Payola is Alive and Well on Radio

[On the Road]

Paid song "ads" on radio walk, talk, quack like payola

An article in the LA Times about record companies paying radio stations to air specific songs as ads. Critics say the practice is a lot like the "payola" systems of the 1950s, which for the most part were outlawed long ago.

During a single week in May, Canadian pop rocker Avril Lavigne's new song Don't Tell Me aired no fewer than 109 times on Nashville radio station WQZQ-FM. The heaviest rotation came between midnight and 6 a.m., an on-air no man's land visited largely by insomniacs, truckers and graveyard shift workers. On one Sunday morning, the three-minute, 24-second song aired 18 times, sometimes as little as 11 minutes apart."

---snip

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/06/12/paid_song_ads_on_rad.html

[coloradodem2005]

1. When they say the heaviest rotation...

...do they mean when the radio station plays the most Different songs instead of playing the same song over and over again?

[Fenris]

2. No. "Heavy Roatation" means...

that a radio station plays the same song over and over and over again.

[coloradodem2005]

3. Oh.

Not as bad as doing it during the day but that is still really lame.