RADIOT’was the Day After Thanksgiving. . ....

RADIO

T’was the Day After Thanksgiving. . . .: For those yearning for constant reminders of the dwindling number of shopping days left before Christmas, radio station KLAC-AM (570) tonight begins a full month of playing all holiday music. The “Sounds of the Season” programming, which begins at midnight tonight and continues through 6 p.m. on Dec. 25, features holiday tunes from such pop artists as Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, Harry Connick Jr. and Bing Crosby. The station will, however, continue to broadcast regularly scheduled non-musical programming such as L.A. Lakers basketball games.

POP/ROCK

Hall of Famer: Singer Reba McEntire this week became the first country music artist to be inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the Oklahoma City’s National Cowboy Hall of Fame. She joins such show-business luminaries as John Wayne, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. McEntire, an Oklahoma native, also becomes the third member of her family to be inducted into the museum. Her father, Clark McEntire, and late grandfather, Wesley McEntire, were previously inducted into the museum’s Rodeo Hall of Fame.

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Beatles’ Wives Take on AIDS: Royalties from the new Beatles song “Free as a Bird” will be donated to fund a Romanian AIDS charity set up by their wives and pop star Elton John. Olivia Harrison, wife of George Harrison, who announced the donation while in Bucharest this week to promote Romanian Angel Appeal, declined to say what percentage of the royalties the surviving Beatles would give from the single, but called it “a very large amount of money.” Harrison set up the charity in 1990 along with Ringo Starr’s wife Barbara Bach Starkey, Linda McCartney and Yoko Ono. So far the charity has spent $4 million, mostly to renovate squalid buildings housing children with AIDS.

TELEVISION

Diff’rent News Strokes: Former child star Gary Coleman is attempting a TV comeback with “Lookin’ Up at the Nightly News,” a planned daily syndicated series described as “looking at the bright side in reporting the real news of the day.” Coleman, now 27, both executive produces and anchors the show, for which he taped the pilot this week. “So much of what everyone sees on television news today is unfortunately terribly depressing,” he said. “I think there’s a fun way to cover many of the day’s events, a lighter way which finds the subtle ironies and twists of fate that often go unnoticed and commented upon.”

FILM

Showcasing Independent Work: Forty-five films, including the North American premiere of two early works by “Hellraiser” director Clive Barker, will be screened at the Directors Guild in Hollywood Dec. 8-10 during “Intoxicating Images: Short Films From Contemporary Independent and Experimental Filmmakers,” the debut installation of a new monthly American Cinematheque film series. The ongoing series, called “Alternative Screen: A Forum for Independent Film Exhibition and Beyond,” premieres Dec. 5 with a benefit party at the Art Deco El Rey Theater on Wilshire Boulevard. Additional offerings of “Intoxicating Images” include short films from early in the careers of such now well-known directors as Ang Lee (“The Wedding Banquet”), David Lynch (“Blue Velvet”) and Robert Rodriquez (“El Mariachi”). Also featured are movies from new independent filmmakers as well as experimental work by such artist-filmmakers as George Kuchar, Trinh-Minh-ha and Beth B.

QUICK TAKES

The dates have been changed for the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade, traditionally held Thanksgiving weekend. This year’s parade, with actor Tony Danza as grand marshal, will take place Dec. 3 from 6-8 p.m. Organizers say the best viewing will be along Sunset Boulevard, between Gower and Highland. . . . Cable’s VH1 will observe the eighth annual “World AIDS Day” on Dec. 1 with AIDS-related programming including the U.S. premiere of “The Queen Phenomenon,” a British documentary on the rock group Queen. The program will air as a special tribute to singer Freddie Mercury, who died of complications from AIDS in 1991. . . . Fox has extended the life of its Friday night series, “Strange Luck,” by ordering an additional four episodes of the quirky drama, which currently ranks 86th out of 119 prime-time series. That brings the show to 17 episodes, still shy of the standard 22-episode full season order. . . . CBS Sports will pay tribute to Olympic Gold medalist Sergei Grinkov, the Russian pairs skater who died this week of a heart attack, on Saturday’s “CBS Sports Show.”