CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : ANAHEIM : Meeting Planned on Phony ‘Hot Line’

An Anaheim businessman and the head of Spanish-language television station KVEA in Glendale agreed Friday to meet early next week in an effort to settle a dispute and end a phony “Turn In an Illegal Alien” hot line that the businessman said he set up as revenge against the station. Businessman Bruce Derflinger said he also planned to meet with local Latino leaders who were outraged this week when they learned that an anonymous Spanish-language hot line was offering rewards to those who turned in undocumented residents. Derflinger said the hot line--a telephone number for one of his former businesses in the 714 area code--was not racially motivated, but an attempt to create a backlash against the station, which ran a contest using the same number in the 213 and 818 area codes. TV viewers in Orange County jammed Derflinger’s line, he said. Because of the station’s refusal to change its number or address his concerns, Derflinger said, his customers were unable to reach him and he went out of business in early 1990.