WORTH NOTING ON TV

WEDNESDAY

The 1994 Billboard Music Awards (Fox, 8-10 p.m.): For the fifth year, the pop music magazine is handing out awards to top recording artists in a live show (tape-delayed on the West Coast) hosted by Heather Locklear and Dennis Miller. The broadcast features performances by the Rolling Stones - on a break from their ``Voodoo Lounge'' tour - Stone Temple Pilots, Melissa Etheridge, Warren G., and others.

Award programs like these tend to tout their own system for picking winners - ``The People's Choice Awards,'' for instance, cites the fact that fans do the voting, not industry insiders as happens with the Oscars and Emmys. In Billboard's case, the system is hard to argue with: Winners are determined by statistics from radio airplay and from Billboard's weekly and biweekly charts.

Among the competitors for top R&B artists are Babyface and Jodeci; for female artists, Toni Braxton and Mariah Carey; for male artist, Michael Bolton and Garth Brooks; and for album, Ace of Base (``The Sign''), Mariah Carey (``Music Box''), and Counting Crows (``August & Everything After'').

Billy Joel receives what Billboard calls its most important honor: the Century Award for ``distinguished creative achievements.''

The Honeymooners' First Christmas (The Disney Channel, 10-10:45 p.m.): This is the final of seven ``lost'' ``Honeymooners'' episodes to be aired by the Disney Channel. First broadcast Dec. 21, 1951, the sketch is atypical: It's the longest ever produced, and its demanding format allows Jackie Gleason to perform as several of his renowned characters - such as Reginald Van Gleason -

and as his standard ``Honeymooners'' character, Ralph Cramden.

This plot required six costume changes by Gleason on live national TV - a risky business. Pert Kelton is Ralph's wife, Alice; Art Carnie plays Ed Norton; and Joyce Randolf is Ed's wife, Trixie.

Please check local listings for these programs.