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By J. MATTHEW COBB THERE'S A POPULAR GROWING TREND taking place in gospel radio these days. If you haven’t noticed, most of the syndicated radio shows today bare the faces of some of our highly-respected gospel singers. Best-selling and award-winning artists - the upper epsilon of the gospel industry including Hezekiah Walker, Yolanda Adams, Donnie McClurkin and BeBe Winans all have their own radio shows. On the surface, this kind of venture looks appealing and produces its share of benefits and rewards for the advancement of gospel music. But look under the surface and you may want to observe a few of its disheartening consequences. Of course, there’s more to the story. For years, radio programming has been an essential process to the popularity and grassroots’ campaign for record sales. Trace its early roots and you will discover the most famous talent of Hollywood dominating the radio back in the day. Amos and Andy, the Red Skelton Show, the Pepsodent Radio Show (hosted by Bob Hope) and the Colgate Comedy classics were what you came to expect from early radio - before music became the source. With the advent of television, celebrity-bound shows moved to the newer form of technology while music became the primary attraction on radio formats across the country. Since then, deejays have always controlled the airwaves; giving their audiences a healthy combination of strong on-air personality and a 50/50 divide of chosen musical favorites and public requests. But commercial radio, a practice of profitable broadcasting, has abruptly changed how people perceive radio. In most aspects, deejays or disc jockeys are limited to choosing what songs and artists to play with program directors now controlling the bulk of what is played. Still the limited power of today’s deejay is still important to what is played on radio. With gospel artists like Donnie McClurkin, Hezekiah Walker and Yolanda Adams now taking interest in radio and are donating their time to “spinning records,” the fear of them using the medium of radio for their personal advantage brings about questions that a new form of modern-day payola may be going on. As hard as it is to mention payola when speaking about gospel radio, we are already familiar with deejays using “plugola” (airtime to promote their own events and have financial interest in its activities) to benefit their careers. But gospel artists becoming on-air personalities and deejays reveals even more disturbing revelations about unseen objectives. The artists themselves usually play their own music - conventionally not hard to understand. If they are not playing their music, they usually play material that is associated with them or include their closest associates and friends. Ask most radio personalities what music makes it to airplay and they will probably tell you that they are giving a playlist from program directors. But that’s not the only option available. The conversation emerged on the PRAYZEHYMN message board weeks ago and remains a vibrant, controversial topic on the board weeks after the question was raised, “was it a good thing for gospel artists to invade radio shows.” Tyrone Birkett, one of the board’s members, commented about how mainstream radio avoids placing artists on radio shows and notices a conspiracy. “This is just a continuance of the way gospel music has been operating all along. Deacon Brown has a radio show where plays songs from his record company while he advertises his concerts featuring his nephew at his church. I digress.” Birkett, a musician himself, continued, “Because gospel radio is conducted in this way with the A list artists as hosts, it severely limits opportunities for those who want a career in gospel radio, limits diversity in programming and anything else that a monopoly does to an industry.” With a smorgasbord of opinions being posted, one responder added, “Tom Joyner, Steve Harvey, Russ Parr, etc. are not singers. They are professional radio show hosts. Let the singers sing and let the radio host be a radio host.” Jason Hendrickson, a staff member at New York’s WLIB 1190, quickly defended Hezekiah Walker and his popular Afternoon Praise radio show. “They are the ones making the music. What we need to do is see if we can get some artists to become program directors because they are the ones who decide what we hear on the radio all day. Not the hosts.” He also defended the right for artists to use airtime for their benefit. “If you had that platform, wouldn’t you promote your own music? It is one of the perks of the job.” Even though most radio listeners are unaware of how radio really works today, Hendrickson brings up a very strong point. Beyond the emergence of artist-attached radio shows, there’s a bit of history that needs to be chronicled when discussing modern gospel radio programming. Using airtime for personal gain has always been a rewarding supplement for on-air personalities. The Gospel Announcers’ Guild, an auxiliary of religious broadcasters organized by the Gospel Music Workshop of America, has played an enormous role in how gospel radio operates today and outlines some of their goals to expose new gospel artists, to ensure on-going national promotion and to broaden the variety of gospel music presentation. Announcer Guild members have always giving GMWA-related material continual amounts of airplay and annually awards their favorites with exposure and observance at the GMWA Excellence Awards. With a history dating back to 1968, the Gospel Announcers’ Guild gives us a good idea at how gospel artists and label workers have used the playing field of radio to market their own connections and aspirations. But today, the manifestation of newer strategies in gospel-related promotions has yielded fresher dangers. Juaquin Sims, co-moderator of the PRAYZEHYMN message board, addressed the politics of how radio works today. “In gospel radio, DJs have VERY little control over what is played. They are given a playlist, just like every other secular DJ; composed of the hottest, most popular, or potentially popular songs. It's not a matter of self promotion or favoritism on the part of the DJ, it's merely a matter of playing what's selling.” Still this statement has limited validity. Gospel radio, based on demographics and region, plays a multitude of everything pertaining to gospel music. They play the classics, quartet, choir material, independent material and even today’s latest material. And when observing mainstream radio shows featuring on-air personalities like Michael Basiden or Tom Joyner, we see a mix of both new and old. Sometimes the material is brand new. Sometimes the material isn’t in the top deck of most-played or recurring songs. No doubt about it, gospel radio has changed drastically over the years. "The multiple "delivery platforms" —iPod's, satellite radio, etc. —have forever changed the game for commercial radio. We've been told that whatever we learned in RADIO 101 back in the day is over," Deborah Smith Pollard, host of "Strong Inspirations" on FM 98 WJLB in Detroit, recently said to Gospelflava.com. She added, "The songs that are aired will more likely be the ones that sales have proven are the most popular with the core audience for that station." While the idea of gospel artists becoming on-air personalities shows major signs of gospel music making enormous strides in the music industry, it also creates another problem. If the artists are devoted to their work as an artist and are signed to an exclusive contract, shouldn’t their primary focus be geared to their first job. A conflict of interest emerges when the artist is directing their talents to other occupations just to overshadow the lack of excellence in their main duties. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to hear of a gospel artist that also happens to pastor, run a music company, starring in big films and starting their own clothing line. Being a great worker and developing a sound work ethic is essential in the record business. But when an artist reaches thousands through the airwaves with their radio shows while playing their music, this has the potential to cross a grey line of what some may label “on-air soliciting.” Even if the artist doesn’t play their material, their name and popularity alone will draw listeners and interested parties to purchase their material. In the world of politics, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama explained, that in order to help those suffering from today’s financial strain and woes he would raise taxes on the wealthy in order to “spread the wealth around.” Conservatives hate the idea, but maybe this is a good idea...even in the game of gospel radio. The small businesses, labels and artists need a break too. Why can’t they get their share of play on radio just like the elite. Fair is fair, they say. Maybe that’s too much to ask for. Who would have thought, the days of payola and “plugola” would still linger with us today. 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