CRISIS IN THE PERSIAN GULF : 1-Day Boycott of Gasoline Purchases Urged

A Southland radio station has begun urging radio broadcasters in other parts of the country to ask listeners to boycott gas stations on Thursday to protest price rises.

KGGI-FM in Riverside is asking consumers to purchase gas any day this week except Thursday and to show support for the protest by driving with their headlights on. The boycott is designed to signal opposition to the increases in gasoline prices following Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait.

The local campaign was launched by Jeff Dean and Jim Daniels on “Breakfast Club,” a KGGI morning program featuring Top 40 pop hits. However, the protest was expanded when the station’s general manager relayed news of the campaign to La Jolla-based New World Communications, KGGI’s programming consultant. Cliff Berkowitz, vice president of marketing and promotions at New World, then contacted radio station clients in various parts of the country in an effort to rally support for the boycott campaign.

Dean and Daniels “have said that the oil companies will use any excuse to raise prices,” Berkowitz said.

Berkowitz said 14 stations agreed to promote the boycott. Those stations, in turn, began to contact other radio broadcasters.

“Stations in San Francisco, Atlanta, Orlando, Charlotte, Houston and San Antonio are picking up on this,” Berkowitz said. “Probably 50 stations are participating by now. . . . Locally, people are really getting behind this.”

However, some radio program hosts are critical of the campaign.

“I think it’s a stupid idea,” said Tom Leykis, a talk show host on KFI-AM in Los Angeles. “I think it’s opportunistic, and I think it will accomplish absolutely nothing.”