Call for People Power to Rage Against the Media
"Pay 3,000 pounds a week, or forget it!" Barnsley singer-songwriter Chrissy Sykes could scarcely believe the ultimatum coming down the phone line, not from the Mafioso, but from the Head of Music at one of the UK's major radio networks.
She and her co-writer Georgina had been working flat-out for weeks, seeking support for their charity single 'Send Me A Kiss For Christmas', which they were dedicating 100% to 'Help For Heroes' as a festive fundraiser for wounded servicemen and women.
The response from local, community and hospital radio
stations
had been tremendous, they loved the song and were only too happy to play and promote it for such a worthy cause. Many of the replies urged the girls to get the BBC onboard. Well, they certainly tried, stations, presenters, producers, the lot, but neither the BBC nor the big commercial groups wanted to know. No explanation, just a stony silence.
Not being one to accept defeat, Chrissy pressed one 'decision maker' for his reasons why he wouldn't even consider playing the song. She clearly ruffled his feathers, and, in the heat of the moment, he perhaps said more than he should have done about how to go about getting airplay on that network: "The more you pay, the better your chances!"
These days, it seems, 'payola' has been replaced by 'pluggers' who act as intermediaries between the record companies and the playlist controllers at the radio stations. As one blog reveals "the record labels can pretend that they're not bribing radio station employees, even though everyone knows that's exactly what's happening. Because of this, the major labels absolutely dominate radio airplay."
As a former industry insider has explained to us: "Sadly as The Radio Authority gave way to OFCOM, more and more small scale radio stations were swallowed up by the big radio groups and everything's then became centralised. The local decision making we used to have has given way to 'someone within the group' choosing all the music for the playlists"
But the Kiss4Christmas girls are still battling on!
"We knew the big names would demand most of the Christmas cake, but just a few crumbs for our charity single would have been welcome" says Chrissy, "It seems, however, that only money talks, and we don't have any, as we're doing this entirely for charity. So I'm appealing for 'People Power' to help us to spread the word and gather support! Social networking wizard Jon Morter proved it can be done, when he took on Simon Cowell in the race for the UK Christmas No.1 spot in 2009 with 'Rage Against The Storm.' - and won. If you support the aims of our Kiss For Christmas Appeal for 'Help For Heroes', please join with us now on twitter @kissforchristmas and Facebook Kiss4Christmas.
Together, we can rage against the media!"
Footnote * (source: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110916/03140815978/how-payola-works-today-why-you-only-hear-major-label-songs-radio.shtml
'Send Me A Kiss For Christmas' (Chrissy Sykes) is a charity single, released independently by songwriters Chrissy and Georgina for the benefit of 'Help For Heroes'.
http://hiltonmusic.co.uk/why-we-are-dedicating-kiss-for-christmas-to-help-for-heroes
She and her co-writer Georgina had been working flat-out for weeks, seeking support for their charity single 'Send Me A Kiss For Christmas', which they were dedicating 100% to 'Help For Heroes' as a festive fundraiser for wounded servicemen and women.
The response from local, community and hospital radio
stations
had been tremendous, they loved the song and were only too happy to play and promote it for such a worthy cause. Many of the replies urged the girls to get the BBC onboard. Well, they certainly tried, stations, presenters, producers, the lot, but neither the BBC nor the big commercial groups wanted to know. No explanation, just a stony silence.
Not being one to accept defeat, Chrissy pressed one 'decision maker' for his reasons why he wouldn't even consider playing the song. She clearly ruffled his feathers, and, in the heat of the moment, he perhaps said more than he should have done about how to go about getting airplay on that network: "The more you pay, the better your chances!"
These days, it seems, 'payola' has been replaced by 'pluggers' who act as intermediaries between the record companies and the playlist controllers at the radio stations. As one blog reveals "the record labels can pretend that they're not bribing radio station employees, even though everyone knows that's exactly what's happening. Because of this, the major labels absolutely dominate radio airplay."
As a former industry insider has explained to us: "Sadly as The Radio Authority gave way to OFCOM, more and more small scale radio stations were swallowed up by the big radio groups and everything's then became centralised. The local decision making we used to have has given way to 'someone within the group' choosing all the music for the playlists"
But the Kiss4Christmas girls are still battling on!
"We knew the big names would demand most of the Christmas cake, but just a few crumbs for our charity single would have been welcome" says Chrissy, "It seems, however, that only money talks, and we don't have any, as we're doing this entirely for charity. So I'm appealing for 'People Power' to help us to spread the word and gather support! Social networking wizard Jon Morter proved it can be done, when he took on Simon Cowell in the race for the UK Christmas No.1 spot in 2009 with 'Rage Against The Storm.' - and won. If you support the aims of our Kiss For Christmas Appeal for 'Help For Heroes', please join with us now on twitter @kissforchristmas and Facebook Kiss4Christmas.
Together, we can rage against the media!"
Footnote * (source: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110916/03140815978/how-payola-works-today-why-you-only-hear-major-label-songs-radio.shtml
'Send Me A Kiss For Christmas' (Chrissy Sykes) is a charity single, released independently by songwriters Chrissy and Georgina for the benefit of 'Help For Heroes'.
http://hiltonmusic.co.uk/why-we-are-dedicating-kiss-for-christmas-to-help-for-heroes