RADIO

Soviet radio listeners are increasingly tuning out stations from the West--such as Voice of America and West Germany’s Deutsche Welle--and relying more on their own stations, according to a poll conducted by the Soviet Academy of Sciences and reported by the officials news agency Tass on Wednesday. The poll, undertaken in the western Ukraine, showed only half as many listeners for the foreign stations in 1987 as in 1983. Tass did not report how many people had been interviewed, what techniques the pollsters used or what the margin of error was considered to be. Polling is a relatively new technique in the Soviet Union, and pollsters must overcome the reluctance of many Soviets to give their opinions on sensitive questions.

Due to the holiday season, there will be no Billboard magazine video or album charts this week or next.