Radio stations record settlement in payola probe

Music News

By Seth Schuyler Mar 6, 2007, 20:47 GMT

America's music airwaves are a' changing. Radio listeners are about to hear a greater variety of tunes performed by non-mainstream artists as a result of a unique settlement of a payola proceeding against the country's four major radio broadcasters brought by the government's Federal Communications Commission. Besides coughing up a record $12.5 million in fines, the companies, which own a total of 1,653 radio outlets around the United States, have agreed to provide 8,400 half-hour segments to independent labels and local artists for free.The two-step solution is aimed at reversing the effect of past payola, or pay-for-play, practices, where top record labels using promoters allegedly pushed their songs onto radio playlists by bribing station personnel with gifts and other material gratuities. The radio broadcast groups—Channel Communications, CBS Radio, Entercom Communications and Citadel Broadcasting—aren't admitting to any wrongdoing as part of the deal yet to be officially signed. But the landmark settlement comes in the wake of an ongoing federal investigation into payola practices and the cases former New York State attorney general and now New York governor Eliot Spitzer brought against the big four music labels -- Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and EMI Group. They resulted in $36 million in penalties. The FCC doesn't regulate record labels, but used the evidence from Spitzer's probe to go after the radio groups it does oversee. "This is a real breakthrough," said FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, who has made payola a priority issue in recent years. "Payola breaks the link between merit and airplay," he noted. The settlement, he said, "should really lead to fresher sounds on the radio."Indie labels, for the purposes of the pact, are defined as any outside the four big dominant recorded music companies. Increased airing of songs from these more diverse labels may occur on a track-by-track basis that's part of a station's overall playlist, as well as through the free half-hour format, according to Peter Gordon, president of Thirsty Ear Recordings.
Gordon, who led the negotiations on behalf of the American Association of Independent Music, hailed the agreement: "There are plenty of empty gestures out there. This one has the reality of a number attached to it, which makes it all the more serious of a commitment and an extraordinary one.""While no violations were found, we are pleased to announce that Clear Channel has agreed to settle this long-standing payola investigation with the FCC," Andy Levin, exec VP and chief legal officer for Clear Channel, said in a statement. "We believe it is time to close the door on this ongoing inquiry and move forward."The agreement also calls for the voluntary adoption of a code of accepted business practices by the radio groups called "radio rules of engagement." The use of payola to promote songs on air has been a part of the radio-music business for decades. In the 1950's, when it first came to light in the form of direct cash payments to big name radio disc jockeys like Alan Freed, Congress held highly publiczed hearings. But instead of disappearing, it has mutated over the years with variations on the theme, such as gifts replacing cash as a less obvious form of inducement. Whether the new "radio rules of engagement" finally puts an end to payola remains to be seen.

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dennisMar 6th, 2007 - 21:31:43

I'm going to take a wait and see attititude here. I gave up listening to mainstream radio long ago. The playlists are bland. Programming lacks soul and creativity. The 'enforced hilarity' of DJ's is annoying. The fact that there aren't even DJ's, just on-air personalities is even more annoying.
I'm old enough to remember the golden days of AM radio where it was possible to hear the gospel of the Edwin Hawkins Singers followed by the psyechedelia of The Jefferson Airplane, and FM radio experimented with even more formats. I'm also current enough to appreciate everything from Fallout Boy to The Shins to Missy Elliot to Hank Williams III. The broadcast industry is full of dishonesty and deception in the service of making money, not breaking artists outside the grip of major labels. Let's see.

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LarryMar 6th, 2007 - 21:32:24

Horray for Elliot Spitzer who, like every other radio listener, knew form listening to the same songs played over and over again, that graft was present in the dying free radio stations and did something about it.

Unlike most politicians, Mr. Spitzer is for the regular folks.

Elliot Spitzer for President!

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DaleMar 6th, 2007 - 21:39:35

I now understand why FM radio sucks so bad. Companies are so tapped out of creativity that they replace their lack of originality with cash. So afraid to let the market decide. So afraid of being a real person. Hiding behind your money and perceived influence. How honorable for Mr. Levin to try to sound like a good person. I don't need to insult the industry. They will eat themselves soon enough. These children that you spit on are quite aware what they are going through.

