business, with money or goods passing from the record labels to the radio stations to influence airplay.
Because of the FCC’s toothless regulations, it has rarely — if ever — taken serious action to curb payola. Earlier this year, an FCC source suggested that the organization was basically powerless to stop pay-for-play in its current form. “My sense is it’s extremely common for there to be some kind of financial transaction taking place between the station and the label,” the source said. “But they just package it in a way that passes muster under our rules. The way they do it is basically exploiting loopholes in the law.” The New Payola
kicked off a Senate probe into pay-for-play led by a young Al Gore. And in the 2000s, the New York attorney general’s office led an investigation into payola that caused the major labels and several prominent radio chains to pay million-dollar settlements and agree to change their practices.t makes sense for Commissioner O’Rielly to ask the RIAA for help. But the RIAA — a trade body which represents record labels — has also failed to stamp out pay-for-play at least once before.
Even as he asks the RIAA for help determining the role of pay-for-play in modern radio, O’Rielly writes, “it is my sincere hope that recent allegations are being overstated or misrepresented.”
JoeBudden parksmusic