CAPITOL HILL HEARINGS TO AIR LIVE

What promises to be the most eagerly anticipated set of Capitol Hill hearings since the Watergate crisis of 1974 will be broadcast live beginning at 5:30 a.m. Monday over Los Angeles radio and television.

National Public Radio affiliates KCRW-FM (89.9) and KPCC-FM (89.3) will carry gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House Foreign Affairs committee’s hearings on the Iran arms/ contra funds deal. First witness scheduled to appear before the committee, chaired by Rep. Dante B. Fascell (D-Fla.), will be Secretary of State George Shultz.

Former National Security Advisers Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter are scheduled to testify on Tuesday, though it remains unclear whether their testimony will be heard in open or closed session.

CIA Director William Casey is scheduled to testify Wednesday, but those hearings will probably be closed to the public.

Both the Cable News Network and C-SPAN will also carry the public portion of the hearings live, but the major commercial networks and Los Angeles’ all-news radio stations had not made a commitment as of Wednesday to broadcast the proceedings live.

“We’re not going to break format, though we may join them in progress,” said KFWB-AM (980) news director Bill Yeager.

Spokesmen for ABC, CBS and NBC indicated that both their radio and television news network coverage of the hearings will probably be handled the same way: with alerts, spot coverage or in-progress updates.

KCRW General Manager Ruth Hirschman said the only problem in live coverage will be that most Southern Californians will not rise early enough to hear the morning testimony. Because of the three-hour time difference between Los Angeles and Washington, Rep. Fascell will be adjourning for lunch just as many Los Angeles commuters are driving to work.

During the hearings, NPR’s morning news program “Morning Edition” will be preempted on both KCRW and KPCC.