White Supremacist TV Show Could Be Ousted : Torrance: A new rule limits the air time on public access TV of shows made by outsiders--except for government outsiders.

The controversial series “Race and Reason” could be forced off the Torrance airwaves in one year under a new rule approved this week for the city’s public access television channel.

The rule limits the playing time for series that are not produced at the Torrance public access studio. “Race and Reason” is produced outside Torrance by white supremacist leader Tom Metzger.

City officials said they are acting to protect locally produced shows by assuring they are not crowded off the air by long-running outside series. The rule, which takes effect this week, was not created specifically to ban “Race and Reason,” they said.

Mayor Katy Geissert said Wednesday that the new rule’s purpose is “giving access to a variety of groups rather than letting one group or groups monopolize air time.”

But Metzger said of the city action: “These people keep shooting themselves in the foot trying to tinker with free speech. In their really almost fanatical zeal to stop Tom Metzger from speaking, they’re really affecting the free speech of anybody who wants to put a show on.”

And several experts on cable access question the evenhandedness of the new Torrance guideline--especially because the city is exempting all government-produced series from any limits. The exemption means that whereas “Race and Reason” could be forced off the channel after 52 more weeks, the long-running series “Navy News This Week” could continue indefinitely.

“Government has just made a rule that limits other people’s speech but protects (its) own,” said Sharon Ingraham, chairwoman of the National Federation of Local Cable Programmers.

The rule on air time was among dozens of changes to the city’s public access cable guidelines that were adopted without discussion Tuesday night by City Council members, who were acting as the city’s Cable Access Foundation. “Race and Reason” is one of only three outside series, or so-called “bicycle tapes,” now appearing on Channel 59, the city’s public access channel.

The much-publicized show first aired on Channel 59 last October and began running regularly in January. When some council members objected, they were told by City Atty. Kenneth L. Nelson that the city could not ban the series because of First Amendment protections of free speech.

“Race and Reason” has been shown on dozens of public access channels nationwide, often stirring up opposition because many consider its views racist.

In Torrance, the series airs more frequently than in most cities because of the way Channel 59 runs its schedule.

Each of the 21 different shows now appearing on the channel are rerun at the same time each day for two weeks. For instance, the same episode of “Race and Reason” is slated to run every night at 11 p.m. for two weeks, when a different two-week schedule begins.

More than 100 episodes of “Race and Reason” have been produced, Metzger said Wednesday.

If each episode runs for two weeks, the series could continue in Torrance for the next four years. But under the new rule, “Race and Reason” must stop airing in Torrance after 26 episodes, which, if the current scheduling system continues unchanged, would occur in April, 1992.

“That’s a lot of time on the air. That’s a whole year,” said Michael Smith, the city’s cable administrator.

Smith defended the new limit on outside series, saying it is needed because of the growing popularity of Channel 59. “We’re up to capacity on channel space,” Smith said. “It may get to the point where we can’t accept any outside programming.”

Several cable officials from outside the Torrance area questioned the city’s scheduling scheme, which they said wastes air time. They said that if the schedule changed more frequently--even once a week--more room would be available for both local producers and bicycle tapes.

The officials said they have not heard of another public-access channel besides Torrance that repeats the same shows so many times.

Nick D’Antoni, station manager of the Santa Ana public access channel, said: “Our producers would kill us. Our producers are much more active than that.”

Torrance repeats its shows for two weeks for both practical and policy reasons. The cable channel uses an automated tape changer that is time-consuming to program, and Smith said he lacks the staff to make the changes more than every two weeks. In addition, changing the schedule more frequently would cost the channel more time and money, including the cost of printing and mailing the “Citiguide” cable guide, Smith said.

Finally, city cable officials believe the two-week schedule helps producers promote their shows, Smith said. “If they put three months into producing something, they should have two weeks to show it,” he said.

Other stations have different methods of assuring local producers air time.

The Santa Ana cable channel tries to devote 51% of its time to locally produced programming, which D’Antoni said amounts to “a de facto limit” on the number of times that outside tapes air.

And in Long Beach, the public-access channel shows “imported shows” only in the afternoons, preserving the evening hours for locally produced shows.

Limiting the number of outside shows does not necessarily present legal problems, some cable experts said. But they did point to Torrance’s exemption for government shows as potentially troublesome.

“If it’s a true access channel, why are they favoring government?” asked Robert D. Purvis, legal director of the National Institute Against Prejudice and Violence in Baltimore.

“That’s making the rule less evenhanded,” Purvis said.