March 26, 1984

Harold Burson, the soft-voiced chairman and chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, cannot resist some discreet crowing. After years of being the second-largest public relations firm after Hill & Knowlton, Burson- Marsteller recently edged into the No. 1 spot on the strength of continuing strong gains in revenues. ''I had always hoped it would happen,'' said Mr. Burson, who got started in public relations as a student at the University of Mississippi. According to the 1984 edition of O'Dwyer's Directory of Public Relations Firms, Burson-Marsteller's 1983 net fee income rose 26 percent from a year earlier, to $63.8 million, surpassing Hill & Knowlton by $3 million. After-tax profit was about $3 million, Mr. Burson said.

T HE Islanders are tired, battered and often emotionally frazzled. Some of them, even with their Stanley Cup rings still sparkling, complain about being benched. Some moan that no matter how successful they are, it is never enough for Coach Al Arbour. There is something else the Islanders have, though. They are the champions, and Bill Torrey, the architect of the club, says that is a dimension they can call on that no one else can. There are other tired, battered, frazzled teams in the National Hockey League - especially now as they grind into the final week of the regular season. And there can be as many as six weeks of playoff hockey ahead.

Anthony J. Alvarado, who became Chancellor of the New York City school system less than a year ago, was suspended with pay by the Board of Education yesterday and directed to answer an array of charges at a formal trial-like hearing. The board's action took place at a five-minute public meeting on Mr. Alvarado's 327th day as chief administrator of the largest school system in the nation. His suspension is to begin today. The Chancellor's suspension came after days of speculation about his future, speculation heightened last week when the city's Department of Investigation issued an interim report about Mr. Alvarado's personal finances and professional behavior. Assertions in the Report The report said the Chancellor had violated the Board of Education's conflict-of-interest policy and the City Charter's standards of ethics by borrowing thousands of dollars from subordinates. It concluded that Mr. Alvarado's conduct had ''demonstrated a serious lack of judgment and created a strong appearance of impropriety.''

Supermarkets in the 1950's were reluctant to stock the canned and packaged Caribbean foods produced by Goya Foods Inc. In those days the Hispanic market was negligible, Latin food was not yet fashionable, and few people cared that Goya's beans were cholesterol- free. All that has changed, and Goya has become one of the leading Hispanic- owned companies in the nation. Now its 700 products are found not only in the small ''bodegas'' of the barrio but also in major urban supermarkets. According to the 1980 census, there were 20 million people in the United States of Hispanic descent, constituting the nation's fastest-growing consumer segment. But the Hispanic market, never a monolithic entity in this country, is more cosmopolitan than it was a generation ago. So Goya is developing new products and adopting new marketing strategies.

Cecil Thompson, who runs a Shell service station in Mesa, Ariz., used to buy auto accessories from the Shell Oil Company to supply his highly profitable service and repair business. ''Fan belts, hoses, spark plugs,'' Mr. Thompson recalls, ''shock absorbers, radiator chemicals, polishes and waxes.'' But that was before a decade of change transformed the automotive aftermarket. ''Today the only products you can buy from Shell,'' Mr. Thompson said in a telephone interview, ''are tires, batteries and filters. Nothing else is available from them.''