RADIOHomeless Debate: Activists for the homeless are...

RADIO

Homeless Debate: Activists for the homeless are urging a listener and advertiser boycott of Los Angeles radio station KFI-AM (640) over a remark made by weekend talk show host Emiliano Limon suggesting that the homeless “be put to sleep.” The comment was made a few months ago but only recently brought to the activists’ attention. Protests culminated late last week when Jerry Rubin, director of the Los Angeles Alliance for Survival, was arrested for trespassing after chaining himself to a post outside the station. KFI program director David Hall has said that Limon made the comment as a drastic suggestion for combatting the homeless problem. “He had what turned out to be a very unpopular opinion,” Hall said. “But the station supports his right to have that opinion regardless of its being politically (incorrect).” The activists have asked the station to apologize and are now considering filing a complaint with federal authorities. KFI, meanwhile, has told Limon to volunteer at a homeless shelter.

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Howard’s Roots: Stern-o-philes will have a chance to check out their hero’s early days with the upcoming re-release of an album the shock jock recorded in 1982 while working as a deejay at a Washington radio station. Originally titled “Howeird Stern’s 50 Ways to Rank Your Mother,” the album consists of the same kind of lewd and crude shtick and song parodies that ultimately made him famous. The album was released at the time only through the station and has since been unavailable. The reissue, on the independent label Citizen X, will be in stores Nov. 22.

TELEVISION

Station Switch: After 22 years at KABC-TV Channel 7, one of the station’s best-known and most popular employees, “Doctor” George Fischbeck, is moving to KCBS-TV Channel 2. KCBS News Director Larry Perret called the former weatherman a “Southern California legend” and said he will serve as a special correspondent for Channel 2, working on “special-interest reports and mini-documentaries.”

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Tiptoeing Through Wedding Vows: Halloween doesn’t get much scarier than this: Tiny Tim renewing his wedding vows before a ghastly group of ghouls and groupies at Boston’s Spookyworld horror theme park. The singer’s remarriage Monday to second wife Jan Alweiss was televised on NBC’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno”--an eerie echo of his marriage to first wife Miss Vicki on “Tonight” 25 years ago. The 1969 wedding drew 45 million viewers. Early ratings figures estimated 4.6 million viewing households for Monday’s ceremony. Tiny Tim, 72, the long-haired ukulele player famous for his falsetto rendition of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” originally married his current wife, 26-year-old New York graphic artist Jan Alweiss, in 1984. He confided Monday that the couple has never really lived together and that his heart actually belongs to another woman he called “Miss Sue.” But he said he hoped the ceremony would please “Miss Jan,” since “she loves the limelight.”

POP/ROCK

Legal Rap: Rapper Tupac Shakur must serve at least 10 days in jail and complete 35 hours of community service for threatening a local Michigan rapper with a baseball bat during a concert at Michigan State University last year. Shakur has faced a host of legal troubles recently, including pending sexual assault charges in New York. . . . Meanwhile, a Miami judge has ordered 2 Live Crew leader Luther Campbell to pay $1.6 million to a fellow rapper who said he was shortchanged on royalties from two albums released on Campbell’s label, Luke Records. Peter Jones, known as MC Shy D, said he received less than the agreed-upon 20% of proceeds from “Gotta Be Tough” and “Comin’ Correct in ‘88” because the label overstated expenses and understated album sales. Monday’s judgment includes back royalties, punitive damages and interest in the civil case. In an interview, Campbell blamed the problems on inexperience and said he has hired a new accounting firm to “straighten out” the label’s procedures.

QUICK TAKES

Oscar winning actors Kathy Bates and George C. Scott have joined the cast of “Angus,” producer Dawn Steel’s first project with Turner Pictures Worldwide. The film, scheduled for release next summer, stars newcomer Charles M. Talbert as awkward teen-ager Angus Bethune. . . . Santa Monica’s Highways Performance Space has a pair of new associate artistic directors, both promoted from within the organization. Administrative director Jordan Peimer and performance coordinator Nicole Werner will assume the new positions immediately, replacing Highways’ co-founder Linda Burnham, who left the organization in early 1993.