I think they're overreacting, it's not like airplay can't be bought.
Anyway in case people are wondering, a Dutch TV show exposed the "iTunes payola", chart manipulation by mass downloading a song. They talked to this shady guy who said he could arrange anything, and that a #1 hit would cost €4000. In the end they arranged for this song to be #32:
http://www.dutchcharts.nl/showitem.a...e+op+mij&cat=s
All the insiders they talked to made it sound like it's a very widespread practice.
It's mostly done by Dutch artists who don't make money from selling music but from doing gigs, and chart presence helps getting their name out there.