Just last week, Bill Gruber, program director for WAPS, an R&R-reporting non-comm in Akron, Ohio, felt some of that music industry ire when he sent out an e-mail to record companies and indies informing them, "I have decided to work exclusively with Michele Clark Promotions for my independent tracking and promotion music calls."
Gruber insisted the decision was made simply as a way to save time and not have to deal with all the phone calls that come in from label reps and indies pushing their latest songs. But others see it as an early indication of an inevitable slide toward pay-for-play in public radio.
"Six months or a year from now and I'll be getting indie invoices for non-comms," predicts the head of promotion for one record label. "R&R sped up the process, but it was inevitable. The system is corrupt and whoever has the most money wins."
In other words, the major labels, the ones that can afford to hire lots of indies to manufacture a record's buzz, win.
"Non-comms are much more commercially oriented," complains one station staffer. "Two years ago you never would have found a new record by Elton John or Stevie Nicks or the Electric Light Orchestra on any self-respecting non-comm playlist." Combined, those '70s and '80s mainstays have sold nearly 100 million albums. Yet all three recently found their way onto many non-comm stations.
"Their attitude now is, 'If it's a big record we'll play it. But we don't want to play records if they're not hits,'" says another independent-label executive who also requests anonymity. "You're a fucking non-comm, you're supposed to play songs that aren't hits. Instead, they're sounding more and more like the shitty commercial station down the block."
Scott Kuchler of Koch Entertainment, an independent record company, agrees the game has recently changed. "Whether it's the influence of indies I'm not sure, but (non-comm) playlists have gotten tighter."
Shelling out more money to assure its musicians get played on public radio is not an option for companies like his, says Kuchler: "We're sort of a small label and we can't afford the luxury of hiring indies."
Will non-comms be able to resist the encroachment of pay-for-play from commercial radio, considering no other format on the dial has? Ten years ago some defiant programmers at modern rock radio stations vowed to resist the indie system in which songs were bought and sold. Five years ago the same brave rebel yells were heard at commercial Triple A stations when indies starting staking claims on their playlists.
Today though, with indies offering six-figure payments to stations, virtually every modern rock station in America is "claimed," as are the majority of commercial Triple A's.
Still, some think non-comms can prove the exception to the rule. "People have resisted because they recognize who their audience is and that's not how they want to be perceived. If listeners learned that non-comm playlists were for sale, that would be terrible news locally," says indie promoter Sean Coakley. (Unlike Clark, Coakley does not try to claim stations; he is opposed to the pay-for-play system.)
"Perhaps I'm being pollyannaish about it, but I think for the most part people will say, 'No, we're public radio, and that's not what public radio is all about,'" says Brad Paul, vice president of radio promotion at Rounder Records, home to bluegrass/country music stars Alison Krauss and Union Station.
But at least one non-comm station insider insists it's too late for wishful thinking, because the format's innocence is over. "During fund drives we make a big deal about listeners' active participation and feedback. But it's all a crock of shit because we're going to play whatever Michele Clark wants us to play."
About the writer
Eric Boehlert is a senior writer at Salon.
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