I am writing in response to Jeremy Weinberg's U-Wire column, published Nov. 21 in the Collegian ("Music piracy: Taking sips from a broken barrel").

Jeremy's suggested alternatives and replies to students' justifications are poor and show his unfamiliarity with the music industry. He suggests: "If you don't like the price of CDs, then start watching more television, or reading more books."

May I ask how reading a book or watching television will fulfill my desire to listen to music?

The proposal he makes about these activities is analogous to telling someone to watch a tennis match instead of a football game.

Jeremy continues: "Amazingly enough, there's this great place where you can hear music for free ... called the radio." If I could find some variety among radio stations (and music that isn't overplayed and overproduced), then his suggestion might actually be a swell idea.

It's widely suggested that record companies pay radio stations indirectly for play time of their artists' songs.

Most radio stations (around 1,225) throughout the country are owned by a company called Clear Channel Communications, Inc., who also holds SFX Entertainment (a concert promotions company) and nearly a million billboards across the nation. With such a monopolistic domination in the music industry and its advertising, it's easy to see how radio stations could be manipulated to play the songs the record companies want them to.

I find the radio to be an awfully poor and monotonous source for music.