Does Pandora Use a Payola System?
 

It's like every third song is Bongzilla and I have thousands of names programmed in there by now. What gives?

Bongzilla hacked Pandora so they can potentially recieve more radio royalties.

Last.fm has a royalties thing, so I'm confident Pandora followed suit, or vice versa. That's what makes those radio stations able to function legally. Hopefully someone else has some knowledge on your question as well.

I love Bongzilla and everytime their music comes on I thumbs up it but still it seems impossible that they would rotate in that much by chance

I get similar with tracks I 'love' on last.fm. They play the same song all the time. Like... I heard that twice today... thats once too many. If you 'like' it, it gives super priority....

On Pandora, which I listen to more than Last FM, I have pushed the thumbs up button on thousands of songs.

Same here, and for some reason they favor certain loved tracks over others as well...

I'd be interested in some insight on this but don't know if anyone else knows...