PAYOLA!!

Looks like another payola scandal is rocking the nation. Here's one story. But I like this one from the New York Daily News better because its lead gets down to business:

Sick of lousy songs on the radio?
Blame it on a corrupt record business that skews the Top 40 by giving free trips and other goodies to radio programmers - and cold cash to radio stations to play their artists, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer charged yesterday.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I miss the good old days of payola, back when working DJs got their fair share of hookers and blow from the record hustlers. These days all the free trips and lavish gifts are for the bosses, not to mention the blatant cash payments made directly to corporate radio coffers. The working DJ is out of the loop.

Seriously, I miss the days when commercial radio DJs were considered worth bribing because they had the power to bring the music they wanted to the public. These days at most commercial stations DJs have become mere button pushers playing whatever the home office says to play.

UPDATE: Slate has an interesting article by Daniel Gross called "What's Wrong With Payola?" CLICK HERE