I agree that it can look a bit bleak, but it is not impossible to get your stuff played on radio. Okay...maybe not the biggest stations in major markets, but you can still find play if you work at it.
Indie recording? Then look for Indie type stations and college stations. My old band got play on a few smaller stations here in Portland by hard work and researching to make some connections. It is time consuming though.
Here in Portland it is a common gripe that the big radio stations never give the locals a chance. Hell, I think we were the last major market to play Everclear and they are from Portland. The Dandy Warhols have chart toppers over in Europe and get some play around the US, but not here

But, recently we had a band signed to a major label because they got in good with the PD and one of the disk jockeys at a big station in town. People liked the tune and soon after another one followed until they were in pretty heavy rotation. Labels monitor big radio markets and Capitol picked them up. In their instance I think having a great product had a huge impact. They had bucks and traveled up to Seattle and paid an engineer who worked with Alice In Chains to produce the album. It sounded VERY professional. We have another band that is currently getting some play on one of the big three rock stations we have, but they haven't been signed yet...appearently that came around when a DJ heard the bands CD at his buddies house and thought they kicked butt so he used their songs as intro's into his show and he played two of their tracks during his timeslot. However, the PD ultimately has control, not the DJ so you have to get two levels of people to give it the okay. On indie stations usually just the DJ picks the music.
Does your product sound like it should be on the shelves with major releases? If not then don't expect many stations to pay it much attention. Indie stations will give you more of a chance, but don't just blindly send it in. Listen to the station, pick a DJ that spins tunes that are up your alley. Give him a call and talk to him about your band....
Lastly in my overly wordy post is that you can try to get stations (even the big ones) to pay some attention to the local scene. Off and on we have the second or third biggest station here do a "locals only" show. It used to be Wednesday's at midnight and lasted for 15 minutes (gotta love that time slot, LOL) and they would play local stuff. One of the things that was so clearly obvious when listening to that is how the majority of local bands had really bad recording quality, which could possibly be why they are reluctant to play them in the first place. Call your local PD and suggest such a show stressing how it would really draw listeners from the local scene. I know a lot of people that would stay up, or even tape that locals show they did here.
My ....oh heck....that's got to be at least four cents worth
