Originally posted Tuesday, October 16, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
The concept of “Pay for Play” in radio is usually a bad one. It implies that radio stations are bribed by record companies to play songs.
But Alt 105.7 is taking the idea in a more charitable direction this Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 pm.: listeners can ask for any song, donate at least $25 to the Salvation Army for Hurricane Michael relief and have it played on the rock station that won't necessarily sound like a rock station for nine hours.
You’ll be able to request (and possibly hear) the Supremes or Migos or Elvis Presley or the Bee Gees or Shania Twain. Alt will, in effect, become a truly “alternative” station.
Alt plays about 110 songs during that time period so that will be 110 chances to go crazy. Chumbawumba anybody? The Carpenters? Hooked on Classics? "Pac Man Fever"? Let's see how nutty they'll go.
This is not a new idea per se. The last time I chronicled a local station doing this was Alt's sister station 94.9/The Bull. The country station in 2009 raised money for victims of that crazy Atlanta flood in September of that year, the one that briefly placed part of I-20 under water.
It played songs by Drowning Pool, Steve Earle, Toad the Wet Sprocket and Casting Crowns. The station actually charged more for wackier songs. And it was a time when the Dixie Chicks were still toxic to many country listeners (and they still are to this day) and Jason Pullman played a woman's request for "Wide Open Spaces" anyway.
From 2005 to 2007, the now defunct rock station Dave FM did this “play any song” for a day to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.
In Alt’s case, every song is eligible at the $25 level though the station would love you to donate more.
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