A lot of the growth of satellite radio as a way to get your music jones fulfilled is absolutely due to the lack of commercials on the stations. Some of the growth, however, is due to the disrespect many music fans have for the programming on their local radio stations. At the very least, we should look at radio and realize one thing - it's called "programming" for a reason. It's not what deejays and people with a feel for music as a whole want you to hear - it's what a playlist contains, and nothing more. Remember - as Clear Channel's previous CEO Lowry Mays said, "If anyone said we were in the radio business, it wouldn't be someone from our company. We're not in the business of providing news and information. We're not in the business of providing well-researched music. We're simply in the business of selling our customers products." Radio isn't in the business to give you music. You view it as a means to listen to music or talk. Radio views itself as a channel through which to get you to listen so you hear the advertising.

That said, let's get back to the programming. It's not a new concept that there would be a way of manipulation of how songs make their way onto the airwaves - "payola" was the old-school term, but is since illegal - it also shouldn't be a surprise that similar practices could still be in place to this day.

Michele at A Small Victory writes about the current methods of getting songs on the air, referring to this article in the New York Times where reporter Jeff Leeds describes how New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer now has some major music labels in his sights. It seems that some monies are making their way to radio stations via "independent song promoters" who are paid by music labelsto promote songs. The promoters are paying the stations for copies of playlists, and then recouping those costs from the labels when they "prove" that their songs have made it on air.