Radio Waves

Ella Fitzgerald, celebrating her 70th birthday today, is in semi- retirement. But there is a treasury of her work on record, starting with the happy sound of 1938's "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," to her scat singing of "How High the Moon" and the marvelous balladeering on her tributes to Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen. Through midnight, WRTI (FM/90) will play Fitzgerald's records to honor the performer who often is called "The First Lady of Jazz. " Born in Virginia, she came to New York in 1935 for an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater.

Michael Tearson, who has been deejaying at WMMR (FM/93.3) for ages, moves his "What's New" latest-album release show to Wednesday nights, starting at 11 tonight. He'll play "Talk Is Cheap," the first solo album by Keith Richards, lead guitarist of the Rolling Stones, and "Amnesia," the latest by Richard Thompson, former Fairport Convention guitarist. Other WMMR schedule shifts: "In the Studio" to Thursday midnight. Also, "The Grateful Dead Hour" is on at 11 Tuesday nights. And "Rock Over London," recordings and music from the English scene, is on at 11 Monday nights.

Tune in "The Frank Rizzo Show" at 4 p.m. today on WCAU (AM/1210) to hear some frank talk from the former mayor on minority hiring. Rizzo and co-host Ruth Weisberg invite your comments on whether current quotas are working, or should be scrapped. A special 900-line telephone poll will keep score on audience views. Country music station WXTU (FM/92) pays tribute all day to Roy Orbison, the rockabilly legend who died yesterday of a heart attack. At 7:20 tonight, Don Williams is featured on the nightly mini-concert hosted by Sam Clover.

To help smokers break the habit during today's Great American Smokeout, several stations are offering special programs. Guests of "On the Line with Dr. Brian McDonough" at 7 tonight on WRTI (FM/90) are Dr. Ian Hoffman, a pulmonary specialist, and psychologist Lisa M. Isaac. The Temple University staff members will answer questions on how to kick the habit. Dial 787-8900 to reach them. On "Speaking of Your Health," hosted at 1 this afternoon by Dr. Marty Weisberg on WCAU (AM/1210)

Robert Groden, credited with sparking a reopening of the John F. Kennedy assassination case with his 1975 national television screening of film of the slaying, joins Diane Raymond on WWDB (FM/96.5) at noon today, the 25th anniversary of JFK's death . . . Larry King and guests look back, at 11 tonight on WIP (AM/610), to the day Kennedy died. Alan Stang, who served a prison term for failure to file a tax return, talks with Irv Homer at 2 on 'DB. Stang will discuss his book, "Tax Scam: How the IRS Swindles You and What You Can Do About It. " Couples unable to have children get advice on how to become parents from Larry Staines, Philadelphia magazine's lifestyle editor, on "Speaking of Your Health" on WCAU (AM/1210)

Two former Reagan economic advisers guest today on local radio. At 2 p.m. on WCAU (AM/1210), Harry Gross talks to author William Niskanen about his "Reaganomics: An Insider's Account of the Politics and the People. " And, at 11 tonight on WIP (AM/610), Murray Weidenbaum, former chairman of Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers, will talk about his new book, "Rendezvous with Reality: The American Economy After Reagan," with host Larry King. Marvin Kitman, curmudgeon TV columnist for Newsday and other newspapers, joins Diane Raymond on WWDB (FM/96.

Is a campaign being waged by conservatives to pack the courts with judges who are noted for their ideology rather than their competence in the law or regard for the U.S. Constitution? The controversy is discussed by activist attorney Herman Schwartz in two local radio appearances. He will talk about his new book, "Packing the Courts. " At 8 tonight, Schwartz, a professor at American University, visits Bernie Herman on WWDB (FM/96.5). And at 3 tomorrow on WHYY (FM/91) he discusses the impact of the Reagan years on the courts, with host Marty Moss-Coane on "Radio Times.

Philadelphia-born dancer Judith Jamison, who returns to her home town for a Nov. 22-23 Shubert Theater program with her own troupe - the Jamison Project - talks with Marty Moss-Coane at 3 this afternoon on "Radio Times" over WHYY (FM/91). Jamison, who hasn't danced in seven years, will perform a solo routine created for her. Inquirer political cartoonist Tony Auth and Louis Rukeyser, host of "Wall Street Week," seen on Channel 12, also are on the show. The public station starts its fall fund-raiser today, seeking 8,000 new subscribers and $340,000 in pledges.

