It seems that one of the station’s djs has been charging local artists a fee of $200 for a certain number of spins. I don’t know if this is with or without the station manager’s approval. Either way, it’s illegal, and it’s bullshit. Call it what you want, it’s still payola.

This ain’t nothing new. But, it seems that more and more of the small market stations (or djs) are doin’ it to supplement their income. Either station owners are doin’ it because they’re not pulling in enough advertisers, or just being greedy. It’s probably a lot of both.

I see a lot of upstart artists and labels getting frustrated with the situation. They’re hustlin’ and grindin’ just to get enough money to pay for their cds, and then you’ve got these fools at radio tryin’ to tear ‘em a new asshole.

I’ve said it a million times already. Don’t yall listen ? Or read ? Leave their asses alone. U DON’T NEED RADIO !! THEY NEED U !!

Hit the streets. Create a buzz. Do yo thang.

How many established artists do you think are paying these small market stations to play their music ? Not many, if any at all. They’re happy to get their music, but wanna treat the local artist like shit. Local djs, use ya big ass heads. If you help push 3 or 4 hot local artists, you stand a good chance of being remembered for it on down the road. I know there’s no guarantee that one of those artist is gonna break you off something when he/she/ or they hit it (unless you’ve got some paper work), but I’d chance it.

The local listeners are partly to blame for the hot local rappers not getting a shot at radio. Most don’t support local talent. They’ll pay $15 for a cd by an established artist (and have only heard 1 song on the cd) and won’t pay $5 to $10 for a HOT local cd. If the listeners would stop supporting local radio stations until they support local talent, things would change. NO STATION LISTENERS, NO STATION ADVERTISERS. Swallow that, radio!!

If there’s a hot artist in your area that you wanna hear.... Complain about it, picket, bad mouth the station in public, or go to their advertisers and let them know how you feel. Tell the advertisers you’re not gonna shop with them until the station plays more local artists. Do what cha gotta do. Tell em you wanna hear these artists on the morning shows, the afternoon drive
(2pm - 6pm), and primetime (6pm -10pm). None of that 2am and 4am junk. Or 1 spin on the weekend.

Don’t just do it with small stations, do it with the large market stations like Clear Channel and Cox. Big corporate owned stations need advertisers just like the privately owned stations.

They don’t have any power. You’ve got it. We all have more power than we realize.
We are THE NEW POWER !!