Stanley Nyame, a.k.a DJ Abio, programs manager of Channel R has come out strongly to defend the pay and play system in the radio industry popularly known as ‘payola’.

He said problems facing the music industry are mainly caused by piracy and not payola. DJ Abio sees payola as a positive factor on the music scene and thinks payola plays an important role in music promotion.

“We are talking about promotion here not just playing the songs. If I go to the library and I want to play very good songs, I can just select any of the songs there, nice ones, and come and present. I will be doing listeners good but then I will be killing musicians because I won’t take my time to promote the song,” DJ Abio explained.

Asked why Ghana is yet to celebrate a big gospel hit this year, DJ Abio told Showghana.com that most of the producers have decided to stay off production. “The only producer around now is Big Ben and Kaakyire later came in,” he said. He said payola is not as much a problem to the producers as piracy.

DJ Abio hosts ‘Total Entertainment’ code named 205 on Channel R and has been a key member of the selection committee of Ghana Music Awards.

He’s made no secret of the fact that he takes payola and has said until proper structures are put in place on the Ghanaian music scene, producers, musicians and radio presenters would have no choice but to deal in payola.