KTLA TO OFFER BILINGUAL BASEBALL

KTLA Channel 5 will use Friday’s pre-season game between the California Angels and the Los Angeles Dodgers to launch the first full season of Spanish-English major league baseball simulcasts by a United States television station.

All subsequent 48 Angels telecasts will be aired in Spanish and English via a technology that KTLA pioneered nearly three years ago when it began its bilingual broadcasts of “The Love Boat,” “Magnum P.I.” and the weekday editions of “News at Ten.”

KTLA’s bilingual broadcasting system relies on stereo television sets that are capable of dedicating an added audio channel for a separate audio program. By merely pushing a button, specially equipped stereo TV sets can engage the extra audio channel, thereby allowing simultaneous transmission of a program in a second language.

Cos Villa and Ruben Valentin of the Angels Spanish Radio Network will transmit play-by-play coverage to stereo TV sets over AM Spanish-language station XPRS Radio. Villa and Valentin will synchronize their simulcasts with the on-the-screen action by basing their running commentary on KTLA’s Angel video coverage.

“The station likes to be first in the new technologies,” KTLA spokesperson Ed Harrison said Tuesday. “Also, we are providing another service for L.A.’s Hispanic community.”

Allan Schlosser, vice president of Electronic Industries Assn., a Washington-based manufacturer’s group, said that KTLA is indeed a leader in stereo television.

“About 400 stations around the country have stereo broadcast capability,” Schlosser said. “But not too many people have taken advantage of it yet, so (KTLA’s bilingual Angel broadcasts) are a step in the right direction.”

He said about 10% of the TV sets currently in use in the United States have the capability to receive stereo signals, a figure he predicts will increase. “Last year, about 17% of the color TV sets sold in the U.S. had stereo capability,” he said. “This year, we predict that figure to rise to 28%.”