Just Give Us a Sign That Mark & Brian Street Lives : The two disc jockeys wanted a thoroughfare to call their own, but the sign . . . well.

As stunts go, it didn’t rival their bust at Graceland, where officials had a hissy fit over a live but secretly broadcast radio show. Or their peace offering last year, when they trucked a 1,400-pound Elvis head from a Rose Parade float cross-country to the King’s mansion.

But getting an Orange County street officially named after them was still pretty good, especially considering the Mark & Brian Expressway is actually a humongous driveway in a Santa Ana apartment complex.

Fans of the hottest morning radio team in Southern California loved it. An estimated 1,000 people showed up for the dedication ceremony last May 31 at Village Meadows, an unassuming, 183-unit, tan stucco complex on Lyon Street.

But even before the KLOS-FM disc jockeys got their names into the Thomas Guide map book--Page 23, D3--the street sign was stolen. A few weeks ago, its cement-anchored replacement was ripped off too.

“We can’t seem to keep them in the ground,” said Kaylee Harley, manager of the apartment complex. “I guess somebody dug it out of the concrete. I dunno. Maybe we should paint their names on the street or something.”

That a throng of people--which included Miss Universe Mona Grudt of Norway--flocked to the glorified parking lot for the 7:45 a.m. christening last year seems lost on Harley. She’s only been manager of Village Meadows about a month. And besides, it was her predecessor’s idea to name the driveway after the disc jockeys.

After a year of brazen, on-the-air soliciting for a street they could call their own, Mark Thompson, 35, and Brian Phelps, 31, got lucky. Then-apartment manager Rick Andres phoned to say the driveway to Village Meadows was woefully nameless.

“We wanted something different (than) the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Thompson said dryly during an interview at the Los Angeles radio station. “We thought having our very own road would be very, very special.”

There had been plenty of candidates. They included a dirt road behind a warehouse somewhere and some well-manicured streets in tony Los Angeles neighborhoods. But something about the absurdity of a driveway appealed to the pair.

The well-wishers who assembled that morning last spring included Village Meadows tenants excited about their new street sign. Fans from elsewhere dragged in offerings as if they were attending a Bible Belt revival, transforming the driveway into what looked like a giant garage sale.

Some guy delivered a cattle-crossing sign, another a stone water fountain. A lemonade stand was erected, along with a statue. A kid honked away at a trumpet. The mayor of Santa Ana gave the pair a key to the city.

“There was a lemonade mom, and 100 doves were released,” Phelps said. “We asked for a McDonald’s on the street.”

“And you know,” Thompson added, “McDonald’s considered it for, oh, five whole minutes.”

The birds--actually pigeons--soared skyward. Then, the green-and-white street sign was unveiled as the pair broadcast their show, complete with bathroom humor, live from a flatbed truck.

Less than a month later, the Mark & Brian Expressway sign was stolen. But it was soon replaced, and this time it was potted like a plant--in concrete.

Months went by. Mark and Brian continued their weekday shows, entertaining their morning audience with their top-rated blend of live call-ins, on-the-air matchmaking and, of course, their madcap stunts.

But by Valentine’s Day, when they rode shotgun with crooner Robert Goulet as he serenaded Los Angeles from a helicopter, their street sign had been nicked.

No one at the apartment complex seems to know exactly when that happened. Which is curious, considering the sign had to be dug out of concrete, possibly with a jackhammer.

It was gone about the time Harley became manager some four weeks ago.

Adding insult to injury, Harley admitted that she hadn’t noticed the sign missing, and isn’t sure whether building owners are interested in bothering with a new one.

If it is not replaced, the disc jockeys--who learned last week that they will star in “The Adventures of Mark and Brian,” six episodes of their own NBC, prime-time television show--said they will understand.

After all, the sign for the Memphis road named after their idol, Elvis Presley, has been lifted so many times that the city gave up replacing it. Besides, their street sign may be gone but their names will live on in the map book.

“We’d love to see it replaced and put back up,” Thompson said. “But it’s kind of an honor that someone would want to steal it.”