Radio Broadcasting

The 80th season of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, announced Thursday, will be marked by the inauguration of "The Surprising Century," a two-year millennial project celebrating the diversity of 20th century music; by a notable increase in American offerings; and by the second and third installments of the orchestra's "Filmharmonic" project.

The Korea Times, whose suit against Los Angeles journalist Richard Choi led to his recent arrest in Seoul, said Choi intentionally broadcast a radio story that "caused irreparable damage" to the newspaper's parent company. Choi, a news anchor for Radio Korea, KBLA-AM (1580), was arrested Dec. 19 after he broadcast a story to Los Angeles about how South Korean media companies have been hurt by that country's recent economic crisis.

In an unusual and cheery holiday departure, the Orange Coast College theater department takes audiences back to the glory days of radio in "The Lutz Radio Theatre Holiday Show of 1947." Radio was probably never this helter-skelter, but director Alex Golson and his cast nicely capture the atmosphere. The show was first done a decade ago, and the script--by Golson and the casts of both this production and the 1987 one--is inventive and often very funny.

Hy Averback, a versatile actor, director, announcer and producer whose credits spanned the golden years of radio and television, is dead. The onetime announcer for Bob Hope and Jack Paar and producer/director on "MASH," "F Troop" and many other TV shows was 76. He died Oct. 14 after open-heart surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Longtime Lancaster radio personality Lester Hayworth died Saturday at his home in Oxnard after a lengthy illness. He was 79. Hayworth was born Feb. 27, 1918, in Gothenburg, Neb. In the mid-1930s, he joined the Navy. When his tour was up in 1940, he moved to Los Angeles, where he met his future wife, Mae. They planned to be married Dec. 7, 1941, in Las Vegas, but their plans were put on hold briefly by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. "Everything that day just kind of went kooky . . .

Bowing to intense diplomatic pressure, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic allowed Belgrade's last independent radio stations to resume broadcasting Thursday and appeared to be moving toward other concessions to defuse nearly three weeks of unrelenting protest.

Los Angeles radio station Star 98.7 (KYSR) is planning to pioneer a new kind of radio broadcasting that sends music not to stereo receivers but to personal computers. This spring, the Viacom Radio unit will begin testing on a technology called Interactive Dynamic Virtual Media--or IDVMedia--that makes it possible for PCs to receive huge streams of data over the radio airwaves. Full implementation is scheduled for next fall.

Joining together for the last time before the special election Tuesday, the Thousand Oaks City Council candidates will debate in a radio broadcast on KNJO-FM Sunday morning. Councilman Andy Fox will host the hourlong broadcast from 9 to 10 a.m. Fox said all five candidates have agreed to participate. KNJO airs at 92.7 FM in Thousand Oaks.