Orange County 1990/1991 THE YEAR AHEAD : A Way to Subsidize Real Rock Radio : Stars like Springsteen, McCartney and Jackson owe a debt to diverse programming.

With the threat of war and economic disaster, we all may have to learn to be grim realists in 1991. So I’m going to indulge in a little wishful thinking while I still can.

I wish that Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, and all the other Croesuses of rock ‘n’ roll would start turning their checkbooks and their sense of philanthropic duty in a direction where it is desperately needed: toward the salvation of rock radio.

What should rock radio be? The answer lies in a new song by Van Morrison called “In the Days Before Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

With a strange, wonderful combination of soul-singing and spoken recitation, Morrison, rock’s greatest chronicler of the magic of wireless, recalls how it was to be a kid mesmerized, moved and transformed by the sound of Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and John Lee Hooker coming out of the ether.

There is no station you can tune in today that will match the magical diversity captured in that roster. Commercial radio has become segmented and compartmentalized as broadcasters compete not for music lovers’ minds and hearts but for attractive “demographics.” We have radio stations for dance-happy teens, stations for metal-heads, for trendy KROQ youth and for mellowing Baby Boomers. Advertisers demand that compartmentalization: for them, it’s ideal to have one station for selling burgers and acne cream to the dancing teens, and another for pitching backache pills and luxury sedans to their parents.

What we need now is another kind of radio station: one for people who love rock music. Let the teens have their Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice. Let the metal-heads bang away. Let KROQ stay on the road to techno-heaven. Let the WAVE-ers be soothed. But let’s also have radio that honors rock’s immense diversity with programming that combines the old and the new, the black with the white, the rural with the urban, the rootsy with the forward-looking.

Let’s have disc jockeys who know their stuff and have the freedom and gumption to use their own ears to pick air-worthy music. Let them be independent thinkers, not the hopeless eunuchs we have now as “air personalities.” Let’s burn the play-lists churned out by computers. Let’s tell the consultants we don’t need their expertise. Let’s show the record company promo person pitching the latest from Phil Collins or Wilson Phillips politely to the door.

Let’s have thought-out sets of radio music in which one song enhances the next, displaying the disc jockey’s power to add meaning and aesthetic resonance to each individual song by placing it in a creatively arranged sequence.

Let’s play rock’s founding fathers and mothers alongside the latest worthy contenders, keeping listeners attuned to the historical connections and stylistic continuities that make rock a culture of its own. Let’s have radio stations that keep a close ear to their local music scenes, playing the best of what they produce. Let’s keep it all accessible, too, avoiding the excesses of self-indulgence that marred the old days of free-form FM radio.

And, oh yes--let’s have Bruce Springsteen pay for it.

And Mick Jagger, and Michael Jackson, and Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, and all the other pop and rock artists who have gotten wildly rich off this music. It is time for them to put something back.

Just as captains of industry have paid millions of dollars to build college campuses and support fine-arts companies, the captains of rock should ante up the money it will take to create a network of commercial radio stations dedicated to what’s best in rock.

How much? Well, a buyer recently acquired two smallish Southern California FM stations, KOCM and KSRF, for $17.7 million. Maybe the Boss could swing that. Maybe John Cougar Mellencamp could buy a station in Indianapolis, where the price figures to be a lot lower. ZZ Top could invest in Texas, Bob Seger in Detroit. Hometown connections would be nice.

The rockers would look on these purchases as donations, not as investments. For each rocker-owned station, the financial goal would be to break even, not to become a leading commercial force in its market. That’s how rock radio got into the mess it’s in now.

Costs could be kept down to help our radio stations survive without living by the bottom line. Pay would be decent, but not lavish. These stations wouldn’t need high-priced personality deejays, just ones with a passion for putting the music first.

Instead of big cash giveaways to attract listeners, the rocker-owned stations would be able to provide musical bonuses that money can’t buy. My hypothetical station--call it KBOSS--would be able to play the next Springsteen album before anybody else has it, as well as unreleased Springsteen music not available elsewhere. That would attract some listeners and advertisers. Bruce and other rockers eager to support the idea might make a point of granting exclusive interviews or live appearances to stations in the Rocker Radio Network. Through simulcasting, an increasing force in radio, stations in such a network could share these programs and build an audience. It would soon be obvious that the rocker-owned stations were special, a home on the dial for the serious music fan.

Skeptics might say that Springsteen, Jagger and the rest aren’t about to tinker with the radio status quo that made them rich, let alone dump millions of dollars into financing a revolution against it. They’re probably right. But this is my New Year’s wishful thinking column, so let me dream.

In my wishful pop world, Sting and the rest of our new brigade of environmentally minded pop stars would set a real example by scuttling their gas-guzzling, exhaust-spewing touring caravans of custom buses and 18-wheelers. Let ‘em take the train.

Adapting rock tours to mass-transit and rail freight systems would be a tremendous environmental and conservationist gesture, and, unlike the fight against wasteful CD “longbox” packaging, it’s one rockers can accomplish on their own, without any need for cooperation from record companies or retailers. While they’re at it, touring rockers on big amphitheater tours should simply use the house system at each stop, rather than wastefully lugging tons of their own gear. And lose those lavish, high-tech stage sets, which also have to be trucked around endlessly. This isn’t opera, it’s rock ‘n’ roll.

In my wishful pop world, idiotic six-figure expenditures to shoot videos and to record albums would cease. Record companies would insist on economy for the artist’s own sake, and they would respect and value the efforts of acts that don’t grasp for the gold and platinum ring. Under sane rock economics, an album that sold 20,000 or 30,000 copies would be considered a solid, profitable effort instead of a no-account flop; performers able to reach that sales level would be able to make a dignified living with their music. Such acts wouldn’t need MTV anymore; Bruce Springsteen’s radio station, and others like it around the country, would be introducing them to a mass public.

In my wishful pop world, any national headlining act that refuses to let clubs such as the Coach House and Bogart’s give opening slots to worthy local bands would be coated in egg and rotten tomato by the end of its set. Nothing is more sickening than a band that succeeds, only to shut the door of opportunity to unsigned acts trying to make their way.

O.C. pop developments to watch in 1991:

* This year’s Orange County rocker to watch is the same one I picked a year ago: Vinnie James.

James’ debut album, “All American Boy,” sat in a can last year as he switched record labels from Cypress to RCA, then had to wait out a management upheaval at RCA.

If RCA’s new management is smart, it will rush out a video and single for “Hey Geronimo,” a gutsy, instantly memorable protest song about past and present injustices against American Indians. The success of the film “Dances With Wolves” has created a rare window of opportunity in which the public’s attention is focused on this neglected issue. James’ spare, driving folk-rock song would instantly grab listeners’ attention and separate him from the rest of the ’91 rookie pack. James’ album, due out in March, is stocked with good, socially perceptive songs. Given a fair hearing, he could be a big success story this year. KBOSS would play him with pride.

* Also keep an eye on rock band Social Distortion, dance-popster Louie Louie, and country singer Jann Browne, who will be trying to capitalize on commercial footholds established last year.

* This year should determine whether Peppers Golden Bear has the ability to compete on an equal footing with the Coach House for top club-level concert attractions, breaking Orange County’s tradition of concert monopoly on the club scene.

* Also, keep an eye on the jockeying to build an indoor arena in the county, with competing developers in Anaheim and Santa Ana trying to bring a concert-and-sports facility to Orange County.