Dan Clark, a reporter who covered the Feb. 24 ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium for Portland radio station Z-100 (KKV-FM), allegedly used a device to illegally intercept internal chatter among the members of the production staff, including stage managers, camera operators and Miller.

The conversations occasionally contained disparaging remarks about the evening's performers, presenters and winners, according to those who worked on the show.

KKV has been ordered by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, which presents the annual show, to turn over the tapes and refrain from playing them on the air.

On Monday, lawyers for NARAS sent radio station KKV FM a cease and desist letter and ordered general manager Ron Salto to return the tapes by Thursday.

Calls to Salto for comment were not returned.

The station broadcast snippets of the production crew banter on Feb. 25, the day after the show. A copy of the tape was also made available to radio station KIIS in Los Angeles., which also broadcast a portion of it.

Insiders said they were informed the station was also planning to monitor production conversations at the upcoming Academy Awards telecast in the hopes of gleaning colorful comments from the crew.

NARAS, while not condoning the chatter, defended it as being in the heat of battle, where tensions ran high while under the intense pressure of putting on a live broadcast. But it should not become public fodder, the execs felt.

Insiders said the remarks were typically aimed at acts that moved too slowly to get to the stage or acceptance speeches that were too long, and sometimes offered criticism of an artist's attire or anatomy.

"The Academy regards these actions with the utmost seriousness," according to the letter sent to Salto. "Mr. Clark's actions are violations of federal law and California law." The letter asserts the tape is a "willful invasion of privacy."

The station's effort sends a warning to others who use wireless systems to be careful what is said on them. Staffers at premieres, industry events and other telecasts all use similar communications systems that can be eavesdropped on by scanners or other electronic listening devices.