‘OFFICIAL’ RADIO STATION SQUABBLE MAKES WAVES

Beginning at 11 a.m. today, the “whale-size beach party” that KIIS-FM (102.7) has been advertising for weeks opens its weekend stand at Cabrillo Beach.

But the Top 40 station’s Los Angeles Beach Scene, co-hosted by the City of Los Angeles, is also the center of a whale-size controversy that began three months ago. At stake is the right of any of the area’s 85 radio stations to call itself the “official” beach station of Los Angeles.

While KIIS, the city and an expected 100,000 participants rev up for today’s surf-side bash, the county of Los Angeles finds itself sandbagged in its own attempts to have an official station of the county’s beaches.

KIIS rival KLOS-FM (95.5) filed a suit on July 2 in Superior Court, objecting to the county’s proposal. Superior Court Judge Jack M. Newman issued a temporary restraining order barring the county from naming KIIS or any other station as its official beach station.

More importantly, say public policy experts and elected officials, the suit raised questions about the backstage maneuvering that brought about this first Los Angeles Beach Scene and about the right of the city, county or any other political entity to give “official” preference to one station.

As a result of the KLOS action, Newman barred the county from designating KIIS or any other station “official” for the duration of the summer. His order remains in effect until Sept. 4, when further arguments on the question are scheduled.

KLOS was openly applauded by the management of KIIS’ rivals, including KRTH-AM (930) and FM (101.1), KFI-AM (640), KOST-FM (103.5), KROQ-FM (106.7) and KPWR-FM (105.9), the other station along with KIIS actively pursuing the official status.

The KLOS action also deprived the county of the $80,000 that KIIS would have paid for its “official” designation.

KLOS lawyer Jonathan Steinberg said a number of First Amendment questions were raised by the county’s “denying the right to hold beach events to certain radio stations who don’t pay up.”

Jonathan Crane, the county’s attorney, told The Times he is “still looking at the legal issues. I don’t know if we can say we’ve absolutely fixed on a position yet.”

According to the last proposed contract offered KIIS in June, the Gannett Broadcasting Co. outlet would have paid the county $96,000 over two years, minus a $16,000 commission paid to Del Wilber and Associates, the marketing firm that brought KIIS and the county together last winter.

In addition, KIIS would have given air time to the county for a number of public service spots.

In exchange, the county Board of Supervisors would designate KIIS the “official radio station of the L.A. County beaches.” An official stationcould:

--Put its logo on 155 lifeguard towers;

--Place temporary signs on the beach;

--Distribute its merchandise and concert tickets at the beach;

--Use loudspeakers to advertise its events;

--Use beaches as settings for TV commercials;

--Promote and hold a station beach party;

--Retain exclusive rights to sponsor all promotional licensing activities of the County Department of Beaches and Harbors;

--Hold first right of refusal over any competitor’s application to sponsor a beach event.

“We don’t feel there should be one official beach station,” KLOS general manager Bill Sommers said. “We just don’t want to be the guy along with our fellow broadcasters who can’t do anything on the beaches.”

Miller Brewing Co. and Coca-Cola Bottling Co., both regular advertisers over several Los Angeles radio stations, supported the KLOS action, Sommers said. KIIS’ “right of refusal” would have forced those companies to channel their advertising business through KIIS as the official station, regardless of audience demographics, he added.

Michael Martin, broadcast supervisor for McCann-Erickson, which handles radio advertising for Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Los Angeles, sent a letter to the county supervisors discouraging it from choosing an exclusive beach station.

“If the county made KIIS the official station, then the other stations couldn’t do any of our (beach) promotions, which is almost a restraint of trade,” he said.

Ted Reed, Department of Beach and Harbors director, presented the plan at a board hearing June 3. He said he could understand Martin’s complaint.

“I suppose they try to zero in on demographics and they have a breakdown on what age groups listen to what stations,” he told The Times.

