FIRST OFF . . .

Los Angeles public station KCET-TV Channel 28 has dropped its two-week-old on-air pleas for viewers to protest cable-TV systems moving the station from lower to higher numbered channel positions, the station said Wednesday. Seventeen Southern California cable systems, including the Century/Southwest Cable system serving the Westside, have agreed to keep KCET on a low-numbered channel. Systems serving Glendale-Burbank, Santa Barbara, Ventura County and portions of Orange County also have agreed to keep KCET on low channels, the station said. During the two weeks of announcements the station received about 2,000 calls from the public and, said a spokesman, a “heavy volume of mail” supporting its side of the dispute with area cable operators.