NASDAQ PLANS TO OFFER EARFUL; EARNINGS REPORTS MAY GO ONLINE.

Byline: Deborah Adamson Daily News Staff Writer

Talk about access.

Starting in January, investors can listen to earnings conference calls on the Internet from some or all of the top 100 companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Nasdaq is kicking off a pilot program that will allow investors to listen to broadcasts live or replayed at www.broadcast.com or www.nasdaq-amex.com.

Investors will be able to listen for free to management's discussion of earnings and the company's outlook that historically were made available only to analysts and institutional investors. That means small investors won't have to just rely on analysts to interpret earnings. They can make up their own minds.

``It's somewhat of a watershed event,'' said Sherry Manno, spokeswoman for Broadcast.com in Dallas. ``It's leveling the playing field for all investors.''

Nasdaq hopes its top 100 companies will join the voluntary program. There's considerable interest thus far, officials said, but Nasdaq still has to get firm commitments from the companies. Nasdaq is paying the program's fees for a year.

``This is new ground,'' said Susan Arthur, director of interactive services at Nasdaq. ``It's a new medium for companies to reach a broad audience.''

Broadcast.com, an Internet site that airs free radio and video spots, said it has been putting on earnings conference calls even before the Nasdaq program.

Microsoft, Yahoo!, America Online, Nike, Dell and Motorola are some companies that conduct conference calls on the site. It also replays shareholders meetings of IBM, AT&T and other businesses, as well as the NationsBank-BankAmerica merger press conference.

Local companies on the Nasdaq 100 Index include biotechnology firm Amgen in Thousand Oaks and Vitesse Semiconductor in Camarillo. Amgen said it hasn't joined the program, but that later on the situation might change.

By letting investors directly listen to, but not participate in, the calls themselves, they bypass any spin that analysts might put on it, said Bob O'Hara, vice president of development at the National Association of Investors Corp., an investment club association in Madison Heights, Mich.

It also gives the information to individual investors at the same time analysts get it. In fact, Securities and Exchange Commission officials recently said analyst-only earnings conference calls could be interpreted as illegal since companies are required to fully disclose any material issues that could affect the value of their shares.