Capitol Punishment: 20 Acts Get Pink Slips : Music: CEO Gary Gersh pulls the plug on Smithereens, Great White, Billy Squire and others.

The corporate shake-up at Capitol Records has kicked into full gear, with new President and Chief Executive Gary Gersh purportedly issuing pink slips to some 20 acts, including the Smithereens, Television, Great White and Billy Squire.

The long-rumored roster slashing is the latest step in a multimillion-dollar plan to “energize” the Thorn-EMI-owned label, home to such acts as Hammer, Bonnie Raitt and Paul McCartney.

EMI Music brass are also shopping for a $2-million private corporate jet, and have allocated an estimated $1 million to upgrade the landmark Capitol Tower, starting with elaborate ninth and 12th floor executive suite renovations.

Gersh refused to discuss specifics about roster cuts, but said his new management team is working hard to put the finishing touches on the company’s reorganization.

“We have been putting in extremely long hours to try to get this restructuring done as swiftly as possible,” said Gersh, who took over July 1. “And although it was difficult for everyone involved, I believe that Capitol Records has come out of it a much more streamlined and aggressive, artist-driven company.”

Sources inside and outside of Capitol view the roster cuts--which will cost the British conglomerate $8 million to $12 million in contract buyouts before September--as a fiscally prudent first step toward reinvigorating its flagship label, whose market share has shrunk from 3.8% in 1992 to 3.4% earlier this year.

EMI Records Group--which currently ranks last among the six record conglomerates in U.S. album sales--also spent $7 million this week to buy out the contracts of former Capitol executives Hale Milgrim and Art Jaegar--who resigned under pressure on May 26, when Gersh was named to run the label by Charles Koppelman, chairman and chief executive of EMI Records Groups in North America. Milgrim apparently made the decision to cut five of the exiting rock acts.

News of the roster trim follows Capitol’s recent firing of 20-plus employees in marketing, creative services and other departments, raising the total to about 60 who have lost their jobs since Koppelman took over in April.

The majority of artists terminated were brought to the company through a variety of pop, rock and urban production agreements. Four urban music deals--including a pact signed with R&B; singer Al B. Sure!--are on the chopping block, signaling what sources predict as a major overhaul looming ahead for Capitol’s black music department.

Duran Duran is the only Capitol act with an album currently in the Top 40 on the nation’s Billboard pop chart. Ironically, sources within the company credit Gersh’s marketing and promotion finesse with the recent success of two Milgrim discoveries--Radiohead, which ranks No. 46 and Blind Melon, which debuted at No. 157 and whose video is a hot pick on MTV’s hip “Buzz Bin” segment.

The 37-year-old executive, best known for guiding the success of Nirvana at Geffen Records, reportedly made Radiohead and Blind Melon top priorities at Capitol on the day he took over--pulling promotion and marketing people off 10 other projects to concentrate on gaining airplay for those two albums, sources said.

“We are definitely moving in the right direction at Capitol,” said Gersh, who fired five artist and repertoire executives and replaced them with his own team. “I believe all the changes that have occurred show we’re on the fast track to becoming the premier record company studio operation on the West Coast.”