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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.
Those plays, or "spins," helped Don't Tell Me vault into the elite top 10 on Billboard magazine's national pop radio chart, which radio program directors across the country use to spot hot new tunes.
But what many chart watchers may not know is that the predawn saturation in Nashville — and elsewhere — occurred largely because Arista Records paid the station to play the song as an advertisement. In all, sources said, WQZQ aired Don't Tell Me as an ad at least 40 times the week ending May 23, accounting for more than one-third of the song's airplay on the station.
So, let me get this straight. Paying the radio stations directly is bad, paying independent promoters (who "influence" the radio stations to play a particular song by whatever means necessary) is okay.
Unfortunately, this practice has been the standard for the last half century or so. Radio stations -- particularly anymore in the US -- do not allow their DJs to pick songs themselves. There's a play clock on the wall, if the DJ gets any choice at all, it's from a very short list of songs. Radio is still the best way to break a song to the general public (and thereby make lots o' money for the label), and there's only so much time available, so the labels are going to do whatever it takes to get their money back on their investment.
In short, the song that's on the radio was almost certainly bought and paid for, not chosen because the radio DJ really liked it. Sorry if this bursts anyone's bubble, but it's the way of the world.
Thanks to Xeni for the tip.
Posted by Casper at June 13, 2004 12:59 PM