| Subject: Sony bribes/payola-Buffalo |
Author:
Betty
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Date Posted: 14:03:09 08/08/05 Mon
In reply to:
Betty
's message, "Sony bribes radio, tv, MTV, to get their music played." on 13:47:20 08/08/05 Mon
ON THE MEDIA
Radio airplay: Is it all about the money?
By ANTHONY VIOLANTI
8/3/2005
It's going to cost record companies a lot more to deal with New York Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer than handing out payola to radio stations.
Instead of offering Florida vacations, designer sneakers and tickets to New York Yankees games to program directors, Sony BMG Music Entertainment will have to fork over $10 million to charity. Expect more big record and radio companies to face similar penalties in the coming weeks.
Last week, Spitzer's year-long investigation into the "pay for play" practices claimed its first big name in Sony BMG. Payola is a term to describe record companies wooing radio stations with cash and other goodies. In return, stations and program directors were expected to play records by artists ranging from Celine Dion to J.Lo. The Federal Communications Commission is also investigating radio stations.
"Air time is often determined by undisclosed payoffs to radio stations and their employees," Spitzer said at a news conference. "This agreement (with Sony) is a model for breaking the pervasive influence of bribes in the industry."
Not so, says Dave Universal, former program director at WKSE-FM 98.5, who called the Sony report "garbage," adding he was being made a "scapegoat."
Universal has been at the center of the Spitzer probe and was fired from Kiss in January for what Entercom Communications Corp, the station's owner, called a violation of its conflict of interest policy. Universal, who lives in Amherst, denied that anything he received from record companies influenced what he played on the air and said trips and other items were all part of doing business.
But Spitzer released an e-mail this week from a promotion executive at Sony BMG's Epic Records stating its dealings with Universal:
"Two weeks ago it cost us over $4,000 to get Franz (Ferdinand) on WKSE. That is what the four trips to Miami and hotel cost. . . . At the end of the day (David) Universal added GC (Good Charlotte) and Gretchen Wilson and hit Alex up for another grand and they settled for $750. So almost $5,000 in two weeks for overnight airplay."
Universal was angry over the report and accompanying national publicity he has been getting since it was published.
"All I'm going to say is what came out in the Sony report is a bunch of garbage," Universal stated in an e-mail response to The Buffalo News. "All three specific things they described are completely inaccurate. I never said, "Give me this and I'll add that.' We didn't break every ratings record in Kiss 98.5 history by me adding stiff records for gifts.
"Pending our future lawsuit, I can't get too specific, but apparently I'm so smart that I spent the last 14 years scamming all the billion dollar record labels and my old company was clueless. I went on business trips that led to them (Entercom) making tons of money."
Universal was particularly upset over the local impact of the report, including a front page story in The News. Universal said in a telephone interview his name will appear in upcoming future releases for the investigation.
"The last thing I want . . . is for (people in Western New York) to see my picture on the front page of the paper and think I did something wrong," Universal added in the e-mail. "I worked my butt off day and night to make Kiss 98.5 special for 17 years because I loved that station and the people I worked with.
"I was a client for these guys. Me hanging out at games or in Miami is no different than what every single politician does on a daily basis. It was never tit for tat."
The $10 million Sony will pay won't make much difference to the company or other major labels, Universal stated.
"$10 million, tax deductable, to these guys is like 100 dollars to you and me. Making me a scapegoat is the real issue - how they "write off' their expenses is very easy for them to do. I am shocked that Mr. Spitzer's report was released as if what Sony claims is true."
Payola dates to the dawn of radio, and if you listen to those in the music business, it will take more than Spitzer to stop it.
"I think the impact of all this is that the record companies will somehow find more creative ways to conduct their usual business," said Billy Altman, a national music journalist who has covered the record and radio industry for more than three decades.
Music changes every decade, from Elvis to 50 Cent, but the pay-for-play culture to get records on radio seems to remain the same.
"It's a case of everybody feeling the system is so inherently corrupt that there is no way around it, so you have to play the game," Altman said. "The big record companies are very insecure about their products, because they have so much money invested in these acts. They can't afford to have a record bomb."
Radio faces a similar dilemma. Recent years of over-priced station sales, consolidation, declining audience numbers and strengthening competition from satellite broadcasting and iPods, have left commercial stations desperate to find new revenue.
"Radio companies are big and powerful, but they're under tremendous financial pressure," Altman said. "This scandal shows how the money affects what music is being played on the air, and how much good music isn't being played for consumers."
Sources close to Spitzer's investigation say every major label is under scrutiny and the same holds true for radio stations. Entercom, Citadel Broadcasting Corp. and Infinity Radio, which operate virtually every major station in Buffalo, are being investigated.
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User Comments (These do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of this site)
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gdZiemann
Date: August 4, 2005 @ 12:32 AM
"no different than what every single politician does on a daily basis"
Is that a defense or a confession?
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INeedAlover
Date: August 4, 2005 @ 9:31 AM
""It's a case of everybody feeling the system is so inherently corrupt that there is no way around it, "
Same question, Is that a defense or a confession?
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INeedAlover
Date: August 4, 2005 @ 9:33 AM
"Recent years of over-priced station sales, consolidation, declining audience numbers and strengthening competition from satellite broadcasting and iPods, have left commercial stations desperate to find new revenue."
So let's charge the record labels MORE for the illegal payola they shouldn't already be paying, is THAT their solution?
Why don't they put some real music on the air and give ALL new artists a chance to make it on the radio? Maybe then, radio wouldn't be so boring, and maybe more people would listen. Hey, if more people would listen, you could charge more for advertising! Morons.
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peatrap
Date: August 4, 2005 @ 10:30 AM
You can go to jail for swapping files, yet join in on organized crime (payola) you just get fined. The corporate whores in washington have sold us down the river. Fly your flag upside down, the new constitution starts out now ( we the corporations ****)
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RaidHHI
Date: August 6, 2005 @ 12:17 PM
peatrap,
If you abuse the flag here in the bible belt; You'd have to deal with local police and politicians who are known to be floating down the holston river, drunker then a skunk; Yet he's still a judge.
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