Club Bands Do Battle in North Hollywood : Contest: As many as 400 entries, including some top Sunset Strip bands, are expected to enter a nightclub’s competition to benefit teen-age runaways.

Local rockers will soon face a panel of music industry types, pop celebrities and other characters in an effort to leap from club-level obscurity at FM Station’s “Pure Rock Search ’90.”

Expected judges of the nine-week battle of the bands, which will benefit Children of the Night, include comic Sam Kinison and members of the chart-topping hard rock bands Poison and Warrant.

The contest, which begins Tuesday and continues Tuesday nights through Sept. 11, has found a surprising degree of support from virtually every level of the music industry, said Susette Andres, booking secretary at the North Hollywood nightclub. Members of popular rock acts were quick to sign on as judges. And several donations have been received for the contest’s grand prize of drums, a Gibson electric guitar, amplifiers and other stage gear.

Both new and journeyman bands are invited to enter by submitting a tape of any listenable quality, whether recorded live in a garage or in a pristine professional multitrack studio. As many as 400 entries are expected by the final deadline of July 29, Andres said. And all finalists will appear on a live cassette recorded on the contest’s last night.

Andres said early entries included some of the top Sunset Strip bands.

“I was surprised they’d even enter. Usually they have the attitude that they’re already going to get signed. It’s cool,” he said.

All proceeds from the $5 admission and sales of the live cassette will go to Children of the Night, a rescuer of teen-age runaways. Contest co-sponsor KNAC-FM, the Long Beach-based hard rock station, is a longtime supporter and holds an annual concert and auction that this year raised about $75,000 for the organization.

“We’re just thrilled with having the support of the people who know what the kids are going through,” said Lois Lee, founder of Children of the Night. “I think the musicians often get a bad rap of exploiting these kids. And this gives them an opportunity to help these kids that they can’t reach in any other way.”

The mission of Children of the Night, Lee said, is to find runaway youngsters in Los Angeles who during their search for stardom end up on the street, addicted to drugs or supporting themselves through prostitution. But through shelter and counseling, many runaways are eventually guided back home or to independence with jobs and apartments.

Money generated from “Pure Rock Search ‘90” will help pay for the charity’s annual $62,000 food budget and the renovation of its shelter building in Van Nuys, which is expected to open by December.

“A lot of these teens are KNAC listeners, and a lot of them hang out on the Strip,” said Pam Edwards, KNAC’s program director. “We just thought we could relate to them and get the message out that there is a place where they can go and get off the street.”

The music industry has long rallied around the organization, now the subject of pop-rock singer Richard Marx’s Top 20 single, “Children of the Night.” Tom Maher, promotion director for KNAC, said he is hoping to raise as much as $15,000 for the charity through the contest and cassette. He added that the total could go much higher through unexpected large donations. He said such donations often result from the music scene’s more charitable impulses.

“It’s really interesting the way people respond,” Maher said. “We’re just trying to have fun, give something to charity and get some attention to these bands.”

At FM Station, Andres said one motive for the contest was to simply expose some of the acts that have played at the North Hollywood club, which in recent months has become a busy center of activity on the local rock scene. “We have a lot of good bands that play here,” she said. “And we wanted to put it all together on one big album.”

Each week’s contest will have its own panel of record industry people and celebrities, judging the best among five competitors. Andres said audience reaction will count as one vote.

Master of ceremonies will be KNAC radio personality Craig Williams, who hosts the station’s “Pure Rock Local Show,” which spotlights unsigned local groups. Those who appear on the contest’s cassette will likely be played on that program. And the grand-prize winner might be added to the station’s regular music rotation, Edwards said.

“To the bands it means exposure,” she said. “And there is a certain amount of prestige in winning. It gives their fans a chance to come out and root for them.”

For other competitors, she added, the contest will give emerging acts a rare opportunity to perform. “For some of these bands, it will be one of their first gigs. I think the Strip bands will have an edge because of their fans and name recognition. But if a new group is a good solid band with good stage presence, they should do well, absolutely.”

The “Pure Rock Search ‘90” cassette, scheduled for release in late September, will be distributed through Tempo Records stores, a co-sponsor that is accepting contest entries. Also accepting entries is another sponsor, the ABK Rocks music store in Sepulveda.

“Pure Rock Search ‘90” at FM Station, 11702 Victory Blvd., North Hollywood, begins at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and continues every Tuesday through Sept. 11. Admission: $5. Event benefits Children of the Night. Further information: (818) 769-2220.