THE MAY RATINGS SWEEPS : KABC News Makes Big Gain on KNBC in Local Competition : Television: Increases may eventually be for naught: The total news audience continues to dwindle.

Despite falling out of first place in the local news ratings more than a year ago, KABC Channel 7 has continued to dub itself “the Southland’s leading news.” Now that the results from this month’s ratings sweeps are in, such bragging is justifiable.

According to figures released Thursday by the A. C. Nielsen Co., KABC soundly beat KNBC Channel 4, which had been a strong first in news for the past year and a half, at 4 and 5 p.m. and finished a statistically insignificant second at 6 p.m.

KNBC, having lost its longtime news director Tom Capra to the parent network’s “Today” show last January, managed to retain a wide lead at 11 p.m., but even that margin was only half of what it had been a year ago.

In fact, Channel 4’s ratings for all of its newscasts plunged this month compared to what they were last May. Its 5 p.m. newscast, anchored by Jess Marlow and Colleen Williams, was down nearly 85,000 households from a year ago, while the 6 p.m. newscast, with Kelly Lange and Keith Morrison, was about 65,000 lower than last May.

A separate audience measurement conducted by the Arbitron ratings service showed KNBC continuing to hold a small lead in all afternoon and evening news time periods. Ironically, Channel 4 is the only local VHF station that refuses to subscribe to Arbitron because the station’s management has doubts about the accuracy of the company’s reports.

KCBS Channel 2 again trailed its rivals in all news time periods but, buoyed by an especially strong prime-time showing for CBS, the station’s 11 p.m. newscast was the only one of the three to gain viewers over a year ago. And thanks to Channel 4’s precipitous decline at 5 p.m., Channel 2 was within striking distance of second place in that time period for the first time in five years, despite drawing about 14,000 fewer households than last May.

The total news audience for the three network-owned stations dwindled again this month as it has for much of the past year; the cumulative audience at the three stations declined in all but one of the afternoon and evening news time periods. The local audience for the three nightly network newscasts was also down about 88,000 households from a year ago, to 824,000.

Competition from the four independent stations again sliced into the network-owned stations’ news audience. Reruns of “Hunter” on KTLA Channel 5 dominated the 6-7 p.m. period, beating local news and national news on the network-owned stations and sitcoms on KCAL Channel 9, KTTV Channel 11 and KCOP Channel 13.

And, as if to prove that younger viewers control the television sets in the afternoon and early evening, “Small Wonder” and “Mr. Belvedere,” considered by many critics two of TV’s silliest sitcoms, won the 5-6 p.m. time period for KTTV Channel 11, according to Arbitron.

Another reason for the decline in news ratings might be the growing strength of Spanish-language stations. KMEX Channel 34’s audience from 9 a.m. to midnight, as measured by Arbitron, grew 40% over last year to an average of more than 103,000 homes. The station’s 6 p.m. newscast registered a 2.9 rating, beating not only rival Spanish station KVEA Channel 52’s 1.4 mark but also outdrawing the English-language evening newscasts on Channels 9, 11 and 13.

Meanwhile, KCAL’s three-hour prime-time newscast failed to have much of an impact on the audience during its first sweeps--one of four annual ratings periods that help determine advertising rates. Channel 9 finished last for all three hours, attracting on average only 123,000 of the 4.9 million television households in the Los Angeles market. Reruns of Angie Dickinson’s “Police Woman” drew the same-sized audience last May as this month’s newscast.

In other sweeps highs and lows (using Nielsen numbers, unless otherwise indicated, with each rating point equaling 49,315 homes):

Oprah Is Just Too Big: “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on KABC once again crushed all competitors in the afternoon talk wars, recording a 7.3 rating at 3 p.m. against “Donahue’s” 4.8 on KNBC and “Joan Rivers’ ” 2.2 on KCBS. “Geraldo” at 4 p.m. on KCBS earned a 5.1 mark, while “Sally Jessy Raphael” at 2 p.m. on KCAL registered a 3.3.

Sitcom Sadness: Repeats of expensive network sitcoms in the early evening are still struggling on the independents. “Growing Pains” on KCOP at 6:30 p.m. scored the highest rating among them to finish second to “Hunter” in the time period, but no other sitcom, including “The Cosby Show” and “Night Court” on KCOP or “Who’s the Boss?” on KCAL, could manage better than third in its respective time period. Station executives claim, however, that even with lower total household ratings, these sitcoms bring in a disproportionate share of the available advertising revenue because they appeal to a young audience for which sponsors are willing to pay a premium.

That’s Entertainment: “Entertainment Tonight” on KNBC rolled to first place in the ultra-competitive 7 p.m. time slot, beating longtime champ “Wheel of Fortune” on Channel 2. KCOP’s “Cosby” was a close third, “Love Connection” on KCAL was fourth, ABC’s “World News Tonight” fifth, “Charles in Charge” on Channel 5 came in sixth and KTTV’s “MASH” was last.

Who Is on Top?: “Jeopardy” on Channel 2 again prevailed at 7:30 p.m. with a 9.2 rating, the highest mark for any non-prime-time program. “Hard Copy” on Channel 4 was second, followed by “A Current Affair” on Channel 11, “Who’s the Boss?” on Channel 9, “Night Court” on Channel 13 and Channel 7’s former ratings king, “Eye on L.A.,” which is likely to be phased out by the fall. KTLA’s checkerboard of sitcoms finished last.

Independent News: Even without its longtime news director, Jeff Wald, KTLA again wiped out all competitors in the 10 p.m. news race. KTLA scored a 5.1 rating, followed by KTTV with a 2.8 mark. KCOP, Wald’s current station, was third with a 2.4, while KCAL brought up the rear at 10 p.m. with a 2 rating.