NEWS ANALYSIS

AIR WARS
The rebel of commercial radio formats fights to stay clear of a new breed of pay-for-play

BY Celia Colista

IN 1960, legendary New York DJ Alan Freed, who coined the term "rock 'n' roll," was convicted of taking money from record labels in exchange for playing their records. Payola has been a household word ever since, conjuring sleazy images of corrupt rock 'n' roll wheelers and dealers. The age of payola may be over, but the influence of independent record promoters over what gets on the radio has hardly dwindled. Radio stations in Detroit and across the country continue to field calls from record companies and their independent promoters. Using perfectly legal strategies, promoters have been able to wield money and influence to sway stations to play the music of certain labels. The practice seems to be spreading from the biggest radio money makers to the younger, more independent formats.

Adult Album Alternative radio, or Triple A, is the most notable of such baby formats. As it gains in popularity and commercial viability, many fear that Triple A will become increasingly attractive to high-stakes record promoters who are willing to pay for play on stations with the most listeners.

That, they fear, will close the door to small and independent record labels. And if that happens, promoters, and not the public, may end up naming that tune.

THE radio world is populated not just by DJs and artists, but by promoters, major and independent record label reps and radio station music and program directors. As a group, music and program directors. As a group, music directors receive thousands of calls every day from promoters pushing acts ranging from blockbusters like Alanis Morisette to the obscure. The purpose of these promoters is to provide music directors with information about records and to convince them to add specific songs, or singles, to the station playlist.

While some are record company employees, many promoters are independent agents who are hired by record labels to promote records. Independent promoters help major labels broaden their promotional scope, while often acting as the sole promotional vehicle for smaller labels.

Ideally, music and program directors should collect all of this information, listen to all the records they possibly can and to make decisions based on what they hear. Of all the commercial radio formats (everything but college and community/public radio). Triple A stands out as the one format that still chooses records in that way.

This relatively puritanical approach to choosing "adds," or new songs to add to the station's weekly playlist, has been a breath of fresh air. Because of the fairly democratic process of Triple-A music selection, independent record artists with far less money than those backed by major record companies can actually be heard on Triple A stations like Windsor's CIDR.

"In Triple A, out of all the formats, people are driven by quality music and ignore the usual business bullshit that happens in other formats," explains Zeb Norris, program director at Salt Lake City's KUMT.

And the 'bullshit," critics and industry insiders complain, is starting to seem an awful lot like payola. As Triple A becomes more commercial, its founders fear that it, too, will eventually be forced to grapple with questionable promotional practices.

DURING Alan Freed's day, payola meant bribing DJs with gifts, trips, drugs and prostitutes. Much later, in 1988, four people were indicted for payola. One of them was charged with making "undisclosed payments from 1980 to 1985 in the form of cash and cocaine."

Today, legal means of pampering music and program directors at radio stations include free trips to see concerts and cash contributions to station's promotional budgets.

In more extraordinary cases, stations may tell promoters that they "need" a certain amount of money for, say, equipment. The independent promoter can then approach a record label and broker playlist adds for a price matching or exceeding the needs of the station.

Since there's no direct quid pro quo cash-for-airplay involved, contributing to a station's promotional budget is not considered payola. The FCC defines payola as "unreported payment to, or acceptance by, employees of broadcast stations, program producers or program suppliers of any money, service or valuable consideration to achieve airplay."

In practice, independent promoters are careful never to request specific ads in exchange for money. Instead, they often request "promotional" dollars from record companies in exchange for a promise to get special attention from the radio station in future dealings.

Legally, a record company could contribute to a station's promotional budget without the intermediary promoter, as long as they don't tie any one song to the contribution or gift.

Or, for example, if Joe Promoter clearly doles out money in exchange for a certain song to be played, the radio station must report the payment by tagging the song with a sponsor ID, much as infomercial sponsors are identified on television.

Although record companies have many practical, ethical reasons for hiring independent promoters, the fact that promoters are often willing to make deals with stations is certainly a plus. After all, the number one goal of a record company is to get records onto radio airwaves; a record played is a record sold. Record companies want to have the leverage of filling radio stations coffers without dirtying their hands with the ethical and legal ramifications of payola charges.

Hiring a top 40 or Modern Rock promoter is a pricey thing for a label to do, partly because the promoter also can "claim" stations by making agreements, often in writing, with a station's general manager or program director in which they are guaranteed exclusive access to the station. That means other promoters can't contact the station's directors, while labels, including small independents, must pay top dollar to hire the promoter with access.

Today, Triple A is a haven for small labels and indies. But if pay-to-play becomes the norm, many independent acts will be forced to abandon commercial airwaves.

"I have no first-hand knowledge that it happens (in Detroit), but I wouldn't be surprised if it did," says Ann Delisi, CIDR's music director. "It seems t have become a working part of the music industry - because it's become such a part of how business has been run, it wouldn't surprise me if it did go on."

