How about the one in which the ill-fated "turkey drop" was planned as an on-air promotion?

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!" groaned Mr. Carlson (Gordon Jump), the station manager.

Such magical moments can be relived through the three-disc WKRP in Cincinnati: The Complete First Season, to be released Tuesday.

The 1978-82 sitcom concerned a fictitious Ohio radio station undergoing a change in format from easy listening to rock 'n' roll.

A certain element is missing from the DVD set, however.

Some of the songs heard on the station are replaced by nondescript rock instrumentals.

Such changes are attributed to the high fees to license the original music, not to mention the desire to keep the cost of the collection to $39.98.

Two of the stars, promoting the set last week in separate interviews, downplayed the alterations.

"I know that that was the most difficult issue," said Loni Anderson, who played receptionist and blond bombshell Jennifer Marlowe.

"But the comedy is still there, and it's still the same."

"I am loath to learn that that's happened, but I have no control over it," said Howard Hesseman, who played disc jockey Dr. Johnny Fever. "It's a drag."

In any case, the Fox Home Entertainment release contains all 22 episodes of the 1978-79 season -- including "Hoodlum Rock" and "Turkeys Away."

WKRP was nominated for 10 Emmys before being dropped by CBS, which moved it around the prime-time lineup like a hot potato.

"Our joke was, we wanted to do a commercial each time they moved us," said Anderson, 61. "We wanted to say, 'You'll love us -- if you can find us.' "

With series creator Hugh Wilson, the actress developed the role of Jennifer into a "mother figure" -- who had a decided preference for wealthy old men.

Hesseman based his laid-back, sleep-deprived, shades-wearing Fever on "a melange of guys I knew in radio and what Hugh Wilson had put on the page to begin with and who I am -- just an ungodly mix," the 67-year-old said.

Although cast members Jump (who attended Otterbein College in Westerville) and Gary Sandy hailed from Dayton, Anderson had never traveled to Cincinnati before WKRP premiered -- although she has visited since.

Hesseman, meanwhile, has experienced the Queen City only once, in 1973.

The show managed to click on several levels, according to the co-stars.

"It's like the perfect storm," Anderson said. "It just comes together with the writing, which was brilliant, and the casting. Hugh never really centered on one person. . . . He made sure that we all got our share of screen time and writing time, and it makes the show fuller if you have each character in it every week."

The cast members still get together each year. (Jump died in 2003.)

"The family feeling that was there while we were doing it is still there," Hesseman said. "It was a very special time, and I'm thankful to have been there."

And they still hear from fans of the sitcom.

"I was just in Hawaii recently," Anderson said: "A girl ran up to me and said, 'My name is Loni, too, and I was named after you, and my mother went into labor while WKRP was on."

"It warms my heart when somebody says 'Hey, Doctor!' on the street, and I always think it's for me," Hesseman said. "And then I turn, and there's an ambulance and somebody bleeding on the sidewalk.

"But I'm willing to wave back, nevertheless."

gbudzak@dispatch.com