Adelphia Communications has reshuffled its local management team, taking talk show host Bill Rosendahl from his post as regional vice president and placing him in charge of the cable firm’s political affairs.

Rosendahl, who will continue hosting several of Adelphia’s public affairs shows, had served as head of the Southern California region for nearly three years before being named to the recently created post. Lee Perron, Adelphia’s regional vice president for corporate affairs, will succeed Rosendahl on an interim basis.

Rosendahl is best known as host of “Week in Review,” “Local Talk” and “Beyond the Beltway.” While these shows only air on cable, they have provided an important platform for local politicians and others that’s not available on the local broadcast outlets.

Given Adelphia’s expanded presence in Southern California, which consists of 1.2 million customers and nearly 2,800 employees, Adelphia spokesman Paul Heimel said in explaining the new post that Rosendahl could not do his show and run the region.

“(It’s) way too much work for one person,” he said.

Better Sound

KCRW-FM (89.9) has established a partnership with SRSWOWcast Technologies of Santa Ana to become the first licensee of a device that is supposed to provide its Internet listeners with better sound quality while reducing webcasting costs.

The National Public Radio affiliate, which streams news and music on three channels, has begun using the WOWcaster Internet Radio Audio Processor on kcrw.com and will soon apply it to the two other channels, said Will Lewis, a management consultant for KCRW.

The station spends some $400,000 a year on webcasting costs. The new technology represents no additional expense for KCRW, Lewis said.

“Each listener to a stream costs money and it can add up,” he said. “It’s important for us to curb our use of bandwidth, otherwise our partners will get antsy.”

Courting Travelers

Despite the sharp decline in travel since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, L.A.-based Univision Communications Inc. last week announced a venture to offer travel services to Latinos in the United States.

The nation’s largest Spanish-language television network joined with Miami’s Despegar.com, an online travel Web site, to offer services such as flight reservations and car rentals on Univision.com.

“The timing is horrible,” conceded Bruno Lopez, vice president of content for Univision.com.

After months of working with Despegar, Univision went forward with the project because “everybody is pushing for a return to normal daily life,” Lopez said.

Claudia Peschiutta can be reached at 323-549-5225 ext. 229 or cpeschiutta@ labusinessjournal.com