Payola??

[oldies4ever]

Lots of local players here....

ALBANY — New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Wednesday he has subpoenaed nine of the nation's largest radio conglomerates in his "payola" investigation of major artists and songs he claims got air time because of payoffs by recording companies.

"A lot of the major songs have been implicated in this and it showed how pervasive the payola infrastructure had become," Spitzer said. "Major artists, major songs were sent up the charts through improper payments to buy spins on the air that translated into sales."

The companies that have received subpoenas control thousands of stations nationwide, including Clear Channel Communications Inc., Infinity, which now operates as CBS Radio, Citadel Broadcasting Corp., Cox Radio Inc., Cumulus Broadcasting Inc., Pamal Broadcasting Ltd., Entercom Communications Corp., Emmis Communications Corp. and ABC Inc., according to court records filed by Spitzer.

Clear Channel, Cumulus and Pamal have a total of 23 AM and FM stations in the Poughkeepsie area.

Warner, Sony settled

Two major recording companies agreed last year to settle their parts of the investigation. Warner Music Group Corp. said it would pay $5 million, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment agreed to pay $10 million.

Spitzer linked several local radio stations to the scandal: Woodstock-based WDST (100.1 FM); Fishkill-based WSPK (104.7 FM), also known as K104; and WRRV (92.7 FM) and WPKF (96.1 FM), both based in Poughkeepsie.

The probe involves Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Real" and John Mayer's song "Daughters." Songs by other artists are being examined, including those by Jessica Simpson, Celine Dion, Maroon 5, Good Charlotte, Franz Ferdinand, Switchfoot, Michelle Branch and R.E.M.

Artists and writers are not targets, Spitzer's office said. In fact, they have supported the probe and provided several complaints that assisted investigators.

"Cox Radio has cooperated fully with Attorney General Spitzer's investigation," said Bob Neil, president and chief executive of Cox, in a prepared statement. "Years before this investigation began, Cox Radio was the first radio group to terminate all relationships with independent record promoters to avoid any suggestion or appearance of 'pay-for-play.' We continue to be a leader in our industry on this issue."

Firms deny involvement

"Our policy couldn't be clearer," Andy Levin of Clear Channel said. "We have zero tolerance for pay-for-play. Any employee who violates that policy faces disciplinary action up to and including dismissal."

Jason Finkelberg, general manager of Pamal Broadcasting, based in Beacon, said he knows of no payola being practiced. He said music company representatives take radio personnel to lunch, but there is no cash or gifts exchanged at his company or others he's worked in.

"We never accepted anything in exchange for airplay," he said. "It's not something we'd ever do ... we base it entirely on its merit."

A 1960 federal law and related state laws bar record companies from offering undisclosed financial incentives in exchange for airplay. The practice was called "payola," a contraction of "pay" and "Victrola," the old wind-up record player.

Spitzer has relied on civil laws because the criminal laws are more specific and difficult to violate.

 

[Orator1]

> Lots of local players here....
>


Yes, but much of the modern day payola wheeling-dealing occurs at more of a widespread corporate level, not usually jock level. Music "adds" don't really come from individual stations anymore. They usually are handled in a company wide/format wide manner. The only exception to this might be the Music Directors in CHR, Top 40-ish formats.

You can be sure the supeonas went out LONG before the news did.

This should be fun to watch, though.

 

[hellno]

> > Lots of local players here....
> >
>
>
> Yes, but much of the modern day payola wheeling-dealing
> occurs at more of a widespread corporate level, not usually
> jock level. Music "adds" don't really come from individual
> stations anymore. They usually are handled in a company
> wide/format wide manner. The only exception to this might be
> the Music Directors in CHR, Top 40-ish formats.
>
> You can be sure the supeonas went out LONG before the news
> did.
>
> This should be fun to watch, though.
>
Sorry dude...adds DO happen locally. Broadcast groups may have regional programming advisors and the like, but any station worth it's salt does what benefits it's sound on a local level. You have to be cognizant of regional hits and what your competitor is up to.

