Federal law says that radio stations may not accept money for playing
a song unless the fact that such a transaction has taken place is
clearly announced to the listening audience. This practice of buying
airplay, known as "payola," has been illegal ever since
Alan Freed (of the
Ramones' "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?"
fame) was convicted of taking bribes to air certain songs back in
1960. The ban against payola is a well-thought out law, clearly distinguishing
advertisements from regular programming. Even though radio is one
of the major means of selling albums in this country, we still operate
under the premise that music is supposed to be artistic expression
that succeeds or fails on its own merits, and not simply a commercial
product. And the system seems to work: I listen to the radio pretty
frequently, and, the last I noticed, no DJ was announcing the latest
Stone Temple Pilots song was paid for by Atlantic Records, an AOL-Time
Warner Company.
Therefore,
we can pretty much rest assured that the airwaves are free from
any unseemly influence and filthy lucre, and that our precious rock
'n' roll music, that vital lifeblood of free expression and youth
culture, is played solely on the basis of merit. Or can we?
One likes
to believe in the freedom of music, but glittering prizes and endless
compromises shatter the illusion of integrity. The
L.A. Times recently broke a story alleging that
the five major record labels, that is, AOL-Time Warner, Bertelsmann,
EMI
Group, Sony, and Vivendi Universal, illegally paid money to an independent
record promoter, or "indie," associated with a Portland
radio station. According to the story, the radio station played
songs produced by the record companies in return.
In the
past, the indies of America—and there are many, for it is a
lucrative business—ran around the payola laws by appearing
to be just what their name implies: independent promoters. The L.A.
Times' coup was discovering an alleged log of payments of
cash and prizes made to the radio station by the record companies,
with the indies acting as the middlemen. Being an indie pays well:
In
a recent story run by Salon.com, Eric Boehlert estimated
that $3 million is paid out to indies nationwide each week. In radio
stations from Reno to Boston, for any promotion given a song, from
adding it to the playlist to putting it into heavy rotation, there
is an indie making a buck.
The saga
of the demise of commercial radio doesn't end there. Thanks to the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, large corporations, formerly limited
in their powers, have been able to buy up huge numbers of radio
stations, including multiple stations in the same market. In fact,
clicking here
will reveal disturbing facts about how few companies actually give
us our information, transfer our data, and entertain us. As with
all big business, radio stations, and the large media companies
they seem to be colluding with, are fundamentally conservative,
allowing only those types of music and bands they see as possessing
sufficient profit incentive to be heard by the public.
New York
City, for example, is, according to Arbitron,
the single biggest radio market in North America. Infinity Broadcasting,
which owns 180 stations in 22 states, including the Portland station
in the L.A. Times article, also owns New York City's 92.3
WXRK, the hugely popular "K-Rock"; the famous rock 'n'
roll station 102.7 WNEW, which it has shifted to an all-talk format
starring rusty trombone-loving chatterboxes Opie and Anthony; the
geriatric WCBS oldies station; and the two most popular AM news
stations, WINS and WCBS. If you noticed that two of the station's
call letters end with "CBS," it's because Infinity and
CBS are both part of Viacom, the company that also owns MTV.
Meanwhile,
a corporation called Clear Channel, recently described by Salon.com
as a "Fortune
500 company devoted to cost-cutting and wrapped up in a macho corporate
culture," has also been able to acquire a disproportionate
number of radio stations. (How disproportionate? Clear Channel's
Web site proclaims that "[o]ne out of every ten radio stations
across the United States broadcasts under the Clear Channel's banner
and the company's approximate 1,170 stations bill a full 20% of
total industry revenue.") In New York, Clear Channel's holdings
include the classic rock station WAXQ-FM, or Q104.3; pop station
WHTZ-FM, also known as Z100; hip-hop station 103.5 WKTU-FM; 105.1
WTJM-FM, for "jammin' oldies;" and insomnia cure 106.7
WLTW-FM, or, as its station identification declares it, "lite
FM."
Most
alarmingly, Clear Channel, which, according to the L.A. Times,
has already been fined for payola, is apparently in bed with Cincinnati-based
indie promoters Tri State Promotions & Marketing. According
to one of Boehlert's Salon stories, they seem to be looking to cut
out the indie middleman, forcing record companies to market directly
to the radio stations. One large payment can get the latest pop
music blared form coast to coast, and any act not so supported would
find itself virtually shut out.
The result
would be that commercial radio would inevitably grow less experimental,
and less likely to allow entry to new artists. Accountants and CEOs
are not known as musical revolutionaries, preferring to go with
the tried-and-true. Eventually, authentic musical expression will
be replaced entirely with pre-manufactured "product,"
a pleasant soundtrack to accompany us on our sojourns to the mall.
In other words, the future of radio will be that we will hear solely
what we are told to hear.
Yet,
it is not CORPORATE MOFO's style to write a story merely to bitch
about a problem. In the bleak landscape that is the New York radio
market, there are two shining beams of hope. One, of course, is
NPR, where you can have your heart's fill of Garrison Keillor's
Lake Woebegone, where all the men are whiny, none of
the women have tattoos, and all the children are in special education
classes. The other choice is a little more subversive.
Got
any thoughts on this article? Write editor@corporatemofo.com
Posted
January 1, 2001 10:48 PM