FIRST OFF . . .

TV news crews competed with avid Michael Jackson fans Monday for access to the pop star’s new album, “Bad.” Reports from record stores around the country--Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York--indicated that the new LP, Jackson’s first since 1982’s mega-platinum “Thriller,” was selling briskly but not overwhelmingly. “It’s doing OK,” deadpanned a clerk at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. “TV news crews keep clogging up the aisles, though.” San Francisco’s Tower: “We got ours in at 8 a.m., started selling them at 8:30, and they’ve been flying out since. Compact discs are especially doing well.” Rose Records in Chicago: “Big-time sales. Sold 300 units (tapes, LPs and CDs) already, easy.” Tower in New York: “It’s not pretty. We’d be selling more if people weren’t frightened off by the crowds and all the TV cameras.” An Epic Records spokesman said Monday that its first shipment to retailers consisted of more than 1 million copies of the album.