But KIIS management says the beach exclusivity idea was a county proposal from the beginning.

“It was their idea, not our idea,” said KIIS vice president and station manager Lynn Anderson-Powell. “We were told, ‘If you want to do this free event, then you’ll have to be the official station and it will cost you money.’ ”

She said the “official” designation is no different from that of ABC as the “official” 1984 Summer Olympics and Statue of Liberty Celebration network. ABC owns KLOS.

Sommers countered that even though ABC was allowed more exclusive broadcast time to cover those two events, other networks were not barred from some Olympic and/or Liberty Weekend coverage.

“If we wanted to cover a beach event other than as a news story, we’d have to cover it from the highway,” he quipped.

Kris Klinger, chief of revenue properties at the beach and harbor department, denied that the county prodded radio stations into a bidding war.

“We asked for proposals,” Klinger said. “It’s not like we asked for $100,000 as a minimum. We (offered) them exclusivity and the right to be the official station. What they responded with was what they felt it was worth to them, and we look at the greatest benefit to the county.” He refused to disclose what KPWR offered in comparison with the $96,000 donation KIIS bid.

With the Los Angeles County beaches operating at an annual shortfall of $9 million, county officials decided three years ago to solicit proposals for “official” beach products. Ideally, county beaches would eventually have an official suntan lotion, newspaper, sunglasses, cars, trucks, clothing and radio station. The county has a five-year agreement with Nissan Motor Corp. making the Japanese pickup trucks the official truck of the county beaches. In exchange for official status, Nissan will supply 37 new vehicles each year for beach-related use, saving the county $250,000 yearly, according to Nissan spokesman William Pauli.

The idea of having an official beach radio station was a spinoff of the lucrative 1984 Summer Olympics, Klinger explained. The Games reaped huge profits by selling exclusive sponsor rights to such firms as Fuji Film, Chrysler and ABC-TV.

But earlier this year, the county’s “official” plans collided with the city’s.

“We were in the throes of working with KPWR (to become the official beach station) in February, and (the) city comes to us and says, ‘We want to put on a Beach Scene and use KIIS,’ ” the county’s Klinger recalled. He said KIIS contacted him about the county’s intentions with KPWR and offered the county more.

He denied that KIIS “outbid” KPWR, but according to one Los Angeles city executive, KPWR was outbid and outgunned by KIIS at the city and, eventually, the county level.

“(Klinger) indicated we would have trouble getting permits to do the events in conjunction with a station other than KPWR,” said Milt Petty, City of Los Angeles director of talent acquisitions for the annual Los Angeles Street Scene (as well the Beach Scene). “We informed KIIS and they got interested in getting that exclusive arrangement, mostly to do the Beach Scene.”

As a result, KIIS wound up with the city’s Beach Scene and also became top contender, along with KPWR, for the county’s “official” designation.

Petty said the city ultimately chose KIIS for the Beach Scene because “KIIS was the leader in the market and had the kind of audience we think might not be as unruly as some of the other stations might bring.”

Last year, KIIS was the most-listened-to radio station in Los Angeles, according to the Arbitron Rating Service. In the most recent quarterly ratings, however, KIIS has dropped to the No. 3 position behind all-talk KABC-AM (790) and KPWR, respectively.

“Frankly, I don’t understand how, with this injunction in place, KIIS could get this Beach Scene and why it wasn’t open for other stations to bid on who may have made a better deal,” said KPWR General Manager Phil Newmark. “KIIS got it without any other station being able to participate.”

KIIS paid no fee to the city beyond the cost of normally required permits, though the station is sharing the cost of production for the weekend.

Sommers said KLOS will pursue the lawsuit beyond Sept. 4 unless the county decides to drop its official beach station proposal.

“If the county board wants to sell (signs), let them do it,” he said. “Why don’t they sell me (signs) in the public park or on their building? I’d love to have my (KLOS) rainbow decal on it.”