Better Radio? Don’t Hold Your Breath

Music fans rejoiced last week when the FCC announced that, in order to settle allegations of rampant payola, radio stations and the corporate conglomerates which own them had agreed to devote 4,200 hours of free airtime to local, independent artists. That sounds like a lot, but in reality, most big-city stations won’t have to change their playlist much at all. In fact, a Clear Channel station with a single one-hour local music program per week already meets the quota.