Elliott Yamin on the sad state of radio

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: The Billboard website has an attached blog section called "Jaded Insider." On that blog a day or so ago, Shirley Halperin interviewed recording artist & former American Idol contestant, Elliott Yamin, as he is now promoting his new CD, "Fight For Love." Not being a fan of American Idol, I skipped past the Idol talk, but what caught my eye was this artist's view of the state of radio. Here are the radio comments that sadly ring true. For you Idol/Yamin fans, the complete interview can be found at the link below. : --------------------------------------------------- : Did you have a hand in all of the songs on Fight For Love? : EY: There are two songs that I wasn't involved in writing. One is the single, "Fight For Love," which I heard was originally offered to Leona Lewis. I don't know what happened, but she didn't get it and I did, so I put my foot all up in it and the rest of history. It's a great song, and there's so much junk and shit trash on the radio now. The landscape of radio has totally changed for the worse since my first promotional tour. : : You saw that first-hand? : EY: Yeah. I've been out for five weeks going door-to-door at radio, something very few artists do anymore in the pop world, but it's so much tougher this time around. Everybody's walking around like their days are numbered and a lot of the programmers that showed me early love the first time around aren't even there anymore because they got laid off. People don't have interns anymore; when we hit the stations for these ass-crack-of-dawn radio shows, you have to wait for [the jocks] to take their commercial break so they can come let you in. Everybody's understaffed and there's less airtime to play with. : : You're fighting for the love! : EY: I am! [Laughs] With all these new artists coming out with music at the same time, it kind of ruins your chances because they're all fighting for space that's much more scarce. Most stations have their syndicated morning shows and in the afternoons, the Clear Channel stations play Ryan Seacrest, so that gives you half-a-day less of time to hear your song played, unless you’re Britney Spears. It's just tough times. When you step outside your bubble and get out there on the road, you see how the economy is really affecting your business, career and livelihood. But getting to do all this, even though it's harder, I wouldn't have it any other way. I still have that huge Idol audience, everywhere I go, people recognize me, and I'm continuing to learn so much about this business and about myself. I'm very blessed to be in this position.

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