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Payola for radio playMar 6th, 2007 - 22:36:29

I always wondered why Top 40 for the last 10 years was the most utterly and hopelessly undercooked porridge.

I've found it baffling that since 1993 there have no new equivalents of Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Hound-dog Taylor and the Houserockers, Aerosmith, or Lynyrd Skynyrd. The music world seemed to have died right after Nirvana, Beck, and Offspring.

Y2K seems to be the day the music died. The FCC got diseased with a Republican appointee majority and allowed unlimited radio station consolidation. To pay off their freshly leveraged buyouts, Clear Channel etc. turfed all their local, long haired DJs, and have now given us FOX's American Idols.

Mass media consolidation and payola are the clearest explanation for how FOX's American Idols have come to dominante the recent Grammies. No individual glorified on prime time TV will ever produce something truly worth remembering. It is only logical that any band of accomplished musicians that has developed it's product in front of bottle lobbing bar patrons would produce something far more enduring and memorable.

I would like to thank Eloit Spitzer from the bottom of my heart for targeting the media industry control freaks to loosen up and make this world a better place to live for the rest of us. I think the damage that the big 4 radio station groups have perpetrated on American culture has finally been found.

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TomTheToeMar 6th, 2007 - 22:38:59

The 8,400 1/2 hr segments will take place at 2:30 am and it will be business as usual.

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MattMar 7th, 2007 - 01:23:02

Re: Pay for Payola!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Read the damn Telecommunications act of 1996 that Clinton signed, that had certain provisions in it. But, thats typical of liberals who talk out their a!@!!! Before making your self feel good by looking at what you typed maybe you should do a little research. Big Corporations are whats ruining America. Political parties are just like border patrol, corrupted. So who will stand up for the people?

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lolMar 7th, 2007 - 02:30:37

This is a joke, they'll just shove the programs into the late night hours and constantly replay the same old recorded ones.

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Miss Elliot RehabilitatedMar 7th, 2007 - 03:32:39

The jewish-christian merger of most European radio stations
in Germany is more than an average random sample : Sugababe
a clear zionistic jewish criminal gang is emitted!Kick-Back
for the German parliamenaries who lawfully enforced _jewish
_christian takeovers of all - I repeat - all radio _musical_
and tv-stations.A(German with our tax money bribed)official
party name has the Christian label C like CDU CSU as a seal.
We had that with exclusive jewish classical music emissions
already what resulted in a complete lost of young listeners.

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ExFanDec 8th, 2008 - 19:01:40

Billboard chart is meaningless. Payola effect exists a long time ago.

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Elvis FanDec 8th, 2008 - 19:13:10

Fred Bronson or radio programmers in the USA are culprits.

New breeds who have no respect for music and art. They came to Billboard in the 90s and has worked to promote today’s artists at any cost.

By rewriting history he has managed move current artists to the top and in the process, destroy the reputation of Billboard.

In a resent move, stated earlier, He removed Elvis' Hound Dog as a #1 single and combined it with Don't Be Cruel as a (single)#1. This enabled Mariah Carey to move past Elvis with the most #1 pop singles. It was Fred Bronson who went to the press with the news!

However you must know what he did to get Mariah to this number. Fred included 3 songs Mariah recorded with other performers. One was the #1 hit 'One Fine Day' by Boyz To Men. The fact she sang on it, he included it as one of her 18 #1s.

At the same time he would not count Elvis' 'A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION' 2002, 'RUBBERNECKING' 2003, 'THAT'S ALRIGHT' 2004 and 'HEARTBREAK HOTEL' 2006. All went to #1 on Billboards Hot 100 single sells chart. Joel Whitburn, The worlds foremost music chart exert, RCA, EPE, Sony/BMI and many more flatly disagree with Fred Bronson.

A quick side note. Mariah has had only 29 top 40 hits in her 18 year career. Elvis is #1 with 114 top 40 hits in his 21 year career. Mariah is not even in the top 30 alltime. Elvis also had 11 #1 Country hits, and 26 #1 hits on the UK pop charts.(That's #1 in the UK)....... Mariah has had only 2 #1 hits in the UK.

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