I think something else might be missing from that episode because the running time of that episode which was posted on a blog is about a minute longer than the DVD version.
Thanks so much for identifying this. I've been trying to figure out what song it was for about a week. I did a lyric search after hearing Johnny sing "nobody's leaving.." and couldn't find anything. lol
Did you hear "Goodbye Sister Disco" by The Who in The Creation of Venus? According to this WKRP song list, it was played in that episode.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jWiewI2fp1l9gxrIXXhbWWT1a_L4kvASk4UFYLFl4Hw/edit?pli=1#gid=1213980441
Bailey picks up an album cover in that scene, that could be a clue as to what song it was. I only have a bootleg copy and it wasn't the best video quality so I couldn't figure it out.
If my math is correct then so far out of 126 songs(maybe a few more) played (or sung) only 18 music cuts on the first 2 seasons. That means at least 85% of the music is included in the first 2 seasons. Much better than I expected!
My copy(boot) of Fish Story has a running time of about 23:51. It does seem kinda short for 1978.
"Back in the U.S.A." was written by Chuck Berry so that's probably why it wasn't included. I heard his music is hard to get which might explain why Surin' USA isn't on the set either because...