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IS WBCN OFF THE HOOK?

V

Varulven

READ THE FULL STORY HERE,

http://www.vnuemedia.com/bb/login/l...O+XcjTu7fOQZDsHMmQbTPPJt1ncK9DfFgx9EA9+EUktkp

CBS Radio Settles Payola Allegations
October 19, 2006 -Mike Boyle, N.Y.

EXCERPTS THAT BILLBOARD LETS YOU READ WITHOUT SUBSCRIPTION:

* Under the terms of the settlement, CBS Radio has agreed to undertake company-wide reforms, including the immediate cessation of receiving payments and other inducements from record labels in exchange for airplay, discontinue using independent promoters as a pass-through for securing airplay, hire a compliance officer to monitor promotion practices, and implement an internal system to detect any future abuses.

HOW ABOUT THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE FIRED A NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES RECENTLY


* CBS Radio will also make a $2 million payment, which will be distributed through the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, to New York State not-for-profit entities to fund music education and appreciation programs.

IF THIS IS TAX DEDUCTABLE IT MEANS THEY NEVER GOT FINED.

* Spitzer's investigation revealed that certain stations owned by CBS Radio openly solicited illegal financial benefits, expensive vacation packages, gift cards and other valuable items from record labels in exchange for playing the labels' songs

NO KIDDING? GEE, TELL US SOMETHING WE DON'T KNOW
 
Since Spitzer is involved and NY charities, I would guess this only effects NY. So Joe, you can be merry that this does not effect WBCN.
 
How do we get a list of Spitzer's stations and the territories his deal covers?

Is WBCN in the Boston Business Journal today? Couldn't find the story online
 
Since Spitzer is Atty. general of New York it onlye has any reach to the New York stations and the labels that being based in New York had dealings with them. Foiled again Joe, you'll have to go back to your drawing board and figure another way to try to get Oedipus locked away. Or better yet, MOVE ON.
 
I hate to say it, but I think Joe might be right on this one.

I remember when Spitzer made the whole industry segregate the investment banking and research sales sides. This move affected the entire country.

As for CBS and record lables, look where thy are all based. And yes, obviously they have to only abide by the rule in New York, but typically if the firms are headquartered in NY (like various media firms and record lables) then they have to comply across all their operations.

Additionally, this sets a precedent that and other state can persuit in court.

Lastly, I think its a shame pay-for-play is being taken away from the stations. This removal will be the final death knoll leading to 20 minute commercial blocks for everything from po-dump restaurants in Providence (or WBCN's "steal and deal" spots) to gentlemans clubs and other institutions related to unsavory elements of society station with unstable revenues seem to glorify.
 
Payola is still alive and well. Spitzer even said it at a Press Conference - that the "industry", such as it is these days, will find new ways to wiggle around the law. Limp Bizkit is the best example of why payola is bad. A dreadful band that found national attention through purchasing airtime. http://www.limpbizkit.com/

The LB catalog will never be as valuable as The Who, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, never ever ever.
Interscope and American Radio Systems did their little payola thing when CBS was in the process of purchasing the ARS stations.

Sony doesn't need to purchase time for major acts like Celine Dion (now it is probably a safe bet that WBCN didn't sell Celine Dion discs in the "rock shop", but one never knows - perhaps for her music it was trips to the Vegas Casino that was exchanged; but why make payoffs for a superstar who would probably get the spins anyway? Airplay insurance???), the point being, why should any one program director benefit from all the "perks", the airline tickets, the free discs, the VCR machines that I saw at the Geffen Records office stacked in a corner - the promo woman calling it "legal payola". Legal payola?

Or the drugs and the girls allegedly utilized to launch a song like "Brother Louie", which an artist at Buddah (recently interviewed) told me about. The teenage girl, we hear, had no idea what she was getting into as she provided services (allegedly) for program directors in a certain region of the country. "Brooklyndon" thinks this kind of quid pro quo is a good thing? Only in this industry are there a wide ranging array of goodies endemic to a plague that benefits one or two people at the station, at the expense of the hard-working jocks. Imagine being a mid-day or afternoon drive at a station in a city like Boston and seeing crates of CDs loaded into a locked room, put into a white van and distributed to a store in Kenmore Square and then other retailers along the route! The poor mid-day, afternoon and evening on-air talents watch as one individual reaps the benefit of the little underground network at the expense of listeners, at the expense of the on-air staff not even getting a promo cd or two to study their craft (unless I walked in and personally put them in each mail box which I used to do at WBCN, never had to do that at WCOZ, I could just leave a stack and they would get to the jocks designated), at the expense of the listener forced to hear stuff being played - not on merit - but on corporate greed.

What about the hard-working artists who don't have the money machine behind them?

