AWARDSKennedy Center Honors Five: Actor Sidney Poitier,...

AWARDS

Kennedy Center Honors Five: Actor Sidney Poitier, playwright Neil Simon, blues legend B.B. King, singer Marilyn Horne and dancer Jacques d’Amboise have been chosen to receive the 18th annual Kennedy Center Honors for their contributions to the performing arts. The honors, scheduled for Dec. 3 as part of the center’s 25th anniversary season, include a gala performance taped for television. Recipients also are saluted during a weekend that includes a White House reception.

POP/ROCK

Dogg Time: The war of words over Time Warner’s involvement in gangsta rap is bound to heat up Sept. 16 when CBS-TV airs a 60-second commercial touting the upcoming release of Tha Dogg Pound’s controversial debut album, “Dogg Food.” The ad, which will air during the “Source Hip-Hop Music Awards Show,” depicts a prison break in which the Los Angeles duo, Kurupt and Daz, transform into pit bulls, attack a guard and drive off in a getaway car full of gorgeous women. Time Warner is expected to sever ties with Interscope/Death Row, the label that releases Tha Dogg Pound’s music, before the potentially offensive album hits stores in early October.

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Crouch to Assume Church Post: Gospel singer Andrae Crouch will officially assume the post of senior pastor at the Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ in Pacoima during ceremonies Sept. 22 at the Century Plaza and will play host to a free concert, “Explosion of Praise,” on Sept. 24 at the church.

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Cat Comes Back: The man who wrote “Peace Train” emerged from retirement Tuesday to sign copies of his first album in 18 years--complete with a Muslim hymn to fit his revised outlook on life. The former Cat Stevens, the singer-songwriter who has changed his name to Yusuf Islam, said in London that his conversion to Islam means he now considers the love songs he sang in the 1970s impure. Fans longing for the lilting Stevens melodies of yore will be disappointed: The new album is 80% talk and includes only three musical pieces. Stevens ended his career as a pop singer in 1977 when he embraced Islam. His beliefs, which bar mixing voices with instruments, severely limited what he could do.

TELEVISION

KCET Chief to Retire: William H. Kobin, president and chief executive officer of KCET-TV Channel 28 since 1983, announced Tuesday that he plans to retire at the end of the year. Kobin, 66, took over the public TV station as it was recovering from severe fiscal problems; its annual budget has tripled since then and viewership has doubled. Kobin previously served as president of KTCA-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul and as a vice president at Children’s Television Workshop. He said in a news release that he looked forward to “many more years of being an avid viewer, supporter and advocate” of public television. KCET’s board of directors has formed a committee to search for a successor.

RADIO

KCRW to Air Kunstler Interview: A two-part interview with the late civil rights lawyer William Kunstler, originally aired last fall, will be rebroadcast on KCRW-FM (89.9) today from 1-2 p.m. and 7-8 p.m. Kunstler was 76 when he died Monday of cardiac arrest.

QUICK TAKES

Jerry Lewis’ annual Labor Day telethon raised $47.8 million in the fight against muscular dystrophy. Last year’s telethon raised $47.1 million. . . . Actress Julia Roberts has purchased a mostly adobe house on 50 acres north of Taos, N.M., for between $1.75 million and $2.2 million, the Albuquerque Journal reported Tuesday.