threatens to deliver a bad report to Mrs. Carlson unless Andy subscribes to his service.
Andy becomes afraid of Mrs. Carlson's intentions for him.
Mr. Carlson and his wife travel to his college reunion.
Herb's new sponsor is selling amphetamines to teenagers over the air by calling them diet pills.
To prepare for an interview with a black magazine, Venus adopts a new wardrobe and manner.
Johnny asks Jennifer to help him raise money to rebuild a homeless shelter.
Herb arranges a date for Les but doesn't realize that the dating service is a front for prostitution.
Venus is in hot water when an ex-lover leaves him with stolen property.
Herb and Jennifer are trapped in an elevator when a fire breaks out in the Flimm Building.
Bailey's news story about a children's clinic is revealed to be fictional.
Andy tells Mrs. Carlson about how he hired Venus.
Les plans to go to New York to pursue his dream of becoming a prominent broadcast journalist.
Mr. Carlson wants to fire Herb, but Jennifer intervenes.
Mrs. Carlson announces plans to switch the station's format to all news.
"Do My Eyes Say Yes?" is a brief celebration of the Jennifer character.
"A Fish Story... Story" lets Wilson explain why the famous episode is his least favorite. - S01E21- Herb dresses up as the WKRP mascot, a carp, and gets into a fight with the WPIG pig (played by Lee Bergere); meanwhile, Johnny and Venus take an on-air alcohol test with a police officer (Jerry Hardin), with Johnny's reflexes strangely improving with each drink. Trivia: The script for this episode is credited to 'Raoul Plager,' who does not exist. Series creator Hugh Wilson actually wrote the episode under duress from the network to infuse the show with more physical comedy, and used the alias to signal his frustration with their demands.
A special program that aired before the start of the series "The New WKRP In Cincinnati" for syndication in 1991.