Frank Marzolf, associate executive director for the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, talks on the Diane Raymond show at noon today on WWDB (FM/96.5) about the organization's public service work . . . The controversial new federal Catastrophic Medicare Coverage Act is examined by Mike Deibert, public advocate for the state Department of Aging, at 8 tonight on 'DB's Bernie Herman show. New Orleans jazz pianist Harry Connick Jr. discusses the influence of his home town on his music with Marty Moss-Coane at 3 this afternoon on "Radio Times" over WHYY (FM/91)

Buried in a harmless-looking sand pit in Lancaster were a bunch of plastic devices designed with gruesome intent: to kill or maim anyone who steps on top of them. They were land mines - in this case, filled with inert materials instead of explosives, but otherwise no different from millions of devices buried in war-torn regions around the world. Yet Tim Bechtel could see them. He moved a cylinder-shaped device back and forth over the sand, emitting a steady stream of radio waves - radar - and bit by bit an image of the mines emerged on a nearby computer screen.

In one of the stranger technological twists of the 21st century, X-ray vision has gone from male teenage fantasy to airport screening reality. The devices have been nicknamed "naked scanners" for a reason: when you walk through them, as many travelers will this Christmas weekend, someone in an undisclosed location will see through your clothes and check your body for weapons or explosives. At the same time, a privacy/modesty filter masks your face and genitalia to some extent - but not your flab - and the image is discarded, the feds say. The phone-booth-size scanners sit beside the metal detectors.

Awash in nostalgia and amped-up male camaraderie, Richard Curtis' Pirate Radio takes a great story - the hugely popular offshore radio stations that illegally broadcast pop and rock in 1960s Britain - and turns it into an aggressively irritating floating frat-party romp. Bobbing on an ebullient soundtrack of the Kinks, the Who, "I Feel Free," and "A Whiter Shade of Pale," Pirate Radio plops a gang of misfit DJs down on a red-hulled ship in the North Sea, where they spin vinyl and speak naughtily to schoolgirls, nurses, and university students - all of them listening giddily to the rock-and-roll the government doesn't want them to hear.

To get the clearest possible view of the heavens you need to get above Earth's atmosphere, but you don't necessarily have to get there by space shuttle. Last month an international collaboration led by the University of Pennsylvania lofted a telescope to the edge of outer space on an enormous balloon. As it flew from Sweden to western Canada, it observed dusty regions where new stars are being born millions of light years away. That may help explain how stars and planets are formed from stardust.

Here's another argument for obeying New Jersey's recent ban on drivers using hand-held cell phones: European scientists have concluded that radio waves from mobile phones not only can harm body cells, but possibly scramble phone users' DNA. What's that? Oh, you're searching frantically for that gift receipt, so you can hustle back to the store and return the cell phone Santa gave you. Well, that's not a feasible option for most people who have come to regard the cell phone as a necessity, rather than the luxury it was just a short few years ago. Nor does the scientific data yet warrant chucking your flip-phone into the nearest trash can. All the health-hazard studies on these phones - including another recent review that claimed to link cell phone use with the formation of benign tumors - have yet to prove any conclusive danger.

When it comes to getting high school girls interested in science, teacher Emily Giannantonio at the Academy of Notre Dame de Namur employs a variety of strategies. She makes the Delaware County Science Fair compulsory for her honors chemistry students. To encourage participation in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) fair, Giannantonio gave students who competed an extra test grade worth 100 points. "I bribed them," she said with a laugh. Among other experiments, the 14 girls tested whether radio waves are affected by ionospheric conditions, and a hypothesis that chewing gum improves memory.

Sometimes, Laura Mocci picks up the telephone and hears Pope John Paul II on the other end. Such is the power of the high-voltage electromagnetic waves emanating from Vatican Radio as they zip through this hilly Roman suburb on invisible paths to Africa, Asia, and the rest of the planet. The radio waves have seeped into the town's consciousness. And into its appliances - residents say they hear choral masses in refrigerators and Easter hymns lilting through home intercoms. Cesano's doctors and parents say the electromagnetic waves are more than just annoying cackles of static.

In the times of segregation what were considered good times for whites were considered bad times for most blacks. Separation and misunderstanding seemed to breed these environments. Then came the radio waves, and riding on them was a DJ with a logo on his surfboard that read "Jocko. " The rap, tap beat seemed to follow him as he rode those radio waves into our homes and hearts. While we listened to the music, we learned to decipher just what he had to say. "Etilly yoke, this is the jock and I'm back on the scene with the record machine.

Is holding a cell phone close to your ear safe? Or will the low-level radio waves they emit fry your brain? Best guess is that answers to those questions will prove to be: yes and no. But society doesn't want to discover, 15 wireless-addicted years from now, that the answers really are: no and yes. Some people fear prolonged exposure to low-level radio waves could cause cancer or other problems, though most scientists doubt it. So...

THE AUDREY HEPBURN STORY. 8 p.m. Channel 6. Should Jennifer Love Hewitt's phenomenal career turn out to be enduring, in the distant future she'll refer, with the appropriate desultory chuckle, to this past year as "a learning experience. " Among the lessons: Don't believe it when your small circle of sycophants insists that you're a one-woman entertainment industry. Don't leave a successful show for a spinoff with no discernible idea propelling it (e.g., the tank job "Time of Your Life")