DWP settles lawsuit over radio relics

The city Department of Water and Power will pay two Hollywood museums $75,000 each to settle a dispute over artifacts allegedly contaminated by toxic PCBs in a 2004 electrical transformer fire.

Leaders of the nonprofit Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters and the Society of American Magicians agreed Thursday to drop their lawsuit against the city after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Allen White indicated that she was prepared to rule the contamination was not as severe as the two groups claimed.

The separate collections include thousands of original broadcast scripts, transcriptions and vintage pieces of equipment, such as Bing Crosby’s personal microphone and gear used by illusionists Harry Houdini and Harry Blackstone Sr.

The museums are in the basement of the Washington Mutual bank at Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street. They have remained sealed since the fire.

Broadcasters’ president Chuck Southcott and John Engman, head of the magicians’ Museum and Hall of Fame, said they accepted the settlement with reluctance. Southcott said an earlier estimate indicated decontamination would cost his group more than $500,000.

“Frankly, nobody knows what we’re going to do next,” Engman said.

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-- Bob Pool