POP MUSIC : It’s Not Only Rock and Roll : Setting up commercial radio stations, the British government decrees rock is pop--and that leaves the rockers off the dial

The Rolling Stones and David Bowie were among the musicians who stepped in to help. Robert Plant and Phil Collins wrote a letter to The Times of London. More than 30,000 rock fans signed petitions.

But British government officials, listening to the beat of a different drummer, swept aside their arguments in ruling on an issue that recently pushed the nation’s music industry toward civil war.

Mick Jagger be damned. Rock music and pop music, the British government has declared, are the same thing.

Twenty-eight years after the Beatles had their first hit record here, a legal definition of pop and rock finally has been devised.

It seems silly at first, the notion of staid government officials contemplating the stylistic differences between R.E.M. and the New Kids on the Block. But the government’s finding does not bode well for those who prefer the former to the latter.

Causing all the fuss is a smidge of vague phrasing within the British government’s new Broadcasting Bill, a sweeping piece of legislation set to become law in January. Among the changes called for under the bill is the creation of three nationwide commercial radio stations--a significant development considering that there are none currently. The state-owned BBC operates five national non-commercial stations; all other radio stations serve local communities.

Licenses to run the new stations--two on AM and one on FM--will be awarded next year to the highest bidders who meet the qualifications. But here’s the tricky part: One of the stations, the Broadcasting Bill states, must be “speech-based”--talk shows, that sort of thing. The second can contain any type of programming, as long as it’s different than the other two.

The third must broadcast music “other than pop.”

Exactly what constituted music “other than pop” was not spelled out, but it has been assumed that the government intended to give the FM franchise--coveted because FM is more popular and offers better sound--to a classical music station. Reinforcing the assumption was the fact that Arts Minister David Mellor has a habit of stating publicly that he would be interested in having more classical music on the radio.

Then came Rock FM.

A consortium of four media companies with interests that include rock concert promotion, music magazines and local radio broadcasting, Rock FM demanded the right to bid in the “other than pop” category.

The Rockers introduced a smooth public relations campaign--press releases, brochures--to educate and sway government broadcasting authorities about the shadings of contemporary music.

Pop, they said, is the music made by moonlighting soap opera stars and fly-by-night dance groups. Disposable singles for teeny-boppers.

Rock, on the other hand, is album-based music that is enduring, both in style and in the artists who perform it. “Music for grown-ups,” they called it.

Eric Clapton, Roger Daltrey and Robert Plant--the kinds of stars whose records might be played on just such a station--lent their names to the cause. Thousands of fans signed petitions calling on the government to accept that rock is not the same as pop.

To Americans, these goings-on might seem baffling. But then, so is British radio. Unlike the United States, there are no stations playing a steady diet of what is often called “album-oriented rock”--the type made popular in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. There is no existing format into which Bruce Springsteen records would fit. A new Peter Gabriel album would have trouble getting on the air.

“Elton John, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin--their share of airplay is next to nothing,” said Tim Schoonmaker, managing director for radio at EMAP, one of the four companies that make up Rock FM. “Britain’s foremost cultural ambassadors are not represented on the radio here. We’re saying the prodigal son should be allowed to return.”

It also seemed fairly clear that Rock FM would be extremely profitable. The station would likely earn $56 million its first year, says Schoonmaker. That would make it the second-highest-grossing station in the country, behind London’s commercial Top 40 station, Capital Radio.

Among the national radio stations operated by the BBC are the classical station Radio 3 and the “contemporary music” station, Radio 1. Contemporary, in this case, appears to mean that no music is played that was recorded prior to last week. Radio 1’s playlist is derived from the British Top 40 charts, which are as notoriously fluid as the trendy musical styles that are played. Pop musicians heard on Radio 1 include Janet Jackson, the Pet Shop Boys and Kylie Minogue. If you’re 16 and into Betty Boo and Adamski, it’s nirvana. If you’re 35 and you want to hear Tom Petty or the Grateful Dead, forget it.

There are alternatives to Radio 1, but none that aims for the niche targeted by Rock FM. Local radio stations in Britain playing contemporary music also favor Top 40. In London, pirate stations operating out of back bedrooms abound, filling local airwaves with reggae and hip hop.

The quasi-governmental Radio Authority, headed by eminent septuagenarian Lord Chalfont, a former military man, was handed the task of sorting out the mess. Music-industry leaders offered their opinions, some in comments to the Radio Authority, others in public pronouncements.

Those involved in classical music generally scoffed at the notion that rock and pop should have separate categories. Behind the scoffing, however, was the recognition that projected advertising revenues showed that a rock station would earn far more than a classical one, and would therefore be able to bid far more for the license.

So if rock was defined as being music “other than pop,” classical wouldn’t stand a chance.

Simon Mundy, director of the lobbying group National Campaign for the Arts, found it sad that the government had set up a system that pits musical factions against each other. While he, personally, supports the creation of a classical music station, he is sympathetic to those who want to hear album-oriented rock.

“We’re not going to say that rock music has nothing to say to a contemporary audience,” said Mundy. And he concedes that “if you enjoy Led Zeppelin, you don’t have much of a chance to hear it.”

But he also feels Britain needs a “middlebrow” classical music station that would be more accessible than the “high academic content” that scares away many would-be listeners from the BBC’s Radio 3.

Factory Records chief Tony Wilson, guru of the current Manchester-based dance music craze, is among those who disagreed with the rock separatists and pronounced rock and pop the same thing.

“It’s a difficult one to pin down,” said Brent Hansen, executive producer of MTV Europe. “All of us have an idea in our heads until we try to rationalize it. I think rock can be pop.”

Over at the Radio Authority, Lord Chalfont and his colleagues realized what a sticky wicket they had on their hands. Scheduled to make a ruling at their mid-September meeting, they opted instead to seek expert advice and postpone a decision until late October.

They consulted with executives at major record companies, with the British Phonograph Industry and with broadcasters in North America and Australia. The Radio Authority members also received a recommendation from their own staff, which sought to allow Rock FM to bid in the “other than pop” category if it agreed to severe restrictions on the number of Top 40 singles it played.

It seemed rock’s official recognition was just around the corner.

That’s when the British government’s Home Office--the department responsible for the Broadcasting Bill--suddenly announced it had come up with its own definition.

Said the government: “Pop music includes rock music and other kinds of modern popular music which are characterized by a strong rhythmic element and a reliance on electrical amplification for their performance.”

There it was. Rock and pop were legally inseparable.

The announcement took everyone--including the Radio Authority--by surprise. The Home Office declined to say how it arrived at its definition. Rock FM officials grumbled.

Radio Authority members still have to decide on frequency allocations--which programming formats will go on AM and which lucky one will go on stereo FM. It remains possible that the “other than pop” and “speech-based” categories will be assigned AM frequencies, which would allow Rock FM to bid in the “open” category for the FM station.

But that is considered highly unlikely.

Perhaps Rock FM can now persuade the government that the decades-old records of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and the Who are classical.