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Payola & the CBS Evening News

6

60sguy

Guest
Payola and Elliott Spitzer were a feature story on the CBS Evening News tonight

The gist of Anthony Mason's report was that Sony and Warners have each been fined, 10 and 5 million dollars respectively, and that the major radio players, Infinity/CBS and Clear Channel were under investigation.

Is this really big, "breaking news"? Nothing that those in the radio biz, and those of us who read this board haven't known for months and months!

Why do you think this is finally a network news story?

By the way, no mention of Dave U! <P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by 60sguy on 02/07/06 11:55 PM.</FONT></P>
 
Elliot Spitzer is running for Governor in New York, hoping to succeed the retiring current Governor George Pataki. That may be why the payola scandal got as much attention as it did.
 
> Elliot Spitzer is running for Governor in New York, hoping
> to succeed the retiring current Governor George Pataki. That
> may be why the payola scandal got as much attention as it
> did.
>

I don't dismiss the political expedience theory. There's another angle to this and it comes from a reliable music industry sources and published accounts which indicate the labels took a short-term bullet on this in order to derive long-term benefit. What's more, the parent companies of CBS were aghast at the squallor and stench that eminated from their record divisions.

There were published reports that Spitzer's investigation was aided by a highly placed member in the entertainment business who saw the investigation as the only way to clean up his company's record division.

Additionaly, the record labels knew for a long time that their industry was being victimized by a monumental change in the public's purchasing habits, especially those under 25, who were more likely to download music from the Internet and file sharing.

Compounding this, the labels had their fill of being held up for ransom by radio stations who were extorting promotional underwriting in the form of cash and high profile gratuities such as big screen TVs, computer systems and trips.

By coming clean and turning state's witness, the record companies actually did themselves a favor, certainly not because they all of a sudden became benevolent, but because it was economically prudent to do so.

Now it's the radio groups' turn in the rock 'n roll hot seat.
 
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