COOL SHOWS: In late-night TV, Jay Leno...
COOL SHOWS: In late-night TV, Jay Leno is regarded as warm and affable and David Letterman as cold and acerbic. Skeptical? Check their studio thermostats. CBS says Letterman keeps the temperature in Manhattan’s Ed Sullivan Theater in the mid-50s to keep his audience lively. But Leno sets the thermostat in the upper 60s at his NBC Burbank studio. “We don’t want to torture our audience,” NBC spokeswoman Jennifer Barnett says.
RISING PRICES: Motorists will spend at least $100 to get their car AC serviced, says Norm Lucas, owner of Lucas Auto Air Conditioning in Van Nuys. Prices have doubled in recent years because a new law requires mechanics to fix leaky AC units, not just add Freon--an ozone-eroding gas used as a refrigerant. Prices also will go up when a federal ban on production of Freon kicks in at year’s end. “The days where you could pull into a garage and they would add two pounds of Freon for $35 are gone,” he said.
WHITE LIES: In the home air-conditioning business, “The more the sun shines, the more the phone rings,” says Marshall Melnick, above, owner of Van Nuys-based Marshall Service Co. When the AC breaks down, desperate customers sometimes fib to ensure a quick repair. “They always mention a sick father, a sick mother, somebody in a wheelchair,” Melnick said.
EASY MONEY: Power windows, leather seats and other add-ons can be tough sells for car dealers, but not air conditioning. Of 450 cars David Ellis Chrysler in Canoga Park has sold this year, only one didn’t have AC, said Charlie Chang, sales manager. “He was a young gentleman just starting out,” Chang said. “He wanted a cheap car, and that’s what he got.”
BLAZING SADDLES: Today, motorcycles seem to come with more appliances than the average apartment, but manufacturers haven’t figured out a way to offer AC. In the summer, that leaves few comforting options, says Gary Provenzano, sales manager at Harley-Davidson of Glendale. “You can strip clothes off, wet a towel and wrap it around your neck or pull over near a stream.”
