Multi-act festivals like the Warped Tour are facing fierce competition from radio festivals, some of which book the same acts and allegedly get them in exchange for airplay. For audiences, the result is that radio shows are sometimes cheaper, but they don't always present the more radical acts that the festivals offer.

''I've been at war with radio stations and labels,'' said Warped producer Kevin Lyman. ''Some have said 'We'll bury the Warped Tour.'''

Lyman said he has had to change how he promotes and organizes his annual punk rock/extreme sports summer tour because radio festivals are going after larger bands like Blink 182 [ tickets ] and Pennywise [ tickets ], two of Warped's main attractions. For example, Lyman is preparing his lineup earlier and scheduling ticket on-sale dates so they don't conflict with radio shows. He is also refusing to pay bands when they break the Warped contract clause stipulating that a band can't play a radio show in the same city for 30-60 days after his tour plays there.

Lyman has also had difficulties with local promoters who presented the same acts at both the Warped tour and radio shows. Local promoters agreed that they wouldn't announce that certain major acts were playing their later radio shows until after the Warped tour was over, but some broke the agreement, Lyman said. In Portland last summer, Lyman said, he lost 4,400 ticket sales because a Monqui Presents promoter prematurely announced that Blink 182 and Pennywise were playing the KNRK Big Stink show. Lyman alleges that Monqui had a larger financial stake in that show than the Warped, which they were co-promoting with San Francisco promoter Bill Graham Presents.

Jamie McKillop, general manager of Monqui, says that it was radio station KNRK, not Monqui, which announced the two bands in question before the Warped Tour ''without our knowledge and consent.'' He said that Monqui did put up posters announcing the radio show in the Warped Tour venue in Portland, but did so on the day of the show, when the audience was already there. He added that Monqui and Bill Graham Presents ''took a substantial loss'' on the Warped Tour, explaining that ''it's not in our best interest to try and not sell a certain show.''

According to McKillop, KNRK had never prematurely announced major acts before, and Monqui pleaded with them not to. Lyman wanted Monqui to control the actions of KNRK, said McKillop, but it was impossible. ''They beat to their own drummer... they're a separate entity from us altogether.''

Competition with radio shows has not been Warped's only problem. Lyman said he also faced pressure from record labels which tried to dictate what local radio stations should promote the Warped Tour. He alleges that the MCA and Epitaph labels told him that certain stations in Denver had to be involved because they were giving airtime to their bands. When asked why radio stations wanted to be involved in the Warped Tour when they could put on their own shows, Lyman said that radio stations didn't want to be left out of the Warped Tour because it was so successful.

Advocates of the Warped's harder-edged scene and supporters of musician-directed festivals like the defunct Lilith Fair and H.O.R.D.E. tours argue that radio's commercial interests are driving out better music. They say that in an era of legalized ''pay-to-play'' radio singles and programming that ignores audience requests, the music at radio festivals is the last place listeners seeking out the new will go. But it's debatable whether the Warped Tour is losing its audience as a result of radio festival competition--Lyman says he is not sure his overall attendance is down. And competition does have its benefits: in cities without a booming economy, young audiences can choose between Warped's $20 ticket price and radio-show tickets which run between $9 and $10.

But the cheaper ticket price may be the result of questionable business practices on the part of radio stations and labels, critics say. In December 1998, the Los Angeles Times reported that broadcasting giant Chancellor Media billed A&M Records $237,000 to promote a new Bryan Adams single. In exchange for this promotion, Adams played four Chancellor-sponsored charity concerts for free. Times reporters analyzed airplay charts from Broadcast Data Systems and discovered that, in the four markets where Adams performed, Chancellor stations kept playing the single after other stations around the country had dropped it. After the Times article appeared, Chancellor and A&M denied that theirs was an illegal pay-to-play deal. The Federal Communications Commission reviewed the matter but did not proceed with a formal investigation, despite the requests of two U.S. Congressmen.

Blues Traveler harmonica player John Popper [ tickets ], who organized the H.O.R.D.E. tour, blames the radio stations for his tour's demise. ''I think that the radio festival has really kicked the ass of the festival tour, 'cause local radio stations can buy bands with air time,'' he recently told detroit.citysearch.com.

Lyman believes that some radio stations do not pay smaller bands to play their radio shows, but give them airtime in exchange. ''Bands have to play radio shows to get played,'' he said. ''There are fringe groups that are hoping to get popular, and they play these shows. The station comes back to them and says, 'You played, we gave you twelve spins, but it doesn't test so well, so we're pulling it.'' Bands are left with the expenses of travelling to the radio festival, and while these are initially fronted by their labels, bands have to pay them back from their royalties.

San Francisco FM station Live 105--which presents major bands like Hole, the Offspring, Limp Bizkit and Blink 182 at its annual Not So Silent Night and summer BFD shows--says it pays major acts, while smaller acts play for exposure. ''There's no payola or anything like that,'' said promotions director Robin Rockwell. Not So Silent Night drew 8,500 people last year at ticket prices of $30 and $40, and BFD drew 22,000 with $25 and $35 tickets, pricing it above the Warped Tour, which drew 9,200 per show.

According to Goo Goo Dolls publicist Mary Melia, radio stations approach bands like the Goo Goos, Smashmouth and Bush because of their existing popularity, and those bands play the shows ''to say thank-you for [the radio stations'] support and for playing their records. It's a sort of payback.'' She could not comment on what the Goo Goos were getting paid to play their occasional radio dates.

If there is illegal collusion between radio show promoters and bands, it is unlikely the FCC will be the agency to deal with it. Commenting on the Chancellor/A&R deal, Charles Kelly, the enforcement chief for the FCC's mass media division, told Billboard magazine in Jan. 1999 that any investigation of possible anti-competitive business practices would eventually go to the Justice Department or the Federal Trade Commission, not the FCC.

Festival producers are now cautious, knowing they have to work with radio to promote their shows. Lyman closely follows the radio shows of bands playing his tour and has them submit a list of their radio dates in advance. He said that the number of loopholes in the relationships between bands, labels, radio stations and festival producers has grown.

''With drugs and sex,'' he quipped, ''everything was on the table.''