Sony BMG settlement spells out radio group involvement
It's not yet clear whether New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer will seek cash settlements from broadcasters in his payola probe, or just the record labels. But the settlement with Sony BMG spells out several incidents of radio station employees being involved in the alleged misconduct. One case involved Dave Universal, who was fired in January as Program Director of Entercom's WKSE-FM Buffalo. (1/13/05 RBR #9). The paper trail was not on paper, but rather in an email that one promotion executive at Sony BMG's Epic Records sent to a colleague:
"Two weeks ago, it cost us over 4000.00 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 $750.00. So almost $5000.00 in two weeks for overnight airplay. He told me that Tommy really wanted him to do it so he cut the deal." Entercom Buffalo VP/GM Greg Ried told RBR, "Our policies clearly prohibit the payola activity which is alleged." He said the company would continue to cooperate with the AG's investigation. In the settlement, an email from an unidentified programmer at Infinity's WPXY-FM Rochester to an Epic exec said "I'm a whore this week. What can I say?" Cited as an example of "payola" in the settlement was Epic supplying a number of Infinity stations with prize packages to fly winning listeners to Las Vegas for a Celine Dion concert in return for adding her song "Goodbye's" to their playlist. An Infinity spokeswoman said the company would have no comment. Capitol Records admitted to paying for a trip by programmers of Clear Channel's WWHT-FM Syracuse to Boston and the settlement noted that Sony's in-house counsel had blocked a deal in 2004 by the Sony Urban label to scrumptiously provide a plasma TV and electronic equipment to Michael Saunders, PD at Clear Channel's WWPR-FM New York. Clear Channel yesterday issued this statement to RBR: "We are cooperating fully with Mr. Spitzer's office. Clear Channel has extremely strict internal policies against payola, so strict that we severed ties with independent promoters in early 2003 to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. The allegations made today will be fully investigated and any wrongdoing will be met by swift and appropriate disciplinary action."
Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
