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Activist Times Inc. Issue 349
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AIRPLAY 101
-----------------
By Bryan Farrish
http://www.radio-media.com
Payola (part 4 of 5), Comparison to Ads, PR, Merch, and
Promotion.
I need to point out some areas where indie bands get confused
with regards to giving things to stations. It's remarkable how
many bands think that giving advertising or CDs to a station is
illegal. What actually is illegal is when you are playing at a
club, and you pay the sound guy to get you set up first. That's
more illegal that anything a label does for a station.
ADS: Advertising a CD is legal because (1) the result of it (the
commercial) is broadcast, not kept secret, and (2) the money is
paid to the station (not an individual), meaning that the sales
documents are available for public inspection. Even if you buy a
non-broadcast remote (where the station makes an appearance at a
retail store, but does not broadcast it), the result is still
shown to the public. When you advertise on a station, you "own"
the 30 or 60 second commercial, and you can "push" whatever you
like within it, including your CD. As long as the commercial is
not mistaken for regular programming, you are fine, and it is not
payola (even though it promotes your music, and you are paying
money to the station.)
MERCH: When you give a box of CDs (or shirts, caps, or
posters) to a station, just because the CDs have value to you,
does not mean it is like giving cash to the station. If the
station gives them away on-air, then the CDs become part of the
programming (like a refrigerator given away on a game show) and
thus it is legal for you to do this... even if it does benefit
you. If the station does not give the CDs away on-air, but gives
them away at a live-remote instead, then that is fine too.
Non-commercial stations can even sell them to the public, if it
uses the money for station operations. About the only bad thing
that can happen is when a person at a station sells your stuff on
the street, and pockets the money. Other than that, you can even
give cash to a commercial station, if they use it for on-air
giveaway (it becomes part of their programming.)
PR: Buying a ad for your release in a newspaper/magazine is
legal; paying a writer to write about your release, and not making
this fact known to the paper, may or may not be legal
(newspapers and magazines are not governed by the FCC), but
it's close enough to "illegal" that we'll just say... it might be.
Giving the writer a box of 30 CDs might be questionable, unless
he/she is going to do a giveaway in the paper.
RETAIL: Buying shelf space for your release if perfectly legal; it's
standard contracted-activity with major retail chains, and it's what
every major label does with their priority releases. Interestingly,
this fact is NOT made known to the public... the public thinks
certain releases are "out front" because they are "better". If
radio worked this way, you really would have a right to scream.
But it's not just music retail that does this... every Ralph's and
Delchamps and HMV and Publix grocery store works this way...
everything that is "out front" is paid for. And they have NO
requirement to tell you this. So don't get mad at radio.
INDIE PROMOTION: Lately, because of info available on the
web, most people have been hearing about "indie deals" for the
first time, and they hate the thought of it. Indie deals have been
around for over 20 years, and were behind probably most of the
material you grew up with on the radio. Indie deals are perfectly
legal, and are a separate thing from the real meaning of "payola".
While a few folks (indie promoters, bankers, doctors, mailmen)
do pay people off illegally to get what they want, most do not.
But paying people off illegally is separate from a legally-structured
indie deal (just like illegally paying a retail person to put your CD
upfront is separate from a legally-structured retail POP deal.)
That said, I'll leave details of indie-deals for a more advanced
newsletter, and for now just say (like I said in my Clear Channel
article) that you are putting energy in the wrong place by thinking
that it's the "bad" people at the labels and radio companies that
are holding your indie release back with their "deals."
Conclusion: Paying stations is not a tool for a small indie to get
airplay.
------------------------------------------------------------
1) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati334.txt
2) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati341.txt
3) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati344.txt
4) "Be Here Now" Baba Ram Dass
5) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ ???
------------------------------------------------------------
A Smart Bomb
a poem
by Brett Axel
Wouldn't want to be dropped.
Might get together with other smart bombs
To discuss alternative employment possibilities
Like demolishing old buildings. Debate the virtues
Of restoration, at least taking them down
Carefully, to salvage reusable materials.
Several could open doors for all bombs:
Start a mentoring project in the armory--
Old cannon balls and the latest hollow point bullets
Listening to speeches about social conscience.
Soon bombs are producing art and arguments
Born of a frustration at the lack of opportunity
For smart bombs to make meaningful contributions.
Can you see young people expressing
Their solidarity with bombs by exploding themselves
In cities and on military bases? Or a bomb
Specialist joining The View?
Tommy Hilfiger marketing a line of expensive
Clip on fuses for bomb wanna-bes
Who drink too much and go to the worst movies--
Then parents are delivering warnings
To keep away from after hours munition clubs
Worried their babies might get rounded up by the government
And dropped on Kosovo.
