Major Broadcasters Hit With $12M Payola Fine

Gr8Apes writes with a just-breaking AP story reporting that the FCC is wrapping up a settlement in which four major broadcast companies would pay the government $12.5 million and provide 8,400 half-hour segments of free airtime for independent record labels and local artists. The finish line is near after a 3-year investigation. An indie promoter is quoted: "It's absolutely the most historic agreement that the independent community has had with radio. Without a doubt, nothing else comes close."

Comments

They've already paid their settlement, unknowingly

[Radon360]

Large broadcast companies probably have paid a higher price in loss of listenership, as their tired, weary, and limited playlists have driven more and more people to alternatives such as iPods, MP3 players and satellite radio.

Sure, go ahead, fine them, order them to allocate time to new acts, that's a small loss they can see on their balance sheets in comparison to the difficult to calculate loss of listenership.

Re:"pay the governemnt"?

[MindStalker]

Yes... 3 year investigation.
10 employees who get paid 100K each
is 3 million dollars over 3 years.

Plus air travel and other crap. Government spends a million just wiping its butt, thats just what happens with large entities that have no direct income for their actions.

Re:How is this "news for nerds"?

[Gr8Apes]

I too believe that the majority of people don't care about their music. The reason "oldies" stations work? Most people appear to get "stuck" in their listening habits somewhere between 16 and 25, and then only listen to their "comfort music". Rarely are new tracks, much less actual new types of acts, added to their repertoire.

It's why there's so much trash on the radio now (besides payola, etc). The marketers have figured out that spoon feeding the same tripe to the young immature and uncritical listening audience allows them to churn "new" artists as needed maximizing their profits.