Fighting pay for play
This article is from salon.com by Eric Boehlert who has written multiple articles about payola for salon. This article was written in 2001 and is interesting to look at because it says in order to fight payola we need to get investigations of these huge radio conglomerates going in order to trigger the FCC. Now that Eliot Spitzer has spear headed these investigations is payola really on it’s way to stopping? I would have to argue that it is not. Considering Sptizer is taking 10 times as much action as the FCC. While yes there are new rules being made and things in progress things still aren’t much better even after investigations have been held. “If you have to pay $10,000 to shut your boss up, goddamn it, you pay.” — A major-label executive. I think this is well put, “They’re tired of people making an obscene amount of money — and that is the right word, obscene — and the obscene amount of abuse that’s going on. It’s just wrong. We need regulators to look at it, someone who stands up and says this stinks. Because the airwaves belong to the public, they’re federally licensed. You can’t do anything you want with them.” click here to take a look at the article.