FIRM SEEKS GOOD PR, FOR A SONG.

Byline: BRENT HOPKINS Staff Writer

Do you need a place to live,

Where vegetables can blanch?

Don't be bitter,

Check out Ritter.

Come live at the Ranch!

As owner of the long-delayed Ritter Ranch project, SunCal Cos. faces an interesting challenge.

Developers have eyed the 10,625-acre plot as a master-planned community since the late '80s, but bankruptcy, legal entanglement and a wildly fluctuating housing market stymied previous efforts. With models set to open in 2007 and the housing market softer than in previous years, SunCal needs to get folks excited about the 7,200-home project once again.

And so, it's saying ``I love you'' to Palmdale -- in song.

``We're looking at Antelope Valley, and we realize it's special,'' said David Soyka, SunCal's senior vice president of marketing. ``We want someone who'll capture the heart of Antelope Valley because, hopefully, our project will encompass that, as well.''

The company recently announced ``Music From Home,'' a six-week contest that seeks local artists to compose a song that will, in Soyka's words, ``tell a compelling story of the Antelope Valley and their life there.''

The winner gets $10,000, a professional recording of the song, a video and a chance to play the opening of Ritter Ranch Amphitheatre.

Singer/songwriters have until Jan. 15 to submit up to three songs, and SunCal hopes to have a winner picked by February.

Ritter Ranch

It's for you

Whether you're a CEO or foreman

There's a store, a library too,

and a golf course designed by Greg Norman.

Soyka calls the master-planned community, designed with horse trails, a golf course and country club, library and retail space, ``the jewel of Palmdale.'' He doesn't want a jingle, but something that's inspired by the area's desert beauty.

And so John Austin -- a 37-year-old math teacher, guitar player and former probation officer -- drew upon his lifelong residency of the Lancaster area to come up with a tune. Though he normally plays soft rock/blues/gospel, he selected a secular love song because ``everyone's been in love with someone and there's a lot of love in the Antelope Valley.''

If he wins and locals associate the song with Ritter Ranch, he earnestly believes that the confluence of housing and harmony can bring Palmdale residents together.

``People live in houses, but those houses are part of a community,'' said Austin, who also worked for Target Corp. in loss prevention before entering his current vocation. ``I have a background in criminal justice, so I believe that you make the community safer with music. It brings you together.

``The more activity a community has together, the safer it'll be.''

To develop the apparently unprecedented campaign, SunCal enlisted the help of Roddan Paolucci Roddan, a Palos Verdes Estates-based advertising specialist. The company garnered worldwide attention earlier this year for its radical ``HomeLife'' program, which hired actors to pretend they lived in the model homes of the Milestone development in Santa Clarita.

If you are a young family

We'll offer lots of leeway.

Buy our homes, which are, indeed

Convenient to the freeway.

Even before the company selects a winner, the promotion has begun stirring up interest in both the development and the artists it wishes to support.

``Even just getting your name out there in the A.V. is so hard, this lets us get our music in places we'd never have a chance to,'' said Stayce Roberts, who's both a real estate agent and an acoustic guitarist with Lancaster-based Smalltown.

``Hey, I'm talking to you now and I wouldn't have been, otherwise.''

Roberts, who compares his vocals to those of Jon Bon Jovi, says his band combines the country elements of Vince Gill and the rock stylings of the Eagles.

Though members of his band have worked with professional musicians plenty of times, collaborating with All 4 One and Color Me Badd, Roberts says that winning the contest would provided much-needed exposure. Given the dearth of country bars in Palmdale, he covets the chance to bring his cowboy-hatted bandmates to Ritter Ranch Amphitheatre.

The folks are nice

The desert's warm.

Don't miss this opportunity

So don't delay, pack up today

And pick our master-planned community.

Soyka, who's not a musician but did play the accordion in his youth, set no preconditions for the winning song. He would, however, prefer something written specifically for the contest, rather than an ``I lost my girlfriend song.''

``We're looking for an inspired piece that would take a few weeks to write, at least,'' he said. ``I don't know if you just sit down with a guitar and start plucking away, but there are no limitations. It's not like the song must be written by someone sitting at the top of the hill.''

Roberts, who's written jingles before, appreciates the creative freedom. Smalltown turned in three songs, including one about a couple who falls in love after meeting in a diner and another tale of three friends coming of age over cowboys and Indians games and Elvis Presley music.

``Maybe it's enough to raise people's eyebrows and get them to say, `Hey, let's check this Ritter Ranch place out.'

``It's cool that they want original songs, because what are you going to rhyme with Ritter? Critter?'' he laughed before breaking out into song. ``Come to Ritter, we've got critters!''

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- ran in Valley edition only) Jason Scott, left, and Stayce Roberts, Antelope Valley residents and members of the band Smalltown, have entered a songwriting contest promoted by Palmdale's Ritter Ranch project.

(2 -- ran in Valley edition only) John Austin, an Antelope Valley resident and Christian rock and blues guitarist, will also try his hand at writing a song for the contest, to promote life in the Antelope Valley.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer