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Payola: Is it back or did it just never leave?

29 Apr 1960, Washington, DC, USA — 4/29/1960-Washington, DC- Television disc jockey Dick Clark as he appeared before the House payola investigators. He said that he has been, “convicted, condemned and denounced,” on payola charges before being given a chance to tell his side of the story. The 31-year-old TV star said that he had never accepted payola. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/radio-stations-hit-pay-for-play-867825/ –“When I first started, it was hookers and blow [to help get songs on the air]. “Then that disappeared and it became sports tickets, trips, sneakers and the like. It changed over time so that it became much more sophisticated. At the end of the day, the labels still wanted hit records and the radio stations wanted cash.”

https://radioink.com/2019/08/07/payola-is-real/ —
(Excerpt) Tim Moore, managing partner of Audience Development Group in Grand Rapids, MI,
I’ve had a couple of phone calls in the last six months about payola. The most recent, about three weeks ago, was the most alarming. It was from a quality program director at a longevity station in their format that has performed well. He has been in the business for some time, has great credibility, and has a great track record. If I were to pick a Blue Ribbon Panel of PDs I’d work with, he would be a member of it. He doesn’t endorse what he has seen happening at his station. He’s concerned it’s going to contaminate his successful career.

Stan Freberg – The Old Payola Roll Blues Pat 1 & 2

Alan Freed, a disc jockey and early supporter of rock and roll (and also widely credited for actually coining the term), had his career and reputation greatly harmed by a payola scandal. Dick Clark’s early career was nearly derailed by a payola scandal, but he avoided trouble by selling his stake in a record company and cooperating with authorities.

Dick Ellingson

A man and his dogs in a little country town. Parcel post crusher; blood'n'guts laundry serf; parking lot fender bender/bumper jumper; Lazy B flunkie with 7-word job title; P-I down crew; bobtail trucker; Sunbeam breader; retail store mangler; bothersome boiler roomie; fake real estate agent; d.j./copywriter/p.d./ripper/reader - 600 KGEZ Good Advertising, Kalispell; Community Radio 1510 KURB, Mountlake Terrace; 1540 News/MOR/92.5 Solid Gold Rock & Roll KFKF, Bellevue; 1150 Kountry KAYO America's Own Music, Seattle; 1300 KoMPaSs Radio 13 Modern Country, Seattle; 1360 KLFF Good Music & Great Memories, Glendale/Phoenix; 106.3 Koncert 106 KONC, Sun City/Phoenix; 1580 KCWW Real Country Network, Tempe/Phoenix. Four-year Volunteer P-I/Times/TNT news reader for Evergreen Radio Reading Service broadcasting from the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library, Seattle; dotcomboom day trader who came out alive; King County Metro Bus Driver; Seattle Streetcar Operator. I threw it in at 78 and frequently have bizarre dreams about radio and bus driving, my two preschool dream jobs. More articles by Dick