Secondly, major labels don't care about markets of Poughkeepsie's size anymore. The stations here are still lucky they even have reporting status and if the majors had their way, they wouldn't. This isn't even a Soundscan market so labels have nothing to gain here. They barely send CD's to give away anymore.

Some local stations show up in a Warner Brothers memo with a laundry list of stations in other markets. A couple stations elsewhere did questionable things but the paper doesn't do it's homework, it just jumps to conclusions and lumps the local guys in. And runs OLD stories again, apparantly.

Stations were contacted and asked for materials ages ago. Spitzer's office already identified the illegal goings on with Donnie Michaels, Michael Saunders and Dave Universal. Anybody who would be in hot water was already contacted.

It's a non-story.

 

[Orator1]

Re: don't miss "primetime" tonight

In case you do miss it, here's a link;


http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1591155&page=1


This IS kinda old news-in the big picture, but our AG is running for Governor.......

 

[chacha]

> Some local stations show up in a Warner Brothers memo with a
> laundry list of stations in other markets. A couple
> stations elsewhere did questionable things but the paper
> doesn't do it's homework, it just jumps to conclusions and
> lumps the local guys in. And runs OLD stories again,
> apparantly.
>
> Stations were contacted and asked for materials ages ago.
> Spitzer's office already identified the illegal goings on
> with Donnie Michaels, Michael Saunders and Dave Universal.
> Anybody who would be in hot water was already contacted.
>
> It's a non-story.
>

Actually it's not a non-story. This has very little to do with Elliot Spitzer. This is now about the FCC investigating broadcasters (albeit at Spitzer's urging) rather than record labels. The federal investigation will focus on radio stations both in and out of the scope of Spitzer's jurisdiction. And unlike that investigation, this one may include penalties for broadcast companies and may involve the Department of Justice seeking FEDERAL criminal charges against individual station employees. So none of these broadcasters are "out of the woods" yet.

 

[Orator1]

Re: from "R & R"

>
> It's a non-story.
>

Here's some more of the non-story, from Radio and Records

Friday, Feb. 10, 2006


Report: FCC Conducting Huge Payola Probe


In an interview with ABC News, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the agency is currently pouring over stacks of evidence of potential violations of its anti-payola rules, spurred on by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's investigation that led to major settlements with record labels.

"This is potentially the most widespread and flagrant violation of FCC rules in the history of American broadcasting," Adelstein says. "We've never seen evidence of such a systematic betrayal of the responsibility of broadcasters. The FCC staff is working with voluminous evidence right now. It's a complicated and wide-ranging investigation."

Without naming names, ABC says several of the largest radio companies in America are involved in the review, and says officials involved in the investigation have suggested some stations could be at risk of losing their licenses. "I can't believe that radio stations are putting their licenses at risk," says Adelstein. "It seems to me they thought the FCC was asleep and they shot someone in front of the policeman. The policeman is obligated to act when evidence is so clear."

In fact, Adelstein acknowledged that some of the evidence came from Spitzer's probe of the labels. "The FCC has received an unbelievable amount of evidence from Attorney General Spitzer that there appears to be widespread and flagrant violation of FCC rules regarding payola, including undisclosed promotions by radio broadcasters," Adelstein says. "And we need to find out who did it, [and] basically prosecute any violations to the fullest extent of the law. When anything is aired that is paid for without being disclosed to the public it is a clear violation of FCC rules. We have a responsibility to get to the bottom of this."

Adelstein's words are likely a welcome sound to Spitzer, who has been critical of the FCC's payola enforcement. "I would be the first to acknowledge that I would like to see the FCC more directly involved in addressing what is very clearly a payola scandal that has run rife through the industry. They have failed to do so and we have reached out to them," he says.

— Joe Howard, R&R Washington Bureau Chief