January 4, 1987

LEAD: The producer of ''The Morning Program,'' the new broadcast that will replace the ''CBS Morning News'' next week, was interviewing a well-known New York journalist for the job of co-host on the program. ''Are you a news purist?'' the producer asked. ''No,'' replied the journalist, ''I'm not.'' It was just the right answer; he got the job.

LEAD: ''There's a theory in retailing called the 'gas-station theory,' '' explains Robert Danial, the 28-year-old president of ABN Enterprises, which is co-developing a gleaming new mall in SoHo. ''Basically, the more stations at a corner, the better.''

LEAD: A LAKESHORE view of a palatial two-story balconied log home atop a wooded bluff in the Neiman-Marcus Fall Style Catalogue has become a profitable marketing tool for the manufacturer of the prefabricated home.

LEAD: In an unusual official look at another country's school system, the United States Department of Education has linked Japan's economic success to the rigor and efficiency of its primary and secondary schools.

LEAD: Generally speaking, real estate on Staten Island does not trigger images of resplendent homes with seven-digit prices. That, however, is what is being offered in the Enclave, a new development in one of the borough's oldest and most exclusive neighborhoods.

LEAD: In a move to generate extra income, Fairleigh Dickinson University is seeking a new kind of student. ''Many corporations today want to establish educational programs by going on a retreat, isolating themselves off somewhere in order to train and update their personnel,'' said James V. Griffo, assistant to the president for resource development at the large, private institution in New

LEAD: It originated in France, then spread through Europe and South America. Now, the United States has joined the list, and a ''hypermarket'' is coming to Brookhaven Township, L.I.

LEAD: IT was a ''solid case'' against the white youths, who admitted attacking the blacks, but it fell apart in court and the whites were freed.

LEAD: THEY could be a poster couple for the 80's. She is chairman of the pediatrics department at St. John's Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway. He is a corporate attorney with Kramer, Levin, Nessen, Kamin & Frankel, a large Manhattan law firm.

LEAD: IN Westchester County, 1986 was the year that the average price of a single-family home reached $300,000. It was a milestone that affirmed the county's desirability as a place to live, while placing it beyond the means of many would-be home owners.

LEAD: WHEN the first floor of J. W. Robinson's department store in downtown Los Angeles was reopened last month after extensive reconstruction, nobody missed the significance of still another sign of commercial rebirth along a six-block stretch of Seventh Street between Figueroa and Broadway, once known as the ''mecca for merchants.

LEAD: President Reagan spent a quiet day at the White House today, on the eve of entering the hospital for two medical procedures: a colonoscopy on Sunday and prostate surgery on Monday.