Unbeknownst to him, his mother has set up WKRP as a tax write-off that is intended to lose money, and she keeps him at the station not because she wants him to succeed but because she expects him to fail.
Though he accepts the format change, Carlson is not a fan of rock n' roll music (though he does admit to Andy that he likes Crosby, Stills and Nash), and frequently does not even listen to his own station because he doesn't enjoy the songs or the modern, with-it styles of the disc jockeys.
He is also an avid fisherman, keeping several rods and reels in his office at all times and speaking eloquently of the joys of hooking a fish and then throwing it back.
Carlson has trouble dealing with people, especially with saying "no"; he will buy anything from a salesman (WKRP sales manager Herb Tarlek once sold him an insurance policy) and tends to whimper when someone yells at him.
To protect him from the outside world, he depends on his receptionist, Jennifer Marlowe, whose main job is keeping people away from her boss by any means necessary, including telling them that he's dead.
This is revealed in an episode where a sleazy photographer (George Wyner) snaps nude pictures of Jennifer as she is changing in another room following a cheesecake photo shoot with Andy Travis.
In another episode, he gently but firmly supports Andy's decision to fire a new disc jockey replacing Johnny Fever, after it is proven that the DJ (Philip Charles MacKenzie) is being paid with cocaine under a payola plan with a record producer.
Some episodes, particularly in the first season, show Carlson feeling left out at the station and wanting to prove that he, too, can come up with good ideas to make WKRP more successful.
The most famous such attempt is chronicled in "Turkeys Away," where Carlson tries to become actively involved in every aspect of running the station, driving the employees crazy with incessant suggestions.
(However, note that any service in WWII would clash with a 1930/31 birthdate; Carlson would have to have been born circa 1924 or earlier in order to have participated in the Guadalcanal campaign.)
She admits to Andy Travis that she "pushed and bullied" Arthur to make him tough and self-sufficient, like her; however, she realizes that the tactic failed and made him even more weak-willed than his father.
Arthur Jr. returns in The New WKRP in Cincinnati, joining the station as an account executive; he has since abandoned his radical ways and become a petulant, spoiled yuppie who expects to be promoted to his father's job.
When Joyce stops by to recruit WKRP's business for her rep firm, she takes Carlson out for drinks and then asks him to come see her at her hotel room.
After a couple of drinks, and some confused conversation, Joyce explains to Carlson that she was simply trying to drum up some business for her firm, and never intended to mislead him.
In the episode "Clean Up Radio Everywhere," his socially conservative leanings cause him to befriend the Reverend Dr. Bob Halyers, the Jerry Falwell-esque leader of an organization dedicated to purging "obscene" songs from the airwaves.
According to Jay Sandrich, director of the WKRP pilot, MTM Enterprises originally wanted Roddy McDowall to play Carlson.
Whereas Carlson was weak and indecisive, Blum was in many ways the opposite, a brash and in-your-face personality (hence his nickname "Big Guy") frequently seen in oversized sunglasses and a buttoned-down leisure suit.