WKRP in Cincinnati Episode Rating Graph

Feeling left out because he doesn't have anything to do, Mr. Carlson suddenly decides to take full charge of every aspect of the station. He then proceeds to come up with a special, top-secret Thanksgiving day promotion involving twenty live turkeys.

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.

With Herb in the hospital, Mr. Carlson pretends he is Herb and is impersonated by Les for an advertising client.

The head of a chain of funeral homes wants to advertise on WKRP, in the hopes of convincing young people to make funeral arrangements early. The staff creates a singing commercial aimed at ""young and swingin'"" listeners.

When Les wins the coveted Silver Sow award, he asks Jennifer to be his date for the awards banquet. To Les's delight, and Herb's horror, she accepts.

When Johnny receives $24,000 in a legal settlement, Venus convinces him to use the money to invest in a condominium at Gone With the Wind Estates.

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.

Andy Travis, a young program director from Santa Fe, takes over at WKRP, a radio station in Cincinnati. WKRP is a ""beautiful music"" station that ranks 16th in an 18 station market. Andy soon wins the confidence of station manager Mr. Carlson, who is terrified of his mother, the station's owner. But Andy discovers that news director Les Nessman and sales manager Herb Tarlek were both after the program director's job and resent his appointment. He also meets receptionist Jennifer Marlowe, who spends most of her time watering her plants and fending off Herb's sexual advances, and morning disc jockey Johnny Caravella, who was a top DJ in Los Angeles until he was fired for saying the word ""booger"" on the air. Andy's first act as program director is to change the format of WKRP to top 40 rock and roll. In response, Johnny adopts the new, energetic on-air persona of ""Dr. Johnny Fever."" Andy has other plans, including an expanded role for shy but intelligent continuity director Bailey Qua

Herb arranges for the station to do a live remote broadcast from Del's Stereo and Sound. It doesn't go very well, especially when an out-of-work DJ shows up with a gun and hijacks the broadcast.

A sleazy record company promoter recommends Doug Winner, a talented young DJ, as Johnny's replacement. When Johnny returns, having been fired in L.A. again, he has to settle for working the late-night graveyard shift.

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.

After Venus refuses to pose for a publicity photo, the truth about his past is revealed: He's wanted by the law as a deserter from the United States army.

With the help of a concert-promoter friend of Mr. Carlson's, Andy arranges for the station to sponsor a concert by the English rock group ""Scum of the Earth."" But everyone soon discovers that Scum's onstage viciousness and insanity isn't just an act.

Mr. Carlson won't give Andy any money to advertise WKRP's format change. 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 and an on-air apology to Lawrence Welk.

Andy is unable to warn Johnny and Venus when he realizes that the bomb is at the transmitter.

Andy starts taking Mama Carlson out after hours in the hopes of getting her to pay for a new transmitter for the station. But he begins to suspect that she might have more-than-businesslike expectations of him.

Colonel Buchanan, Jennifer's elderly gentleman friend, dies suddenly. As executrix of his will, Jennifer must deal with the press and with the Colonel's money-grubbing, rumor mongering relatives.

Jennifer's childhood sweetheart from Rock Throw, West Virginia arrives at the station, expecting her to keep her promise to marry him. To get rid of him, Jennifer pretends to be married to Johnny.

Just as WKRP hits #6 in the ratings, Mama Carlson announces that she plans to switch the format of the station to 24 hours a day of news.

After Herb screws up an important advertising account, Mr. Carlson finally intends to fire him, but Jennifer takes pity on Herb and tries to help him keep his job.

Herb separates from his wife Lucille, and winds up staying at Johnny's apartment until he can get a bachelor pad of his own. Jennifer, horrified at the prospect of having to deal with an unattached Herb, tries to get Herb and Lucille back together again.

On his birthday, Les announces that he's going to New York to pursue his dream of becoming a world-famous broadcast journalist by auditioning for The CBS Evening News.

Everyone starts bickering after the station loses a broadcasting award.

Les is banned from conducting interviews at Riverfront stadium when a baseball player accuses him of being gay. Mortified at what he sees as an insult to his reputation as ""a fairly macho kind of guy,"" Les climbs out on the ledge of the Flimm building and threatens to jump. Meanwhile, Johnny comes up with a way to stop Herb from bothering Jennifer.

The station's cleaning woman asks Venus to convince her big, tough teenage son not to drop out of school.

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.

While Japanese radio executives are touring the station, the city experiences a series of tornadoes.

Mr. Carlson hires legendary baseball manager Sparky Anderson as the host of a new sports interview show. But when the show proves a complete disaster, it falls to Mr. Carlson to fire his hero.

When Bailey writes a news story on the Northside Children's Clinic, Les steals it and reads it on the air. This turns out to be a blow to the station's integrity in more ways than one when Bailey admits that she fictionalized part of the story.

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.

Johnny signs a contract to host a music TV program unaware that the songs will be disco.

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.

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.

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's latest date gives him an expensive diamond earring as a gift and then runs out on him; it turns out that she's a thief who has used the stolen earring to frame Venus as her accomplice.

When a fire destroys the kitchen at the Vine Street Mission, Johnny recruits Jennifer to help raise the $40,000 dollars to rebuild it. Jennifer throws a party for her rich friends and asks them to contribute, and everything is going fine until the contributors meet the people involved.

Andy's old girlfriend, now a famous country singer, arrives in Cincinnati on a promotional tour. After she and Andy meet and fall in love again, Andy has to decide whether to stay at WKRP or go on the road with her. Meanwhile, Johnny and Venus participate in a ""Win a date with a DJ"" contest.

When Venus learns that he's going to be interviewed by a militant black magazine, he adopts a new wardrobe and manner in order to seem more in touch with black culture. Meanwhile, Jennifer offers to change Herb's image, starting with picking out new, tasteful clothes for him.

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.

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.

While his apartment is being fumigated, Johnny accepts Bailey's offer to stay at her place, causing everyone at the station to think that the two are sleeping together. Johnny's also afraid that he's in danger of losing his time slot to Rex, the afternoon DJ, and when Bailey tries to cheer him up, he mistakes her friendliness for a come-on.

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.

Herb starts selling insurance as a sideline, and sells a comprehensive policy to Les, who promptly has an accident.

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.

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.

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.

Herb and Jennifer are trapped in an elevator when a fire breaks out in the Flimm Building.

Herb fixes Les up with a date through his latest client, the I'll Take Romance Dating Service. Les hits it off with his date immediately, not knowing that the dating service is a front for prostitution.

Mr. Carlson's wife goes into labor and the WKRP staffers all visit the hospital to be there when she gives birth.

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.

Mr. Carlson's son runs away from military school, and Mama Carlson brings him to WKRP, ordering Mr. Carlson to let the boy work at the station for a while. But Little Arthur soon alienates everybody at the station with his fascistic tendencies.

Johnny signs a contract to host a music TV program unaware that the songs will be disco.

Mama Carlson arrives for a quarterly review to discuss WKRP's personnel and profits. Andy and Mr. Carlson try to explain what's gone on since the format change, illustrated with clips from previous episodes.

Herb tells everyone that he's going on vacation, but Les and Jennifer discover that he's actually checked into the hospital for heart tests.