Latinos Protest at ABC Stations : Television: Nearly 100 picketers walk outside Channel 7 as part of a nationwide strategy for more prime-time representation.

With loud chants of “ABC, you lied” and “ABC discriminates,” nearly 100 Latinos picketed KABC-TV Channel 7 Wednesday, protesting what they called failed promises by parent company ABC to put more Latinos on the network.

The protesters, who included several young children, marched peacefully in front of the Los Feliz-area studio for about two hours while security guards and station officials looked on quietly.

Leaders of the protest said similar marches were taking place simultaneously at ABC affiliates and owned-and-operated stations in New York, Chicago, Houston and Fresno. Among the organizers were the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Alex Nogales, chairman of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, said the marches were the first concrete step in taking action against ABC, as a coalition of prominent Latino groups decided to do during a two-day summit last January. Protest leaders have charged that Capital Cities/ABC President Robert Iger did not follow through on a promise they said he made to the National Hispanic Media Coalition in June, 1993, to put a Latino-themed show on the schedule by the fall of 1994 and to include more positive portrayals of Latinos in prime-time programs.

In addition to the national picketing, group leaders said they are asking television viewers to not watch ABC programs on May 5, National Hispanic Unity Day. And they added that they have already contacted major advertisers on ABC to persuade them to pressure the network to put more Latinos in prime time.

“We’re going to affect their bottom line,” Nogales said Wednesday as marchers shouted near him. “We’re going to use our consumer power to show these large entities that they cannot ignore us anymore.”

ABC executives on Wednesday continued to deny that Iger had made a specific commitment or had given a definite deadline to the coalition. They added that they have several pending projects featuring Latino performers and themes.

“We agree with the coalition that there should be greater representation on network television in prime time, and we are taking several specific steps to enhance the roles of Latinos both in front of and behind the camera,” an ABC spokesman said.

One of those measures, he said, is a newly signed agreement with the Latino committee of the Writers Guild of America in which the network will employ Latino scriptwriters.

Since the 1993 meeting with Iger, no Latino-themed series have appeared on ABC, the coalition said, charging that the only Latinos in prominent roles on ABC this season were Jimmy Smits of “NYPD Blue,” Theresa Saldana of “The Commish” and Wilson Cruz of “My So-Called Life.”

Maria Gonzalez, one of the protesters, said, “We should have more Latinos on television so that they can be role models for our kids. If there were more, maybe they would not join gangs.”

The protest comes several months after a study by the Washington-based Center for Media and Public Affairs showed that Latinos accounted for only 1% of all speaking roles in prime-time entertainment programs during the 1992-93 season. The report said that the number of Latinos in prime-time television shows had dropped from 3% in 1955 to 1% in 1992, despite the fact that Latinos make up 10% of the U.S. population.

The group leaders warned that NBC, Fox and CBS were being put on notice that similar viewer actions would be recommended against them if they did not place more Latinos in shows and in policy-making positions.

* KLSX FIGHTS BACK

KLSX-FM decries ad boycott organized by a Latino group. F2