Re: Payola

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

Donna says-- yes Payola does still go on.  Yes PDs at important stations DO
still get preferential treatment.  The only difference is that the entire
thing has gone underground, rather than being as blatant as it once was.  I
know for a true fact that even in the 1980s, certain Boston stations got
first crack at exclusives of a hit song, got better seats at concerts, got
prizes that came as a result of having been good to a record company.  What
Alan Freed did was small potatoes-- he took $6,000 from record promoters.  I
know Alan's brother, who is certainly not totally objective in the matter,
but historical research bears me out on this one.  Most of what Alan took
was to pay his debts-- he had a major league drinking problem and made many
bad business decisions.  But there is NO evidence that the money he took
went to getting songs played on his show.  Was he wrong?  Yes.  Should he
have been treated like a pariah when Dick Clark had people who appeared on
American Bandstand sign to his record label or he got song-writing credit
(and royalties) for songs he didn't write?  You tell me. 

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