Monday, August 2, 2010

Broadcasting company fined for payola

You heard it first from the News Newt...

Univision - one of the biggest broadcasting companies in America - has now been fined $1,000,000 by the FCC for payola. Univision had accepted payments from a record label to get the label's music on the company's radio stations.

This follows a story several years ago in which the FCC docked Clear Channel, Citadel, and CBS for similar payola. You probably never heard that story though, because these 3 companies owned so much of the media that the story was hardly reported!

Hell, I knew 20 years ago that the radio industry was awash in payola. How else did some of the crappiest music of that era ever get so much airplay? My suspicion was confirmed shortly thereafter when I read that radio personnel were receiving money and drugs from record companies in exchange for airtime. Ironically, some of the recording artists who benefited from this payola liked to boast of how drug-free they were. Everybody else is a stoner, huh?

(Source: http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2010/07/27/univision-antes-up-a-million-bucks-for-payola-violations)

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