Indie 103.1, broadcasting somewhere on the Southern California coastline, is a radio station that is an absolute blast of fresh airwaves. It is one of the few radio stations out there that seems to take it as a mission to surprise its listeners.
Which is exactly what happened this morning, when I heard something which has bugged me for the rest of the day.
Some guy named Alex was on, praising the new Morrissey record to the skies. Which is fine — the people who love Mozzer really love him, and same goes for the people who hate him. In any event, this guy was talking about how great the album is, and he was playing songs from it, and he sounded like he’d just discovered the meaning of life.
Then he said this: “I work for the Morrissey’s record company.” And all I could think, especially in light of the ongoing payola scandals, was “aw, c’mon dude, you just lost all credibility.” Yes, I was glad that I happened to hear his disclosure, but it really didn’t seem like a disclosure, more like a slip of the tongue.
Here’s the thing: if you have any kind of financial stake in the success of somebody else’s product, you shouldn’t be on a radio station that actually has credibility and sully that credibility by spending hours and hours talking about how great that product is. Don’t turn a morning drive show into an infomercial for your fracking record company!
It doesn’t even matter how great that album might or might not be: it’s just a dumbass thing to do.
For some reason, this rule does not apply to musicians doing shows — Steve Jones! — talking about their music. Then, it’s OK.
Is that a double standard I’m reading? Seriously, you know it happens, and it still hurts when it does. If you work for the label, do not (DO NOT) tout the next coming of Morrissey. Or something like that.
But I totally give 103.1 credit for playing stuff that makes me want to listen to the radio. Like the day I was driving around and heard The Modern Lovers “Roadrunner”. And was singing along way before I realized, “Hey, I’m hearing this on the radio.”