FILE - Actress Loni Anderson arrives at the 18th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, Saturday, April 14, 2007. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Loni Anderson, who played a struggling radio station’s empowered receptionist on the hit TV comedy “WKRP in Cincinnati,” died Sunday, just days before her 80th birthday.

Anderson died at a Los Angeles hospital following a “prolonged” illness, said her longtime publicist, Cheryl J. Kagan.

“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear wife, mother and grandmother,” Anderson’s family said in a statement.

Anderson was born in Saint Paul and grew up in suburban Roseville, Minnesota.

“WKRP in Cincinnati” aired from 1978-1982 and was set in a flagging Ohio radio station trying to reinvent itself w

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