RADIO RADIO: With nonprofit KCRW-FM and its...

RADIO RADIO: With nonprofit KCRW-FM and its new commercial rival KSCA-FM aggressively seeking exclusive on-air performances by hot acts, tensions were bound to rise. And guess what: They boiled over when the Dutch band Bettie Serveert canceled a recent KCRW set but went ahead with a KSCA performance later the same day.

KCRW music director and program host Chris Douridas is so angry about it that he’s considering pulling the group’s new album, “Lamprey,” from a planned featured role in the station’s current pledge drive.

Just 90 minutes before the band was supposed to be on “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” Douridas got a call from the group’s manager saying that singer Carol van Dijk was having throat problems and would not be able to do any morning performances. The band offered to do an interview without live music or tape a performance at a later time. Douridas declined both proposals.

“We’d been pushing the appearance since December,” Douridas said. “In the week before the show, Bettie Serveert was our No. 2 most-played record. I felt we were the flagship station for the band.”

Now the band is trying to smooth things over and make it clear that it was not trying to favor one station over the other. In a statement, manager Tom Johnston said he and the group “deeply regret” the situation and expressed gratitude for KCRW’s past support. A rain check performance is being discussed for when the band returns to Los Angeles in March.

“It’s not like KCRW to be involved in these sometimes ridiculous radio war games,” said Douridas, who as of press time had not decided whether the album would be used in the fund drive. “But if we fall victim to those games, it sort of sets the stage for some sort of recourse.”