Radio Station Will Restrict Political Ads : Campaigning: KFI will take advantage of a change in FCC rules and not sell time to state and local candidates. Those running for office and consultants fear that other outlets may follow the lead.

By PAUL FELDMAN

March 16, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

On KFI-AM in Los Angeles, hormone-happy talk show hosts lead discussions on such stimulating subjects as “Men You Took From Another Woman” and “Pet Nicknames for Lovers.” Listeners of the popular radio station can also hear ultraconservative talkmeister Rush Limbaugh exhort his minions to vote for Patrick J. Buchanan for the Republican presidential nomination.

But when it comes to paid political ads from candidates for state and local offices, forget it.

There will be none this spring. Zilch. Instead, said station general manager Howard Neal, candidates for such posts as state senator, district attorney and county supervisor will be offered a single shot to appear on the airwaves on a series of weekend political forums.

In taking the unprecedented action, which has enraged Southland candidates and political consultants, Neal said his 50,000-watt station is taking advantage of a Federal Communications Commission decision last December that radio and TV broadcasters no longer have an obligation to sell advertising time to state and local candidates.

For three decades, the FCC had demanded that stations accept at least some such commercials to help fulfill their public service obligations. The FCC still requires broadcasters to price the pre-election ads they do accept at a rate lower than for the average commercial customer.

Southland political observers say the situation is alarming, especially for political challengers who must increase their name identification in order to stand a chance against incumbents. With relatively low ad rates compared to broadcast TV, talk and all-news radio stations have for decades been a popular format to reach likely voters.

While some candidates may switch to cable TV or other radio stations, political consultants say cable ads are less certain to hit broad audiences. They also fear that other radio stations will follow in the footsteps of KFI, the area’s fifth-highest-rated AM station, with a clear-channel signal that at night can be heard across California and beyond.

Already, all-news KNX-AM, the third-ranked AM station in Los Angeles, has announced that it will take no commercials from candidates for state legislative and Superior Court judgeship posts during the spring election season.

And KABC-TV said it will not sell prime-time advertising spots to even the most moneyed state and local candidates willing to pay for them.

Radio and TV broadcasters, who are still required by the FCC to accept ads from presidential and congressional candidates, say they may be inundated by four hotly contested U.S. Senate primaries and two possibly vituperative to the airwaves and I am barred from them,” said O’Neill, a relatively little-known Los Angeles businesswoman locked in a three-way election battle with incumbent Herschel Rosenthal and Assemblyman Tom Hayden. “To allow radio stations the right to selectively block local and state campaigns actually favors incumbent candidates . . . already known in the communities they represent.”

a high number of officials all needing access to the same airwaves,” Hamilton said. “But it seems to me if you take the major means that most people receive communications about anything and limit something as important as who is your county supervisor, it’s flying in the face of democracy.”

On the other hand, Doug Wills, spokesman for the National Assn. of Broadcasters, countered that political ads generally “don’t do a whole lot to add to the debate and to inform the public.”

While KFI and KNX, because of their high ratings and formats, are viewed as particularly potent political advertising media, not all stations of their ilk have adopted such stringent policies.

KABC-AM, the top-rated AM station in Los Angeles in the latest Arbitron audience survey, will take as many state and local political ads as it has room for in its schedule, said general sales manager Dina Silverman.

All-news station KFWB-AM said it will accept ads for major state and local races except for those involving Los Angeles County judgeships.

Although there are 82 Superior Court elections scheduled in June, only one is contested. That is the four-way race involving Superior Court Judge Joyce A. Karlin, the target of a recall campaign for her controversial probation sentence for a Korean-born grocer convicted of killing a black teen-ager.

“The L.A. Superior Court has a constituency larger than 88 members of the U.S. Senate,” said Karlin’s consultant, Joseph Cerrell. “Who is (a radio station) to tell me whether I can buy time or not when I have cash green?”

Few legislative and local candidates are expected to consider advertising on the major TV stations because of the prohibitive cost.

But Tanenbaum, who has made inquiries, has yet to receive answers from KNBC and KCBS and has been told by KABC-TV that his advertising hours will be limited to daytime or the early news.

“On our air, there are two shows the politicians want to buy in spades--’PrimeTime Live’ and ‘20/20,’ ” said KABC-TV account executive Bill McGuire. “Look at what’s available . . . six 30-second spots to sell in each.

“You have 12 candidates for U.S. Senate, so right away you see the arithmetic.”