KCET, PBS Top Broadcast-Journalism Awards : Radio, TV: ‘Frontline’ series takes highest duPont prize; Channel 28 noted for reports on medical issues.

“Frontline,” PBS’ news-documentary series, won top honors Thursday in the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for excellence in broadcast journalism. And the major PBS affiliate in Los Angeles, KCET Channel 28, won an award for two reports on medical issues.

News coverage of the Tian An Men Square uprising in China last June dominated the network television prizes, with ABC, CBS and CNN all winning awards for reports on the tumultuous event.

Six of the 12 awards went to programs broadcast on public television or radio stations. Award winners were selected from more than 550 submissions, all of which aired between July 1, 1988, and June 30, 1989.

“Frontline” was awarded the highest honor, the Gold Baton, for five documentaries: “Remember My Lai,” which focused on the continuing impact of the 1968 massacre by Americans of Vietnamese villagers; “The Spy Who Broke the Code,” about the Walker family spy ring; “Who Profits From Drugs?,” about a federal investigation into laundering drug money; “Children of the Night,” which was produced by PBS’ San Francisco affiliate KQED and focused on a boy prostitute in San Francisco; and “The Choice,” which profiled presidential candidates George Bush and Michael Dukakis.

KCET won a Silver Baton for two programs, “Expecting Miracles,” which followed four California couples dealing with the agonies of infertility, and “For the Sake of Appearances,” which investigated cosmetic surgery abuses in Southern California.

“Expecting Miracles,” an hourlong program produced by Nancy Salter, was cited by the judges for its strong emotional impact and presentation of new information, “especially on the causes and treatment of male infertility.” They praised the half-hour “For the Sake of Appearances,” produced by Claudia Bryant, as “first-rate consumer reporting.”

Also winners of Silver Baton awards are: ABC News and Koppel Communications for “The Koppel Report: Tragedy at Tian An Men--The Untold Story”; CBS News for coverage of China on radio and television; CNN for coverage of China; Gardner Films and WETA-TV, Washington, for the PBS broadcast “Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land”; WJXT-TV, Jacksonville, Fla., for “Crack Crisis: A Cry for Action”; WBRZ-TV, Baton Rouge, La., for “The Best Insurance Commissioner Money Can Buy”; Maryland Public Television for “Other Faces of AIDS”; Appalshop (a creative arts workshop in Whitesburg, Ky.), for “On Our Own Land”; Byron Harris and WFAA-TV, Dallas, Tex., for “Other People’s Money,” and National Public Radio for “AIDS and Black America: Breaking the Silence.”