TALE OF THE TAPE\History of TV, radio's growth comes alive at new museum that gives\Southland its due.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Staff Writer

Beginning March 18, visitors to the city's newest cultural addition - the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills - will be able to plop down in a comfy chair and hear the evolution of rock 'n' roll radio from Alan Freed to the rise of the alternative-rock format.

Not to mention make up a personal exhibit of favorite episodes of "The Lucy Show" and then catch Buddy Holly and Sam Cooke in a 1957 appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Or perhaps listen to the chilling radio flash announcing the attack on Pearl Harbor.

If the 20-year-old New York branch is any indication, this museum is going to be busy from opening to closing each day. Where else can you trace the history of stand-up comedy on TV, or see actual costumes, makeup and masks from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager"?

Wait a sec. A museum devoted to radio and TV?

Does that also mean stuff like "The Rifleman's" modified Winchester hanging on the wall? A model of the psychedelic bus from "The Partridge Family"? An exhibit where you pull a string and hear Wolfman Jack howl?

It's much better than that.

The large, sunny facility, located on the corner of North Beverly Drive and Little Santa Monica Boulevard at the former site of a bank and the Rangoon Racket Club, is a high-tech miracle for anyone interested in the broadcast medium.

"The spoken word finally has a home," said veteran morning radio personality Rick Dees.

The $14 million, privately funded Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) boasts a collection of 75,000 programs covering more than 70 years of TV and radio history, including news, public affairs programming, documentaries, arts programs, children's shows, sports, sitcoms, variety shows and commercial advertising.

And it's all available to the public.

"This is something that's long been needed," said Dr. Kenneth Portnoy, a professor of scriptwriting in the Radio-Television-Film department at California State University, Northridge. "It's a good resource for students and a step toward collecting and keeping a vital part of our history for posterity."

The museum should be treated like a public library, said Robert Batscha, president of the MT&R.

That means anyone can come in and request a program from the collection and privately watch or listen to their selections at radio and TV consoles. Theaters and screening rooms will be open for screenings, seminars and educational workshops. And a state-of-the-art, glass-enclosed broadcast booth will allow radio shows from around the world to broadcast live from the museum.

"It's really great fun and a true educational resource," said nationally syndicated talk host Tom Leykis, who is heard locally on KMPC-AM (710). "Radio is an underrated medium because everything we do evaporates into thin air. Plus, because you get it for free, radio is dramatically undervalued. What these museums do well is develop and catalog a collection of broadcasts by people who are great at this medium, whether it's Larry Lujack (of Chicago radio) or (veteran New York broadcaster) Don Imus - many of the people who are so good at radio you may not have heard because they're in other cities or from another era."

Leykis, who has visited both the New York branch of the MT&R and the Radio Hall of Fame museum in Chicago, said he was looking forward to broadcasting his show from the Beverly Hills location at some point.

The New York branch boasts at least 150,000 annual visitors, with more expected at the Los Angeles location.

"You won't find any dusty antique radios and TVs here," joked museum trustee Norm Pattiz, founder and chairman of Westwood One Cos., the nation's largest distributor of radio programming. "Maybe a few old broadcasters, though."

Designed by Getty Museum architect Richard Meier, the 23,000-square-foot building features a three-story skylit rotunda lobby with an information center (where eight video monitors give patrons an idea of what's going on at the museum that day) and gift shop. That space opens onto several adjoining areas, including the main gallery, a smaller circular gallery, the 150-seat theater, radio studio, the 40-seat radio listening room and all-purpose education room.

A ramp leads from the lobby to the second floor, where the library, console center with electronic viewing carrels designed for families or individuals, private scholars' room and a second circular gallery are located.

A roof garden looking out at the Hollywood Hills is on the third level, accessible by staircase from the second floor.

Beneath the MT&R is a 65-space parking lot, with more parking available across North Beverly Drive. The entire facility, which is funded by networks, studios and individuals, is wheelchair accessible.

"This museum will not only help the public understand the creative process behind radio and TV production, but I predict it will become a major research facility for scholars and professionals to see where the medium has been and where it's going," Pattiz said. "This isn't a museum of the past with a lot of old archives hanging on the wall. This facility represents the past, present and future."

For example, a visitor might choose to watch Madonna's appearance on "Nightline" from a few years ago, followed by excerpts from the very first charity telethon, a 16-hour affair hosted by Milton Berle in 1949 that included cameos from Jackie Coogan, Jack Dempsey, Sid Caesar and Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and then go on to trace Howard Stern's career from a tiny station in Detroit to NBC Radio to his current syndicated home at New York's WXRK-FM.

The museum's first series of exhibits, beginning on opening day March 18, will include "Stand-Up Comedians on Television," a history of the century's great stand-up comedy entertainers on TV; "Witness to History," how the electronic media covered historical events; "Rock 'n' Roll and Radio," the relationship between rock music and radio; "An International Children's Television Festival," a six-month screening series of children's programming from around the world; "Star Trek: The Tradition Continues ..." a gallery exhibit of costumes, makeup and masks from "The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager"; and "Hirschfeld: Radio and Television Drawings," a gallery exhibit of the artist's work relating to radio and TV.

In the fall, a series of educational programs for local students will take place in the early hours before the museum opens to the public.

Along with tapes of radio programs, TV shows and commercials, the MT&R - which employs 20 people - offers 50 years of related newspaper and magazine clippings on microfiche.

Annual museum memberships are available at $50 or $125. The higher rate includes the privilege of reserving screening carrels in advance. General admission is a suggested $6, which allows two hours of screening time. Members get three hours.

"From the radio standpoint, it's especially fitting that the museum is in L.A., since the city is the No. 1 revenue-generating market in the country and (by extension) the world," Westwood One's Pattiz said. "L.A. will become much more aware of the importance of radio (because of the MT&R)."

Pattiz went on to say that radio would be close to a $12 billion business this year, more than movie box office and the music business generates.

"People in Southern California don't always realize the importance of radio and take it for granted," he said. "With almost $12 billion in revenue expected, clearly, this business isn't chopped liver."

Pattiz said the study of the growth of radio is valuable because it portends the future of television.

"Radio is actually the prototype of much of today's media," he said. "It had to develop narrowcasting in the face of assault from television at the beginning. Now, most media is much more like radio than any other medium. TV is going in that direction, too.

"In five years, we'll have 500 channels and smaller audiences for each one, just like all the radio formats today."

THE FACTS

What: The Museum of Television & Radio (opens March 18).

Where: 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills.

When: Noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays.

Admission: $6 suggested donation.

Information: [phone].

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PHOTO

Photo (1--5--Cover--Color) STARS AND STRIDES New Museum of Television & Radio looks back at progress (6) George Burns and Gracie Allen took their vaudeville act to radio, then television as each medium developed. (7) Visitors to the Beverly Hills museum can dip into the history of sitcoms, perhaps beginning with "The Honeymooners." (8) "Radio is an underrated medium because everything we do evaporates into thin air," says radio personality Tom Leykis, who plans to broadcast his syndicated show from the new museum. (9) Museum archives show how history has been affected by radio and television through examples such as President Nixon's resignation on Aug. 8, 1974. (10) Through the power of television, America's consciousness is embedded with the image of John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting the casket of his assassinated father after President Kennedy's funeral Mass in November 1963. (11) One of the museum's exhibits features costumes, makeup and masks from the syndicated "Star Trek" series. (12) Museum of Television & Radio president Robert Batscha checks out one of the facility's screening rooms. (13) Visiting media get a tour of the museum library's state-of-the-art electronic viewing carrels. (14) Workers put finishing touches on a bank of monitors at the museum, which was built with private funding. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News