MTA TO PULL BOSOMY BUS AD : PROMOTION PROVES TOO MUCH TO BEAR.

Byline: Anne Burke Daily News Staff Writer

Los Angeles may celebrate the enhanced cleavage like no other city, but the MTA says a certain bosomy blonde has gone too far.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is yanking from 600 buses a sports radio station's ad that features a woman's bikini-clad chest flanked by ``Fake Left'' and ``Fake Right.''

Before the bus placards went up, the radio station agreed to appease MTA censors by covering up the provocative areas with plastic black strips. The problem is that someone has been peeling off the strips, exposing the more immodest version of the ad on perhaps dozens of buses, if not hundreds.

The MTA is removing the ads - bought by XTRA-AM (1150) - as quickly as possible, but it could be several more days before they're completely gone, according to spokesman Rick Jager.

Los Angeles is hardly bashful about the bust line. After all, the city is home to Frederick's of Hollywood, the annual parade of plunging necklines at the Oscars, and the buxomy Angelyne, who looms larger-than-life from freeway billboards.

Even the MTA, which operates 2,100 buses in Los Angeles County, regularly features scantily clad movie stars and models on bus sides.

But Warren Morse, MTA marketing director, said that the XTRA ad and its football jargon-breast augmentation double entendre pushed the boundaries of good taste.

``I surveyed a number of people in our communications department to get their reactions to it,'' Morse said. ``The majority of people felt it could be seen as derogatory to women.''

Morse said the MTA, a public agency, holds itself to tighter standards than the private advertising industry.

``Our buses reach a very wide audience - children, senior citizens. It is not a narrow advertising medium.''

The MTA had one call about the ads - from 11th District Councilman Marvin Braude's office, passing along a complaint from a constituent.

``She's a feminist and she thought this was . . . degrading and insulting,'' said Braude deputy Judith Hirshberg.

Roy Laughlin, general manager at XTRA and sister station KIIS-FM (102.7), said he doesn't understand MTA's squeamishness.

``It's nothing you don't see at the Oscars,'' he said.

The radio station bought the $300,000 ``Fake Left, Fake Right'' campaign to help launch XTRA, which went on the air March 10 and targets 18- to 34-year-old males.

Laughlin said he had no idea who was pulling off the black strips, which are 3 feet long.

Morse said few bus ads are rejected; recent exceptions include a presidential campaign ad featuring President Clinton and Bob Dole as kewpie dolls.

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PHOTO After attempts to cover bus ads for a radio station with black tape failed, transportation officials decided to recall the signs.

Hans Gutknecht/Daily News