better not interfere with the payola industry

Apparently backers of country singer Chely Wright were pretending to have military connections when contacting radio stations to promote airplay of her song The Bumper of My SUV.

For folks who wonder why there is such a limited selection of songs played on most radio stations, the answer is that playlists are heaving influenced by payments by recording companies. Since direct payola from the record companies to stations would be illegal, all of the current payola is handled by third party agents. Of course, those payments (which are rather large) are part of the reason that recorded music is so expensive relative to other forms of entertainment.

I guess the folks in Chely's fan club didn't understand that the proper way to promote a song is with cash payments.