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Permalink Reply by Rudyjeep on October 7, 2010 at 3:26pm

"For those of us old enough to remember, there were the “payola” scandals back in the ’50s, where record companies were found to be bribing station managers to get songs added. Is there possibly some 21st-century variation of that happening now? Personally I would doubt that the record companies would have any involvement, as they have their hands full with file-sharing issues, etc."

I want to comment on the above paragraph, Jeff, but first let me clarify a few things. The bigger, more well know Public Radio stations select their music through the same process that commercial radio stations do. They are solicited for adds from record labels, they review Mediabase to find out what other like minded stations are playing and they look at the charts. Very little is left to chance or "how it sounds" or if the staff likes it. Think of it as a music version of Billy Beane's book "Moneyball". There is money on the line for them - through pledges and donations - just like commercial stations rely on advertising. And when money is on the line - big money - everyone tends to get real conservative.

As far as what record companies are doing now - after years of trying to bribe the radio stations for valuable airplay, the mostly foreign owned labels have found another sucker to listen to their tales of woe about their shortsighted business failures - the US Congress. They are lobbying Congress to make radio stations pay a performance tax that is suppose to go to the artists (though over 50% of it goes to the labels). In effect, they are trying to get stations who gave them billions of dollars in free airtime - airtime they resorted to illegal methods (i.e. payola) to receive - to pay them for it. Remember, just 3 years ago, they paid millions in fines for trying to bribe radio station program directors. I think that is the definition of "Chutzpah".

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Permalink Reply by Jim Pipkin on October 7, 2010 at 4:00pm

To paraphrase an old saw, perhaps one should not examine too closely how sausages and playlists are made. Seriously though, I have run into all sorts in the radio world. Some music directors pick their playlists by the shows they syndicate, leaving content 100% up to the show producers. Some live shows are wide open - bring your strings and play whatever, even CD cuts.

Some syndicated shows are influenced by politics, taste, and personal infighting. Formats are another thing altogether. Public radio may be "public", but it is really for the "paying public", and shows that cannot bring in the sponsors meet a quick end. One of the reasons acoustic Folk/Americana is so under-represented on the radio is that its fans are too thinly dispersed and reluctant to contribute. They may love it, but ten times as many well-heeled sponsors dig Jazz.

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