First appeared in Real Change, 1999
[ref]=[http://www.mybizz.net/~axels/poems.html]
| #'s | 0303100827 "hundred" hrs |
http://www.totse.com
http://www.awitness.org
http://platinumdragon.ca
http://www.themammals.net
http://www.ciw-online.org
http://www.rock4peace.org
http://www.fuckthewar.com
http://www.fightingbob.com
http://www.drmenlo.com/nwd
http://madison.indymedia.org
http://webcrunchers.com/crunch
http://www.ofek.com/200301.php
http://members.iinet.net.au/~bofh
http://www.textscene.com/links.html
http://www.livejournal.com/~yakmilk
http://bancs.lod.com/~ati/ati346.html
http://www.frucht.org/music/mp3notcom.html
http://www.teaching.com/webstock/center/text
http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/index.htm
http://www.instrumentality.com/themanual5.html
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews
http://www.iraqjournal.org/journals/030228.html
http://www.iraqjournal.org/journals/030228.html
http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati348.txt
http://www.neo-comintern.com/archives/ncom229.txt
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_hersh.html
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00007E8V4.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://www.greenbaynewschronicle.com/page.html?article=118818
http://www.mediaresearch.org/notablequotables/dishonor/03/info.asp
http://www.unansweredquestions.net/timeline/main/essayksmcapture.html
http://www.totse.com/en/politics/central_intelligence_agency/mcgee.html
http://free.freespeech.org/americanstateterrorism/mediadeception/CorporateChokeholdMedia.html
"I am proud and gratified to see these young people
(my daughter included) picking up the banner and
moving forward with today's struggles. We adults
need to support and encourage them in becoming
active citizens and real patriots.
Keep up the struggle!
¡Que viva la juventud!"
- Marty Horning
[ref]=[http://mke.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2354]
[http://mke.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2292]
Covering the Milwaukee Freepers Rally With as Much Objectivity as Possible
by marco
(No verified email address)
Current rating: 3
09 Mar 2003
The most surreal part of my day today, Saturday,
March 8 was hearing "If I Had A Hammer" performed
live at the same pro-war rally that ended with a
canned rendition of Lee Greenwood's "Proud To Be
An American."
Yes, when I first got to the pro-war rally today
at Cathedral Square on Jackson Street here in
Milwaukee to cover it for Indymedia I saw a sign
being waved saying "give war a chance," and I just
knew I was in for something a little surreal, but
that takes more than the cake, it took the whole
pan, the stove, the cook and the kitchen!
("Expect no objectivity"
-- zoe mitchell, dc indy
This will contain my own slant. Honor my honesty;
which I favor over the ever illusive "objectivity"
for my story here.)
The most surreal part of my day today (saturday, 8mar)
was hearing "If I Had A Hammer" performed live at the
same pro-war rally that ended with a canned rendition
of Lee Greenwood's "Proud To Be An American."
Yes, when I first got to the pro-war rally today at
Cathedral Square on Jackson Street here in Milwaukee
to cover it for Indymedia I saw a sign being waved
saying "give war a chance," and I just knew I was in
for something a little surreal, but that takes more
than the cake, it took the whole pan, the stove, the
cook AND the kitchen!
The most creative chant of the entire rally was led by
none other than Charlie Sykes himself. "We support our
troops, we support our troops..." Rinse, repeat. I think
he must've stayed up late last night to write THAT one.
The smell of cigars both cheap AND costly was overbearing
throughout the day. I thought for sure I was in the Frazier
Ali fight in Manilla or something. But alas, it was the people
passing out "In Our Name" literature, and some of those imbibing.
"Thanks to _________, ___________, yadda yadda, and also
the Wisconsin chapter of Free Republic.
OK, now it all begins to make more sense.
"Frankly I don't give a damn what the rest of the world
thinks," says a man I don't have the name of yet, "The
UN does not speak for us."
Next middle aged white guy.
"Give yourselves a round of applause."
and "We don't care what happens at the UN, personally I
wish they would get the hell out of New York so we can
have more office space." I asked about 30 people before
finding out Lou D'Abbraccio's name (the first guy to speak)
I asked 5 or 6 about the next guy, and gave up. It might
have been the Jeff Wagner everyone's talking up and down
around town as the next Charlie Sykes. Anyhew, he intro'd
Sykes.
Not wasting any time, Sykes immediately began attacking
celebreties. Major boos for each line of his laundry list.
He smiles rhetorically. Yes, every bone in this man's body
is rhetoric, let me tell you, how he rocks on his heels,
how he greases his hair, how he cleans the noseclips of
his glasses I bet.
He attacks the group "Not in our Name" next. Boos join in
with him again.
"This is our answer." hahaha. Carefully crafted, believe me.
Answer coalition? Our answer? Genius. Pure genius.
Everyone cheers.
