SWEPT AWAY

Forget Iranscam and RTD buses--our TV news here this month will get down to the bare essential. Meaning, sweeps time is here again, with intensive ratings assessment under way and ad rates on the line . . .

KNBC’s February theme is “Find your paradise on Channel 4 News,” which promises the opportunity to “break away to the most exotic and erotic spots on Earth . . . every day.”

On Wednesday, Channel 7’s Eyewitness News will offer sportscaster Ted Dawson’s report on the pompon girls of L.A. sports teams. Promotion invites us to “Meet the ladies who make L.A’s sporting events more exciting than what’s on the field”--with a cartoon of football players leering at a cheerleader through binoculars.

Same night: Ann Martin will explore the provocative question, “What happens to women who hit the skids?” No, not housewife prostitution--actually a look at how single mothers and divorces cope with homelessness.

And tomorrow’s “Eye on L.A.” will tempt with a visit to Jamaica as “the tropics just get hotter.” Ad for this one shows a male native handing a towel to a luscious blonde who appears to have mislaid her bikini top. Features on Guadeloupe and the Florida Keys (“sun-drenched islands of romance and legend”) follows later in the week.

Channel 2 News looks more serious with reporter Tom Vacar’s five-part consumer report on contaminated poultry.

Well, KCBS will still toss some titillation with “Love at Work,” featuring Paula Zahn “on what happens when people mix pleasure with business.” And on Thursday, “2 on the Town” will give us “Bikini II--The Saga Continues,” billed as “the most provocative eye-popping swimwear celebration ever.”

And this week’s “Friday at Sunset” presents “Cupid Does L.A.--Romancing Your Sweetie,” in which Howard Stevens takes a look at “intimate dining, outrageous love toys and sexy surprises.”