Commercial Radio
If you have your heart set on hearing your dark as night, angst-driven song, complete
with tearful arpeggios and ear shattering solos on the radio, nestled between Ozzy Os-
bourne and Alice Cooper, in a word, from my New York Italian vernacular,
“fugetaboutit.” As an indie act, it’s simply not going to happen. Sorry. Sometimes the
truth hurts.
Here’s why. Commercial radio is, for the most part, a pay-to-play thing. It tends to be
a shakedown. A racket, if you will. It’s a very tightly secured industry. Deals are made on
the basis of handshakes instead of quality contracts. Handshakes that often erode into
broken dream and broken promises.
As a matter of fact, here’s yet another history lesson for you. The term “payola,”
which is a combination of the words, “pay” and “Victrola,” was coined for the music in-
dustry’s practice of pretty much outright bribery to get songs played. From Wikipedia,
“Under U.S. law, 47 U.S.C. § 317, a radio station can play a specific song in exchange
for money, but this must be disclosed on the air as being sponsored airtime, and that play
of the song should not be counted as a "regular airplay." However, that’s not always the
case. Somewhere, a corporate headquarters, where the big wigs live, make the track se-
lections for commercial radio. Plus, those selections are often decided upon based on who
provides the best and most in terms of favors, vacations, junkets, money, nifty gifts such
as drugs, and other seedy, seamy and unsavory commodities and services. I think you get
the idea. Feel like washing your hands?