ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross targeted the radio and record industry on last night's Primetime on ABC-TV in a story about "Payola: The Dirty Little Secret Of The Music Business."
Ross interviewed recording artists who indicated that payola was common practice and necessary to gain radio air play. Ross referred to the practice, which started in the 1950s as a “multi-million dollar secret” which continues today.
On camera New York Attorney General Elliott Spitzer stated that payola “goes to the highest corporate levels of record and radio companies.”
The story mentioned that seven major radio companies were being investigated and that most were cooperating with the Attorney General. Companies mentioned in the story were Infinity, ABC and Entercom.
Ross interviewed a former Entercom Buffalo program director who claimed he generated as much as a $100,000 in one year for the company. According to Dave Universal “I was Entercom’s Golden boy.” He went on to say that most of the money went to the station and to Entercom’s bottom line but that it was all done legally because it was payment after-the-fact.
While Ross stated that they had attempted to contact Entercom’s CEO, the camera zoomed in on the cover of Radio Ink featuring David Field.
Spitzer stated that they had taken the computers from many record companies and radio stations and found many incriminating e-mails between the two which document “who and how much.”
The story did not indicate that radio companies who had deals with labels thought they had been doing so legally with contractual arrangements.