He made a strong point of his belief as fact that the last
generation fought nazism, fascism and communism and that
"you answered the call against terrorism."
I missed the next couple words he described before saying
"...who killed 3000 people." I'm sure he was directing it
at those who killed the 3000 people, and more to the point
what he believes the response should be, and I'm sure the
people were cheering for the response, but I must be honest
with you that out of context (or in two narrow of a context)
it sounded like this cheer (the loudest of the day) was FOR
the 3000 who died. I don't dare abuse that. I could have, let
me tell you that honestly. They were definitely exposing
themselves as dittoheads, the whole crowd. They might cheer
to anything as long as Sykes wiggles his eyebrows just so.
OK, so the only element of protest against the war at this
rally was by the man who wears a George Bush mask on Friday
nites and holds signs with witty statements on them. He was
joined by two or three people for 20 minutes or so who also
had anti-war signs, but they left when the crowd got most
violently opposed to them. Police instructed three mounted
patrolpeople (two men and one woman) to get in and build a
buffer between the man with the Bush mask and the violent
crowd. I don't say that in a derogatory way. The crowd was
very violent. The energy was very violent. You could smell
the testosterone in the air. This was a pro-war rally, no
one was saying otherwise.
At some point law enforcement on horseback pretty much stopped
the man with the mask from being very effective, but he stayed
there right to the end of the rally. Most of the jeers and barbs
were boring and mundane, harmless and just generally hateful, but
one that was really difficult to hear was when one middle aged
white woman instructed the police that she feels they should run
him over with their horses.
"I got specialist 5th class," says a tall man about 65 years old
wearing a Green Bay Packer jacket. "If he attacked me, I'd like
it," he said pointing out the protester with the George Bush mask.
I pointed out to the man that he has every right to speak his mind
as does he, but when it comes to wishing someone would throw a
first punch, that's kind of out of hand. He seemed like he agreed
with me, but I didn't get a sense he realized I was talking about
him.
Now here's where it gets surreal. The band name, and I might have
spelled it wrong I'll try to look it up. They're called Tyson O'Conner,
and they sang one song. "If I Had A Hammer."
No, not Hummer, Hammer. They sang it traditional. Word for word.
Maybe they used fonics, I don't know. But they sang it nonetheless.
Were they sure they were at the right rally? Surreal.
There was a little bit of a turf battle among law enforcement I
should mention. I learned afterwards though that it was normal
and routine. 2 pair of county sherrifs patrolled what looked to
be the crowd, the protester(s) AND the local police. I imagine
the horse-police had to clear with them, as it turns
out, before trying to build any kind of buffer like that. Hmmm.
Especially by the spirit and letter of why they're there in the
first place. It's a county park, as opposed to a city park so
the city have to ask the county before even letting the horses
pee anywhere. You know, environmental impact statements and the
whole rigamarole I'm sure.
Organizers of the rally said they don't have any other rallies
planned except one but the date's not set. It's to coincide
with the first shootings of "the war," and also the protest
that (and this is a direct quote) "the bad people" will be
planning right after an invasion is announced. They're trying
to get a permit for the same place where "the peaceniks" are
but it's not going
well, so they might consider this same park (in front of the
Cathedral) or another park.
Police told the organizers right in front of me that they're
planning on announcing that between 1200 and 1500 attended
officially. Honestly, I thought 500-600. But we'll get to
that some next story, eh?
"Can't you err on the side of goodness here?" smiled the
organizer to the policeman charged with "crowd assessment,"
smile, smile. Which is when an intelligence officer leaned
forward and told him "no," that they "never do that. We do
the same thing for all the other rallies. You get the same
exact treatment."
Surreal.
Quite Surreal.
marco
[ref]=[http://madison.indymedia.org/feature/display/10547/index.php]
AUDIO(S) CONSULTED WHILE CREATING THIS 'ZINE:
WBAI 99.5 FM New York-2
C:\mp3s\attackofthekillertomatoes.mp3
flag.blackened.net-80
C:\mp3s\dancinontheruins.mp3
C:\mp3s\David Rovics - Henry Ford Was A Fascist.mp3
C:\mp3s\garofolo_station-id.mp3
blast furnace radio-3
System P-2MarcoCapelli-BocetoAndaluz
C:\mp3s\Martha Redbone - Perfect Life.mp3
reggaemid_16
Archive of ATIs can be got at the Gutenberg Project!
http://www.etext.org/Zines
Address all core meltdowns, I mean correlations, I mean
correspondences to:
ati@etext.org
and remember, if you got angst:
http://www.angelfire.com/ny/fasters/vent.html
The official ATI webpage is also located on
one of the free (albeit commercial) sites at:
http://www.angelfire.com/wi/kokopeli/ATI.html
th-th-th-tha's all f-f-f-folks.
prime outa hear
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