The Direct Marketing Association marks a transition in leadership today as president/CEO H. Robert Wientzen makes room for his successor, John A. Greco Jr.

Korean scientists have found that regions near AM radio-broadcasting towers had 70 percent more leukemia deaths than those without. The study, to be published in an upcoming issue of the International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, also found that cancer deaths were 29 percent higher near such transmitters.

Wal-Mart, stung by criticism of its labor practices, expansion plans and other business tactics, is turning to public radio, public television and even journalists in training to try to improve its image.

What does $1 billion worth of television commercials look like? As the networks owned by NBC Universal begin coverage of the Summer Olympics in Athens, American viewers will find out. If, that is, they watch.

Big corporate sponsors won't have to fret that their chosen Olympic athletes will get tarnished by embarrassing situations in Athens - all jocks are under 24-hour guard. Apart from tight security, the other major concern of sponsors who are spending upwards of $10 million on their spokespeople is whether the athletes will win any new fame in the games.

A key initiative this year for the Direct Marketing Association's List and Database Council is to reach out to advertising agencies to improve their relationships with list firms, according to a member of the council's operating committee.

Will the scheming ABC prove sexy enough to sweep lonely soap opera fans off their feet while NBC is out of town, making time with an Olympic temptress? Tune in to find out . . . NBC's wall-to-wall coverage of the Summer Olympics -- beginning tonight and extending across the network and its many cable channels -- is forcing several adjustments to the network's regular programming, as it has during past NBC Olympics coverage.

The Federal Trade Commission and the consumer press are hot on the trail of the mailing list industry, according to a panel of list company presidents who spoke here yesterday at the Direct Marketing Association's List Vision 2004 Conference at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Is there a cable news channel in ABC's future? It's starting to look like the Walt Disney (DIS ) unit has designs on joining CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC in the war for news junkies' eyeballs. In July, ABC quietly launched what it's calling ABC News Now, a 24-hour service that kicked off with coverage of the Democratic National Convention and will run at least through Election Day. Then, according to Disney President Bob Iger, it will be time to decide if the experiment is to become an ongoing business.

NBC is charging an average of $730,000 for a 30-second commercial spot airing during the Olympic Games, which start Friday, and some have sold for $760,000, television industry sources say.