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According to the LA Times, radio play lists are shrinking even more because the PD’s are suffering from paranoia of being investigated from the recent payola scandals that inflicted the music industry.

 “No programmer wants to draw attention by choosing songs too far outside the mainstream,” said Calococci, who says fear of regulatory scrutiny has made radio executives less willing to play emerging bands. Calococci still plays new music, he said, but “Spitzer has put a chill on everything.”

“Many programmers say that fear of regulatory scrutiny has scared them into airing fewer new songs. Instead, many stations are sticking to older, more tried-and-true tunes that seem less likely to prompt speculation that money changed hands.”

 “I don’t want anyone to look at my playlists six months from now and speculate about why I added a particular song when our competition didn’t add it,” one programmer said.â€? People have been fired for less.”

 What does this all mean? It means you need to be extremely critical in deciding what bands are signed. Artist’s that have zero commercial appeal will suffer the greatest. Nevertheless, this doesn’t help the indie labels, hence both the majors and the Indies are on an equal playing field; no advantage to either party. As far as new music? It just got harder, so get use to listening to Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days“. What is the learning lesson? Being dishonest and paying people off will come back and bite you in the ass. The good news is that playlists should open up in the near future once the situation sizzles.

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