PAYOLA
Your radio is broke.
PAYOLA is in the headlines again, and this time it's SONY caught paying off radio stations to play their flacid hits. I'm hoping internet radio and podcasting will help bring an end to this and a start to the quality of music we hear on college and pirate radio stations (which, to my suprise, play very little "Yo-ho-ho" music.)
Anyhow, check out this EXCELLENT article by SALON that first educated me to the ins and outs of pay-for-play on the radio.
It begins...
"Does radio seem bad these days? Do all the hits sound the same, all the stars seem like cookie cutouts of one another?
It's because they do, and they are.
Why? Listeners may not realize it, but radio today is largely bought by the record companies. Most rock and Top 40 stations get paid to play the songs they spin by the companies that manufacture the records.
But it's not payola -- exactly. Here's how it works...."
(((CONTINUED)))
5 Comments:
At 1:05 PM, Martini said…
I feel stupid.
At 1:11 PM, Kev And Charlotte said…
Really? Why?
At 3:11 PM, Rainypete said…
That's why I don't listen to a radio staion anymore. Three cheers for MP3's my friend. I am my own program director (Of course, I need to hire someone competent but without the payola money it's hard to get someone).
At 3:39 PM, Martini said…
...because I never knew why radio stations were so repetitive. It just seems so bloody obvious now. I feel like radio has made a fool out of me.
At 8:27 AM, Kev And Charlotte said…
I'd like to think it's not quite so bad here in Canada due to the fact that there is no radio conglomerate- and that the CRTC states you can't own more than a single AM and FM station. But i think it's naive to think that's across the board. I wonder if the BBC is effected by this - a government radio station.
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