RADIOExpanding the Airwaves: American Public Radio announced...

RADIO

Expanding the Airwaves: American Public Radio announced plans Monday to become more international in focus, starting with a name change July 1 to Public Radio International. The Minneapolis-based radio network also plans to develop programs geared to younger and more culturally diverse audiences. The decade-old American Public Radio competes with Washington-based National Public Radio for air time on non-commercial stations. More than 475 stations carry some APR programming each week.

TELEVISION

Gore Tops Communications Summit: Vice President Al Gore will unveil the Clinton Administration’s plans for a “National Information Infrastructure” during a daylong “Superhighway Summit” conference of entertainment industry members Jan. 11 at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Hosted by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the conference will also feature an address by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt and other industry leaders including top Walt Disney executives Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg and ABC President Robert Iger. Gore’s talk will focus on the Administration’s plans to reform the current maze of laws and regulations affecting telecommunications and the opportunities to be provided by the proposed National Information Infrastructure.

CBS Takes More ‘Second Chances’: TV veteran Connie Sellecca has already gotten a second chance with her latest series. After only two outings, the CBS drama, “Second Chances,” has been picked up for an additional 13 episodes, despite lackluster ratings indicating only about 16% of the TV-watching audience has turned in to the show, which has come in third in its time slot on both outings.

POP/ROCK

Havel Remembers Zappa: Czech President Vaclav Havel has fond memories of the late Frank Zappa as an unlikely revolutionary hero for former Czech dissidents. The avant-garde rock musician, who died Dec. 4 of prostate cancer, “was one of the gods of the Czech underground during the 1970s and ‘80s,” Havel writes in the New Yorker’s Dec. 20 issue. After Prague’s Communist government fell, Zappa flew out to meet with those who had worshiped him from afar, Havel recalls. “He jammed with local musicians and paid me a visit in the Castle, and we went out drinking together. He was the first rock celebrity I had ever met, and, to my great delight, he was a normal human being with whom I could carry on a normal conversation.”

MOVIES

MGM Retrospective Set at LACMA: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will honor the upcoming 70th anniversary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in a two-month retrospective beginning Jan. 7. The showcase will recall the era of the “studio system” when MGM’s roster boasted such stars as Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Clark Gable, Lucille Ball, Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner. Featuring 13 double features and three daylong marathons, the 40-film retrospective will feature such films as “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Show Boat,” “Lassie Come Home” and “Mogambo.”

STAGE

Changes in Store for London’s ‘Sunset’: The London production of “Sunset Boulevard” will close for two weeks in March--after star Patti LuPone’s contract runs out--in order to incorporate changes in the show’s score and set that were made for the Los Angeles production, which stars Glenn Close. The show will then continue there with a new star, who is as yet unannounced.

QUICK TAKES

Actress Janet Hubert-Whitten has brought the courts into her feud with actor Will Smith over her dismissal from the NBC series, “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” In a Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed against both NBC and series star Smith, Hubert-Whitten charges Smith became hostile when she got pregnant and later criticized her on talk shows for having a bad attitude. . . . Pop star Tina Turner will perform her greatest hits in “Blockbuster Video Presents: Tina Turner ‘What’s Love?’ Live,” a one-hour TV special featuring concert footage from her current world tour. The special airs Dec. 28 on Fox.