‘TOP OF THE POPS’ SET TO TAKE A SPIN ON U.S. TELLY

“American Bandstand” is older. “The Cutting Edge” is hipper. “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Evening News” is . . . well, where else can you see Eleanor Mondale nearly every week?

But no rock TV program has the mythic stature of “Top of the Pops.” The eminence grise of British rock shows, the BBC-produced program has been on the air every week for 23 years, featuring live and lip-synced performances as well as video clips of the week’s hit groups. The show debuted in January, 1964, with the Rolling Stones being the first on-air performers (the Beatles popped up on week No. 2).

Now the good news is that “Top of the Pops” is finally coming to America. The Entertainment Network, a L.A.-based TV syndication firm, has acquired the rights to air the program here, beginning in April. What’s more, the weekly show will be an hourlong broadcast featuring both the British version as well as a half-hour show taped here at the Roxy.

The U.S. installment will feature performances by “a minimum of three” chart-topping bands, emceed by KROQ-FM deejay April Whitney and co-host Frazer Smith, a deejay at KLSX-FM, explained Drew Levin, president of the Entertainment Network. Levin said the show is “targeted” to air largely on ABC and CBS-TV network affiliate stations, either in late-night fringe (11:30 p.m.) or prime-time access (7:30 p.m.) time periods.

“This is a program that has enormous credibility with the music industry,” Levin said. “Most record companies would cut off their feet to get their groups on this show.”

Although the show is geared toward playing current hits (as opposed to breaking new artists), Levin insisted that he expected few problems with industry fears of overexposure.

“ ‘Top of the Pops’ has been the foremost opportunity to debut a group’s new No. 1 single for years,” he said. “So we don’t see it as overexposure, but as key exposure. The exciting thing is that this isn’t a video-clip program, so MTV, by-by. It’s all live performances.”

Levin stressed that the program will “be fresh” every week. “We send our script with the new U.S. chart figures over to London via satellite and then the BBC sends us the English charts right back. So what you’ll get is a live satellite hookup with London, with our hosts throwing the show back to them with live performances and the late-breaking American chart news.”

The show will also feature a “retrospective” segment, featuring classic performances culled from more than 1,000 available taped programs.

Levin said his firm has built a “massive” “Top of the Pops” set here that will match the ones on the British version of the show. He added that “Top” charts will be available to local U.S. radio outlets so they can air a radio version of the show that will “cross-promote” the video enterprise.

Over the years, many bands, ranging from Led Zeppelin to the Sex Pistols, have made headlines for refusing to appear on the tradition-bound “Tops of the Pops,” which banned not one, but two Rolling Stones videos--1983’s “Undercover of the Night” and 1966’s “We Love You,” a clip satirizing a Stones drug bust that featured Mick Jagger as Oscar Wilde, Marianne Faithfull as Lord Alfred Douglas and Keith Richard as the Marquis of Queensberry.

In its stateside debut, Levin said the show is being sold for a 26-week commitment and already has “clearances” in about 90 local TV markets. (A Los Angeles outlet has yet to be chosen.)

Levin said the Entertainment Network, which also syndicates a British rock TV series called “The Tube” as well as the International British Record Industry Awards, had been in negotiations for the rights to “Top” for nearly three years. “They were very cautious about getting involved over here,” he said. “But we finally convinced the British record industry to agree to give us the music performing rights, which was a major stumbling block.

“Now I think we’ve got a real mouthful--you can’t ask for more music in one hour.”