NEW YORK GETS GRAMMY SHOW FOR ’88

NEW YORK —  In a move that reflects the East Coast-West Coast rivalry within the music industry, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences plans to hold its 30th annual Grammy Awards ceremony in 1988 here rather than in Los Angeles, the traditional home of the ceremonies.

Formal announcement of the move back to New York is expected to be made Monday at a City Hall press conference presided over by Mayor Edward I. Koch.

“We like to think of New York as the music capital,” said Herbert Rickman, a special assistant to Koch, in acknowledging Friday that the mayor’s office has engaged in “a five-year effort” to return the Grammys to New York.

Referring to what he termed the “psychological” as well as business benefits of holding the awards here, he added: “But we are willing to share them (on a year-by-year basis) with Los Angeles.” The ceremony will be held in February of 1988 (exact date to be determined) at Radio City Music Hall.

The 1987 Grammys ceremony will be held Feb. 24 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, home of the awards show since 1981. The Grammys have been held in New York three times previously; most recently at the Music Hall in 1981. The ceremony was also held once in Nashville.

Jack Maher, president of the New York chapter of the Academy, said “we have always felt that New York is as much a center of the music industry as L.A., and perhaps more so.” He, too, acknowledged Friday the “strong effort” on the part of both the New York chapter and the mayor’s office to bring “pressure” on the national academy to return the Grammys to New York, hopefully “at least every other year.”

He said there are no firm plans to hold the awards here beyond 1988, but he added that “we hope to make it so comfortable and easy to produce the show here that they’ll be happy to return.”

An Academy spokesperson said by phone from the organization’s national headquarters in Burbank that there would be no comment from the Academy until Monday’s press conference.