`PHONE BOOTH' HAS COOL OPERATOR.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

As summer radio hits go, the oddly titled ``Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand'' by Primitive Radio Gods is among the most haunting.

The ice-cool production, which includes a can't-miss melody, a hip-hop beat and a scratchy sample of B.B. King's voice taken from the blues master's concert staple, ``How Blue Can You Get,'' is perfect beach material that also sounds great in the car.

Although the high-tech, dreamy track seems as if it were finished just yesterday, it actually gathered dust in a San Diego-area closet for nearly five years until chief Radio God Chris O'Connor rediscovered it and sent it out to record companies in a blind mailing this year.

That's when Sony Records U.K. entered the picture, fell in love with the song and released it in April as a CD single in Britain, where it failed to pick up much airplay.

Not so in the States. ``Broken Phone Booth,'' which was devised entirely by O'Connor under the Primitive Radio Gods moniker, is among the most-played songs on the nation's alternative-rock radio formats.

As an added boost, the track was used in the hit soundtrack to ``The Cable Guy,'' as well as on the Radio Gods' just-released debut album, ``Rocket'' (Ergo/Columbia), which entered the Billboard 200 albums chart this week at No. 60, an unusually high first-week placement for a new artist.

``I used King's voice by accident,'' the 31-year-old O'Connor said from the beach in Carlsbad. ``I started with a drum loop and thought an acoustic bass would sound cool. And I had these floppy discs lying around that had B.B. King samples. I experimented with different sounds and broke up the sample, and it actually changed the melody for the better.''

Clearance to use King singing the lyrics, ``I've been downhearted, baby/Ever since the day we met,'' from ``How Blue Can You Get,'' came from the publisher of the song. The number was co-written by the late jazz critic Leonard Feather.

``I have no idea why it's so popular right now,'' said O'Connor, who had given up on the idea of a career in music. ``I'll leave that to the critics.''

O'Connor, in fact, had taken a job as an air traffic controller at Los Angeles International Airport, a five-year span he prefers not to talk about much, except to say that he was continually amazed at the antique equipment used in the tower.

``When something would break down, we'd sometimes have to call in these geezers out of retirement to repair it,'' he said.

Various songs on ``Rocket,'' however, contain airplane references, as does ``Broken Phone Booth,'' which boasts a jarring line about a plane that ``takes off from Baltimore and touches down on Bourbon Street.''

During the late '80s, ex-Navy recruit O'Connor was a member of the Ventura-based power-pop trio the I-Rails, which released four indie albums. Just after the group broke up in '91, O'Connor took the job at LAX and began working on the tracks that would make up ``Rocket.''

O'Connor, who played all the instruments, had hit upon a musical synthesis that drew upon elements of hip-hop, pop, jazz, rock and funk. Not to mention blues in the shape of King.

The album was made for $1,000 on a barely working 1969 Ampex 16-track in a friend's suburban garage.

``I was never into hip-hop much until I got a sub-woofer for my car and started listening to (N.W.A.'s) `Straight Outta Compton' and then P.E. (Public Enemy),'' he said. ``It struck me those were the only original things happening in music at the time.''

Yet, faced with widespread indifference, O'Connor gave up on being signed or ever having his album released. It wasn't until early this year that he rediscovered the tapes and again sent copies to music people.

Along with the song's nationwide radio popularity, the ``Broken Phone Booth'' video is all over MTV.

O'Connor, who planned to start a business of some kind if there was still no interest in his music, is looking forward to a busy summer. He's about to sign on as the opening act on one of the summer's bigger alt-rock package tours.

``I'm trying to remain calm,'' he said. ``But I've waited a long time for this.''

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Photo: ``I have no idea why it's so popular right now,'' sa ys Primitive Radio Gods' Chris O'Connor of ``Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand.''