Broadcasters May Move ’94 Convention From L.A.

Officials of the National Assn. of Broadcasters are considering canceling a major convention in Los Angeles because of their concerns about public safety in the city, an official of the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau said Tuesday.

Cancellation of the event for radio broadcasters, scheduled for the Convention Center in September, 1994, would deprive the city of about 8,000 visitors and millions of dollars of revenue. It also would mark the first time since the riots that a national organization changed its plans to hold a convention in Los Angeles, according to Michael Collins, vice president for public affairs for the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“It’s an enormous event,” Collins said of the broadcasters’ planned meeting. “It is a big, big deal. It’s not one we should lose.” He said representatives of the tourist industry in Los Angeles, as well as local members of the broadcasters’ association, were working hard to persuade the group not to cancel.

“A lot of efforts are being made to hold them to their original commitment, and it was a commitment,” Collins said.

The Washington, D.C.-based broadcasters’ association indicated that it was reconsidering last week, Collins said, after reports about a video by a local hotel workers union that focused on crime and violence in the city. The video, sent to about 2,500 groups and associations around the country, blamed the hotel industry in Los Angeles for imposing working conditions on low-wage employees that help breed social unrest and inner-city crime.

Local officials worried that the controversial video would reinforce fears stirred by the riots and lead to a flurry of convention cancellations. So far, that has not happened, Collins said, although several groups have expressed second thoughts about coming to Los Angeles.

Union officials, asked whether their cause was served if groups such as the broadcasters’ association canceled conventions in Los Angeles, said they were more concerned that their message gets out.

“To the extent that the videotape contributes to the awareness that this city has important underlying social issues that must be addressed before it becomes a destination of choice, our members are served,” said Matthew Walker, research staff director of Local 11 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union.

“And to the extent that major employers like the hotels are sensitized to their responsibilities regarding these issues, our members are served,” Walker said.

A spokesmen for the National Assn. of Broadcasters who has seen the video insisted that it played no part in their thinking about whether to come to Los Angeles in 1994.

“I’m fairly certain the purpose (of the video) was to encourage this organization to reconsider plans to hold a convention in L.A.,” said association Vice President Richard Dobson, ‘the assumption being if every association pulled out it would cause hotels to rethink their positions toward workers.

“But it has had no impact on our rethinking.”

Walt Wurfel, a senior vice president for public relations and communications for the association, said that he was unaware of the video and that the group’s misgivings about Los Angeles go beyond the safety issue.

“We had said we were concerned and were looking at other places because of public safety considerations,” Wurfel said. “But I don’t think that sentiment expressed the whole gamut of considerations involved in making a choice.”

According to Wurfel, several factors, including comparative costs in other cities and survey data on cities preferred by association members, contributed to the decision to reconsider Los Angeles.

He said a survey of association members, made in May or June, identified Seattle and San Diego as more popular West Coast destinations.

But Wurfel added: “L.A. isn’t out of the picture. We’re still negotiating with them.”

He said the final decision, which could take a month to reach, would depend partly on “who could give us a better financial deal in terms of charges for the convention facility and for hotel rooms close by.”

Collins said the convention bureau is “always extremely aggressive when we find ourselves in a negotiating posture.”

However, the city is counting on revenue from the hotel-bed tax to retire the convention center’s $480-million debt, which is payable in annual installments of $40 million.

The city’s greatly expanded convention center is supposed to be ready for business in January, 1994, when officials have scheduled the broadcasters’ association, along with about 15 to 17 other national conventions--up from three last year.