GRAMMY LIKES BIG APPLE, BUT OSCAR STILL LOVES L.A.; NEW YORK CITY EXPECTED TO HOST MUSIC AWARDS FOR 2ND YEAR IN ROW.

Byline: Fred Shuster and Janet Weeks Daily News Staff Writers

Los Angeles has lost Grammy for another year but it still has Oscar to look forward to.

As expected, the 1998 Grammy Awards will take place in New York for the second year in a row, it will be announced Monday in the Big Apple.

Meanwhile, the Academy Awards ceremony will return next year to Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles.

Michael Greene, president and chief executive officer of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, said Thursday he would have no comment until the news conference Monday at New York's City Hall. However, the decision was expected because, on the eve of this year's music awards show in February at Madison Square Garden, officials indicated an agreement had been reached to hold the event in New York for two consecutive years.

Next year's Grammy ceremony, an all-star 40th anniversary extravaganza, will again take place at the Garden, sources said. The awards traditionally are given out the last week in February.

After the 1997 event, Greene declared that New York had been ``the most spectacular experience we ever had, from the mayor to the private sector to everyone in the music industry.''

Cody Cluff, president of the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., a joint city-county group which acts as a liaison for various entertainment events, hinted several months ago that the Grammys would return to New York in 1998.

The location selection is usually the result of a joint decision between the record academy's TV board, led by producer Pierre Cossette, and Greene's group. The show is televised by CBS.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who chairs a Grammy host committee, proclaimed February as Grammy Month in Manhattan. Special events included a free outdoor concert with Michael Bolton and Art Garfunkel, plus a $100,000 grant program to promote music education in schools.

Grammy voter Bob Merlis, head of corporate communications for Warner Bros. Records, said the Garden site ``worked out much better than I thought it would,'' adding that he would like to see the show alternate among various cities, including London and Miami.

``A Miami-based Grammys has some tremendous performance possibilities,'' Merlis said. ``But because I work for a California-based company, I would choose Los Angeles over New York just out of mere convenience.''

The location announcement will be made by Greene and Giuliani.

At the conclusion of the 1996 music awards show at the 6,300-seat Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Greene said the ceremony had outgrown the venue. The Garden, which normally seats 20,000 people, was restructured for about 12,000 guests for the Grammy show.

Los Angeles hosted the Grammys at the Shrine for seven of the past 11 years. Greene has suggested that locales such as Atlanta and Nashville might be considered in the future.

Although Grammy is gone, Oscar will return. After a much-publicized search for a new Academy Awards venue, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will hold the 1998 ceremony again at the Shrine.

Academy members had toured the Orange County Center for Performing Arts and Long Beach's Terrace Theatre, but ultimately decided the cavernous Shrine - where last year's ceremony was staged - is still the best location, says academy spokeswoman Leslie Unger.

``I don't think there's a lot of discussion right now about the possibility of using either of those theaters in the very near future,'' she said. ``When we are at the Shrine we can accommodate just about everyone who wants to go.''

In 1999, the Oscars will likely return to their alternate home at the 3,000-seat Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which is considered more elegant but presents two problems: It's smaller than the Shrine and more difficult to schedule.

There are also plans afoot that could lead to a permanent Oscars home in Hollywood. Developer TrizecHahn Centers is proposing a 3,300-seat, multi-story theater - a permanent Oscar venue - as part of its planned retail/entertainment complex on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, next to Mann's Chinese Theater.

Plans for the project have been submitted to the Community Redevelopment Agency. If approved, it would be completed in time for the Oscars in 2001.