Boston at Thanksgiving: It's no surprise that the top-rated TV show is Cheers (set in the Hub, after all) or that the hottest topic on radio talk shows is taxes (the Commonwealth has long been dubbed Taxachusetts). But here's a shocker: Those hometown heroes New Kids on the Block aren't among the best-sellers at Tower Records. Blame—or credit—the college crowd. Sunny Joe White, program director for Boston's WXKS (one of the city's top rock/ pop radio stations), says "the college audience" is responsible for much of "the freshness and creativeness that characterizes music in Boston.... We have a lot of radio stations that will go out on the edge and take risks, and the audiences here love that."

PAGES

BEST-SELLERS AT WORDSWORTH, HARVARD SQUARE, CAMBRIDGE

Geoffrey C. Ward, with Ric Burns and Ken Burns

Anne Rice

Jamaica Kincaid

A.S. Byatt

Harold Bloom

Robert Bly

Gabriel Garcia Márquez

Deborah Tannen

William Styron

David Eddings

SONG

BEST-SELLING ROCK/POP LP/CDs AT TOWER RECORDS, BOSTON

Paul Simon

Led Zeppelin

Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti

Indigo Girls

INXS

L.L. Cool J

UB-40

Mariah Carey

Deee-Lite

Al B. Sure!

TUBE

BOSTON'S TOP-RATED SERIES, SEPT. 17-OCT. 28

1. Cheers (NBC)

2. 60 Minutes (CBS)

3. Designing Women (CBS)

4. America's Funniest Home Videos (tie) Murphy Brown (CBS)

6. The Cosby Show (NBC)

7. Murder, She Wrote (CBS)

8. A Different World (NBC)

9. Roseanne (ABC)

10. In the Heat of the Night (NBC)

SOURCE: ARBITRON

ETC.

WRKO RADIO TALK SHOW HOST GENE BURNS'S HOTTEST TOPICS

1. Taxes

2. Taxes

3. Taxes

4. Elections

5. S&L scandal

6. Oil prices

7. The Persian Gulf

8. Crime and drugs

9. Education

10. Words (grammar, vocabulary, usage, etc.)

VIDEO

TOP RENTALS AT BOX OFFICE VIDEO, BOSTON

1. Pretty Woman

2. The Hunt for Red October

3. Total Recall

4. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

5. Crybaby

6. Glory

7. Rosalie Goes Shopping

8. Family Business

9. I Love You to Death

10. The Handmaid's Tale

This week's cover

On Newsstands Now!

Saved by the Bell Reunion

The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires

The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!

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