In the episode "Secrets of Dayton Heights", he fails a security check for a press conference because his biological father had belonged to the Communist party.

Les's area of greatest expertise is agriculture; he is a five-time winner of the fictitious Ohio radio news trophy, the "Buckeye Newshawk Award" (given to the best news story specifically about, or related to, tap root vegetable production in "the tri-state area"), and has won the award an additional three times by the time of The New WKRP in Cincinnati.

"[3] He also has an unusual amount of psychological expertise, correctly diagnosing Johnny Fever with a "schizoid disorder" when he begins treating his television alter-ego Rip Tide as a separate individual he feels is subsuming his own personality (Les recognized the symptoms from the movies The Three Faces of Eve and Sybil).

He insistently refers to black DJ Venus Flytrap as "a negro" and expresses surprise and confusion when he fails to embody the stereotypes with which Les was raised.

Les also maintains a 50s-era McCarthyist worldview in which Communists have infiltrated all walks of American life and are a persistent threat to the nation; several of his news broadcasts devolve into rants advocating America to bomb its enemies "off the map."

The rest of the characters try to figure the situation out and talk him off the ledge, with Bruce, the player who made the original comment, eventually calling Les to apologize.

[2] Les' initial chauvinistic resistance to Bailey working in the "man's world" of journalism, and his eventual acceptance of her as an equal was an important story arc that has been repeatedly noted as a significant reflection of changing gender roles during this time.

During WKRP's run, these included appearances at many pork producer association events — Nessman having become the darling of the industry, where he received real-life versions of the fictional "Silver Sow Award"[8] — and singing rock and roll music at nightclubs.

While Sanders simply flew into Anchorage to make the appearance, Les took the wrong bus, wound up in Texas, hitchhiked from there to North Dakota and then to Great Slave Lake, rode with a bush pilot to Whitehorse, bought a motorscooter, was sighted near Tok, was arrested for a minor traffic infraction, and then was bailed out of jail by the station.

[9] Subsequent appearances by Sanders as Les included the 1997 Lexington, Kentucky, Christmas parade, during which he simulated a re-enactment of the famous "Turkeys Away" episode.