CHIRP: The Chicago Independent Radio Project

Tony Tschetter-Breed writes

Payola: Our Savior* [*note: sarcasm]

Perhaps you’ve been following the situation with the new royalty charges for internet radio stations. The short version of the story is that the new royalty rates for performers (a royalty that terrestrial radio is exempt from paying) is likely to put a number of small broadcasters out of business.

According to this article at Wired, ad exec Doug Perlson has proposed a simple solution: payola.

What?

Yup. Payola is illegal for terrestrial radio, but not for internet radio… so why not?

Because payola is bad, that’s why not. Jeez, people. It was made illegal because it is, essentially, lying to listeners. When you hear a song on the radio, whether internet or terrestrial, you expect that it was chosen on its merits, not because of a kickback to the station.

Needless to say, the upcoming CHIRP webcast will not resort to anything like that to fund itself.