POP/ROCK - June 23, 1989

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Thursday made it easier for communities to turn down the volume on rock concerts, upholding New York City’s effort to avoid ear-splitting noise levels in Central Park. The justices, by a 6-3 vote, said officials may require sponsors of rock concerts in the park’s Naumberg Acoustic Bandshell to use a sound system operated by a city-designated engineer. The city’s noise-control campaign is aimed at protecting visitors to the park’s neighboring Sheep Meadow, a 13-acre area decreed a “quiet zone” by Mayor Edward Koch in 1985, and residents of the nearby fashionable Central Park West area.