Coming to an Attorney General Near You

[SirRoxalot]

SONY just agreed to pay NY State $10-million. Clear Channel, Infinity, Entercom, and others are facing serious repercussions from the NY Attorney General's payola probe. And that's just one state, collecting a lot more than chump change from just one record conglomerate. If you think that 49 other AG's haven't noticed a new revenue stream, you're not paying attention.

Payola is suddenly front page. That means that anybody in radio, or who aspires to a career in broadcasting, needs to read the entire release from the Attorney General's office. To that end,

here's the link.

The release cover page outlines the case.

The Assurance of Discontinuance describes in detail how the relationship between the record industry, indie promoters, and broadcasters has evolved, and explains the laws that are in force regarding that relationship.

The Sony Correspondence is the section that has been quoted most often in preceding posts, and gives you a sense of the players and how out of control the situation was/is.

Yeah, it's long, but take the time. Your livelihood could depend on it.

 

[jaydavenport]

if this spread to the other 49 states, could this effectively weed out those who are in it solely for the payola?

> SONY just agreed to pay NY State $10-million. Clear Channel,
> Infinity, Entercom, and others are facing serious
> repercussions from the NY Attorney General's payola probe.
> And that's just one state, collecting a lot more than chump
> change from just one record conglomerate. If you think that
> 49 other AG's haven't noticed a new revenue stream, you're
> not paying attention.
>
> Payola is suddenly front page. That means that anybody in
> radio, or who aspires to a career in broadcasting, needs to
> read the entire release from the Attorney General's office.
> To that end,
>
> here's the link.
>
> The release cover page outlines the case.
>
> The Assurance of Discontinuance describes in detail how the
> relationship between the record industry, indie promoters,
> and broadcasters has evolved, and explains the laws that are
> in force regarding that relationship.
>
> The Sony Correspondence is the section that has been quoted
> most often in preceding posts, and gives you a sense of the
> players and how out of control the situation was/is.
>
> Yeah, it's long, but take the time. Your livelihood could
> depend on it.
> <P ID="signature">______________
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.jaydavenport.net>Jay Davenport</a>


</P>

 

[SirRoxalot]

Promotional Considerations

> if this spread to the other 49 states, could this
> effectively weed out those who are in it solely for the
> payola?

I think we're going to see the end of payola as we know it. Does that mean that the record companies will stop promoting music? No. Does it mean that music promotion will be more "in your face", instead of hidden? Yes.

What's it mean for the jock in the trenches? Hard to say. They seldom benefitted directly from the practice. It's hard to determine the value that corporations received from the information at hand, so it's hard to determine if there's enough economic impact to cause significant belt-tightening - which generally translates into more VT and less live-and-local. We can discuss how STUPID that is on another thread.

 

[jaydavenport]

Re: Promotional Considerations

> > if this spread to the other 49 states, could this
> > effectively weed out those who are in it solely for the
> > payola?
>
> I think we're going to see the end of payola as we know it.
> Does that mean that the record companies will stop promoting
> music? No. Does it mean that music promotion will be more
> "in your face", instead of hidden? Yes.
>
> What's it mean for the jock in the trenches? Hard to say.
> They seldom benefitted directly from the practice. It's hard
> to determine the value that corporations received from the
> information at hand, so it's hard to determine if there's
> enough economic impact to cause significant belt-tightening
> - which generally translates into more VT and less
> live-and-local. We can discuss how STUPID that is on another
> thread.
>

i can agree with you more...

in the alabama board someone posted a link to this pdf file
http://somafm.com/payola/payola2.pdf

which clearly shows which stations were involved in alot of it.

what isn't so hard to understand, is that with the payscale of some stations, just look at the parking lot at the vehciles of the PD's compared to the rest of the on air staff, and if it doesn't look right then either they are working 2 or 3 extra side jobs or something is up.<P ID="signature">______________
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.jaydavenport.net>Jay Davenport</a>


</P>

 

[SaltyDog]

Re: Promotional Considerations

> what isn't so hard to understand, is that with the payscale
> of some stations, just look at the parking lot at the
> vehciles of the PD's compared to the rest of the on air
> staff, and if it doesn't look right then either they are
> working 2 or 3 extra side jobs or something is up.

I am so glad you said that so I didn't have to. Before someone else says it, I'll point out the obvious: PD's make more than the rest of the airstaff. But I've worked with guys making $40 or $50 grand a year driving Benzes and living the high life.

I get no joy from watching the publicity-seeking Spitzer ramp up his gubernatorial bid this way. But on the other hand, what could be easier? It's so obvious.