NET PROCEEDS ROCK GROUPS FIND THEIR FANS ON THE WEB.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

The Internet gets a lot of credit for kick-starting pop careers and getting the word out about today's faves.

But what of yesterday's rockers, the graying classic-rock crowd that, though often quite active, is almost universally ignored by radio, MTV and the pop press?

Many, including such veterans as Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Waite, Blue Oyster Cult, Loverboy and Missing Persons, are cutting new albums and hitting the road - although, if you depended on traditional sources for news, you might never know it.

Unless, of course, you searched the Web, where a varied group of road- worthy acts whose glory days were the '70s and '80s are singing a brand-new tune - ``Sweet Home Cyberspace.''

As Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Johnny Van Zant tells it, the band initially thought long and hard about a way to reach listeners.

``We figured a lot of our fans needed somewhere to find out what we were up to since radio acts like we're extinct,'' he said. ``Our Web site (www.lynyrdskynyrd.com) is a place for us to get closer to our fans. We've been lucky to have strong support from VH-1 because of 'Behind the Music,' which increased our fan base. Then we noticed it wasn't just the older folks who wanted to check us out on their computers.''

Along with regularly updated news, video and music clips, photos and merchandise, most classic-rock band sites offer links to Ticketmaster so fans can snap up seats to local shows as soon as they're announced.

(The Florida-based Skynyrd, whose '70s hits include Southern-rock perennials ``Freebird'' and ``Sweet Home Alabama,'' canceled its scheduled Wednesday appearance at Universal Amphitheatre after the death over the weekend of founding member and bassist Leon Wilkeson.)

Some acts admit they were computer illiterate until they realized the potential of the World Wide Web.

British vocalist Waite, for example, credits six techies for keeping his site (www.johnwaite.com) up and running. The singer, who fronted the Babys in the '70s and Bad English in the '80s before going solo with such Top 40 hits as ``Missing You'' and ``Every Step of the Way,'' says the online world, to him, ``is like breathing water.''

Still, he said he was startled to hear in the mid-'90s that a growing number of longtime fans had started an e-mail dialogue about his career. The most frequently asked question was if Waite - appearing Aug. 14 and 15 at the Greek Theatre with Journey and Peter Frampton - was still performing. And if so, where?

``People wanted to know where I was and what I was doing,'' Waite said. ``Was I still recording? Was I touring? Was I putting a band together? Was I writing songs? Was I even still singing?''

Waite's extensive Web site features conversational threads, live chat, fan reviews of albums and gigs, and a Top 10 of favorite Waite songs.

``I'm constantly amazed at the input,'' Waite says. ``It's really made an amazing difference, being able to contact my audience all at once. And I do take note of what goes on there.''

One '70s group that embraced technical innovation early was Blue Oyster Cult, whose dark futurism and surreal humor in such classic tunes as ``Don't Fear the Reaper'' set them apart from the hippie hordes of the time.

BOC singer-guitarist Eric Bloom says he signed up for America Online seven years ago and quickly found a home on the classic-rock discussion board.

``I started posting as myself and a year later began doing live online chats through AOL,'' he said. ``In those days it was quite a happening thing. It was totally open, not one of these 'N Sync deals where you send a question in advance and they decide which ones they want to answer. It was a real free-for-all.''

Today, BOC's Web destination (www.blueoystercult.com) gets around 1,000 visitors at any given time, Bloom says.

``There are also more than a dozen fan sites devoted to BOC,'' Bloom reports. ``And right now, AOL's classic-rock bulletin board is having an active discussion about what we should be playing live. It's something I pay attention to. If the fans are saying we should be performing something, we'll often go work it up.''

Sometimes, a band might be in the unlucky position of having a name that doesn't lend itself to an easy Web search. Take, for example, recently reunited '80s hitmakers Missing Persons. Do a Yahoo search on that phrase and you'll get hundreds of replies - none of them musical and all of them rather depressing.

However, the trio, famous for the hits ``Walking in L.A.'' and ``Destination Unknown,'' does have a site (cglass.vinu.edu/mp.html) which is soon moving to the far friendler www.missingpersonsband.com.

``There's a real interest in the '80s, and when we were thinking about getting the band back together, we checked out the Internet to gauge what kind of interest there actually was,'' said guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, who joined Duran Duran in 1986 when Missing Persons first folded. ``I can tell you that nothing we found made me go, 'Oh my God, we need to book 5,000-seat venues.' But we did get a sense that people who missed us the first time around want to see what we were about. And, of course, there are the old fans that miss us from the '80s.''

As a result of Cuccurullo's Web research, Missing Persons launched a local club tour that brought them to the Roxy last month.

It wasn't as easy for the members of '80s Canadian pop-rockers Loverboy, who got a genuine jolt when searching the Web for their domain name a few months ago. The result was a gay porn site, not exactly what singer Mike Reno wanted fans to stumble across when looking for Loverboy tour dates and T-shirts.

``It was totally outrageous,'' Reno said, chuckling. ``Luckily, the guy that had it was a fan of the band. Now, we have the name. There was no court battle or anything.''

Reno says the site (www.loverboy.com) is updated immediately following a show with pictures and comments. The band, whose Top 40 hits include ``Workin' for the Weekend,'' ``Lovin' Every Minute of It'' and ``This Could Be the Night,'' is planning a Los Angeles show.

``Before we got very hands-on about our official Web site, we had fan-operated sites that were excellent but it got to be very snail-mailish about getting stuff posted,'' Reno recalled. ``As life went on, we decided to operate our own site and it's really made a big difference.

``We can post pictures up straight after a show, post notices if we want to, advertise a just-added date or new album. When I think back to life before the Internet, it's like imagining life in the '40s.''

JOHN WAITE

Where: Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 6:30 p.m. Aug. 14 and 15.

Tickets: $27.50 to $75.

Information: [phone] or www.ticketmaster.com.

CAPTION(S):

7 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Loverboy

(2 -- cover -- color) John Waite

(3 -- cover -- color) Blue Oyster Cult

(4) Journey, minus former lead singer Steve Perry, renewed its '80s fame through its Internet endeavor.

(5) Members of Missing Persons discovered that searching for their band's name on the Web yielded pretty depressing results.

(6) Johnny Van Zant

Lynyrd Skynyrd singer

(7) When members of '80s group Loverboy, including lead singer Mike Reno, center, went to secure that Web address, they found that it was occupied by a gay porn site.