If you read THE HIT MEN
http://www.amazon.ca/Hit-Men-Broker...ef=sr_1_1/702-9509959-5875220?ie=UTF8&s=books

you'll get the picture on a larger scale. Even songs from Pink Floyd were not safe. Brooklyndon is totally off base here. If local bands had to buy advertising time (WBCN still owes me $50.00 from the 1980s; we used to purchase advertising time when we opened for, say, John Cale at The Rathskellar) the record labels should have to buy advertising time to get their message out. What's wrong with saying "The spins for Limp Bizkit brought to you courtesy the advertising team at Interscope Records" ? At least there would be a paper trail beyond invoices. A legitimate paper trail. And more important - the unsuspecting listener would have evidence that one allegedly "hip" band was just some corporate put on that had to sneak around the rules because their music just wasn't good enough to get airtime without some sleight of hand.

Spitzer used the Payola issue to slap labels on the wrists and look like a real hero. Even the way he went about shining the spotlight is suspect, he probably plays poker with the label executives. They probably are financing his political campaigns. It's just a different form of "payola". When one individual takes a station in one city and for two decades uses it as his own personal treasure chest, everyone loses - the on-air staff, the artists, the listeners.

Those who do nothing about it enable the culprit. Those who witness it and refuse to turn their boss in are as bad as the crook who took the contraband. Obviously "Brooklyndon" is not a radio "professional" because in his dislike for having to admit I'm right, I'm sure he would've turned in the perpetrator given half a chance.
Since he is most likely a fan and part-timer and not a former station employee he can probably sleep at night to prepare for his weekend shifts.

Too many people got hurt in the Boston payola scandal and only a couple of voices were brave enough to step up to the podium.
 
CBS Tightens Policies by Jeff Leeds NY Times

Is it a coincidence that CBS is tightening its policies after Karmazin and Oeidpus Hyson have left the respective buildings?

CBS Radio Tightens Policies in Settlement Over Payola


By JEFF LEEDS
Published: October 20, 2006
CBS has become the first radio corporation to settle accusations of illicit pay-for-play practices made by Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, as part of his continuing investigation of the music industry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/b...p/Reference/Times Topics/People/L/Leeds, Jeff

The settlement comes a week after a judge declined to dismiss a pay-for-play lawsuit that Mr. Spitzer’s office had filed against another radio broadcaster, Entercom Communications.


As part of the settlement CBS agreed to restrict how stations handle listener contests and what benefits station personnel can receive. CBS also agreed not to sell advertising time that could be used to distort a song’s performance on industry charts unless it notified the two companies that monitor radio airplay.
 
Conicidence

That is all it is. Karmizan and Oedipus have been out of the scene for a few years respectively and the payola probe that swept up the labels and a few NY programmers (Dave Universal in Buffalo) is recent. The only real change that they (CBS) have made is to follow clear channel's lead in banning indie promoters. That is where most of the payola problems stemmed from. Truth is that most of it was not even "payola" stations received promotional items and packages, fly aways, tickets, etc for ads THAT IS CALLED PROMOTION. Payola was actual money exchanging hands with DJ's and programmers in return for airplay and as much as Joe will spew forth figures about how many Lovin Spoonful lp's were shipped to people back in 1974 that were sold in various used record stores, it is not the classic payola scenario of days gone by.
 
Limp Bizkit is the best example of why payola is bad. A dreadful band that found national attention through purchasing airtime. http://www.limpbizkit.com/ The LB catalog will never be as valuable as The Who, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, never ever ever.

Well, the who catolog might stand o its own, but I think LB might hold water against Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana.

Interscope and American Radio Systems did their little payola thing when CBS was in the process of purchasing the ARS stations.


Even songs from Pink Floyd were not safe. Brooklyndon is totally off base here. If local bands had to buy advertising time (WBCN still owes me $50.00 from the 1980s; we used to purchase advertising time when we opened for, say, John Cale at The Rathskellar) the record labels should have to buy advertising time to get their message out. What's wrong with saying "The spins for Limp Bizkit brought to you courtesy the advertising team at Interscope Records" ? At least there would be a paper trail beyond invoices. A legitimate paper trail. And more important - the unsuspecting listener would have evidence that one allegedly "hip" band was just some corporate put on that had to sneak around the rules because their music just wasn't good enough to get airtime without some sleight of hand.

Yeah, I mean, I think that its a valid point you make, but the difference is advertizers were demanding time on stations playing pink floyd, while advertizers were clueless to who Rothkeller was.


Obviously "Brooklyndon" is not a radio "professional" because in his dislike for having to admit I'm right, I'm sure he would've turned in the perpetrator given half a chance.

I'm actually a risk analyst for an emmisions fowards and swaps fund. I stumbled on this website my freshman year of college when you were battling pulltack.
 
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