Most industry insiders prefer to describe the system as "backscratching," but others say it's just a new take on pay-to-play.

"The old-buddy payola system is still in full effect," says Patrick Rule, owner of Relax Productions, a college promoter that has plugged Goldfinger and Tracy Chapman.

IN Detroit, radio pros hesitate to talk publicly about pay-to-play, even when it's legal. The few who are willing to comment say that everything is legit in the Motor City.

Even in the Modern Rock market, a format most experts say is swimming with brokered stations, area radio insist they operate free of influential cash.

"I'll talk to independent promoters," says 89X Music Director Vince Cannova, "but there are no certain independents who have some magic power over 89X."

Cannova says 89X does not make exclusive agreements with independents, nor does the station have a promotional budget to which labels and independents contribute.

But it's certainly become the norm across the country, begging the question of how long Detroit and the virginal territory of Triple A radio can hold out. Recently, the so-called above-board approach to exchanging money for airplay threatened to mar Triple A's pristine reputation.

Although the incident has never been publicly reported, the Metro Times has learned that Razor and Tie, an independent record label, was approached by an independent promoter with an offer it couldn't refuse.

The New York-based label says that KBCO in Boulder, Colorado, had promised to add a Marshall Crenshaw single to its playlist. But Razor and Tie executives say, an independent promoter blocked its usual promoter from dealing with the station.

What really happened depends on who tells the story, but both the outside independent promoter, Harry Levy of Levitation Entertainment, and sources close to the label do agree on certain facts.

According to Levy, the station needed new computer equipment and therefore was asking the label to "support" it by paying $1,000. For about a week, the label, Levy and the label's own independent promoter went back and forth trying to settle what quickly became a major dispute.

The label thought it had already gotten the record added t KBCO's playlist when the station called and reversed its decision. The label, stunned but cornered, agreed to deal with Levy, and the next day the station listed the song as one of its adds for that week.

Levy says the station hadn't made its final decision when the music director mistakenly reported the song as an add the first time. Levy also says he doesn't make any agreements to be exclusive. He says the label knew what was going on from the beginning.

"Razor and Tie was well aware of this for a week," Levy insists. "I was very upfront with the label."

But sources close to Razor and Tie say Levy mentioned the equipment only after he was pressed to explain why getting the add suddenly required paying money. Later, in a meeting with Levy, KBCO and Razor and Tie, KBCO Program Director Mike O'Conner said that although the station had needed money for new soundproof curtains at the time Razor and Tie was vying for an add, it no longer needed the money.

No one at the station eve mentioned anything about the computer equipment during the meeting or at any other time, according to these same sources.

"The only thing that happened here is that O'Conner and I have a good relationship and he asked me to help him out," says Levy. Neither O'Conner nor KBCO's music director returned phone calls for this story.

ALTHOUGH asking for promotional support for a record in the form of CD giveaways and billboards, for example, is generally an accepted practice, asking for cash money to support non-artist-related materials raises eyebrows in the Triple A world.

"There should have been a sponsorship ID for the airplay," says Chuck Kelley, chief of the Enforcement Division of the FCC's Mass Media Bureau. "It can go in, but it has to say that the airplay has been paid for."

In other words, if Razor and Tie had paid the $1,000 and KCBO in turn played the record, the station would have been obliged to identify Razor and Tie as the sponsor of the Marshall Crenshaw song. Without the sponsor ID tag, the transaction would have been illegal.

Rumors about the incident spread via word of mouth, discussions at a heavily attended Triple A convention and an industry newsletter.

"In this situation we have a PD (program director) that is trying to do what is best for his station, and when his original agreement was complicated by a mistake by his MD (music director), he simply played hardball," wrote Jim Kerr, publisher of ad.alt.radio, a newsletter, "We'd like to see more PDs stick to their guns like this."

According to this view, KBCO held out for the highest bidder - or at least the cash it was asking for - and rightly so. Why else should the station listen to independent promoters unless they are willing to pay for the contact?

At the Triple A convention in Boulder at the end of August, the sentiment took on a different tone.

"Most people were taken aback that someone would try (brokering) that early on (in the format's history)," says Jamie Canfield, national promotion manager at Rykodisc. He says that for promoters to suggest that labels buy advertising time with a station is one thing but "when they're asking for cash out of your pocket that goes directly into theirs, then that's a problem."

Even though Razor and Tie never hired Levy, the label says he sent them a bill for both his services ($450) and the "equipment" money for the station. In the end, Razor and Tie says it refused to pay any portion of Levy's bill, including the $1,000 for computer equipment.

NORMALLY, independent record companies aren't expected to shoulder such costs. One well-known national promoter who doesn't broker ads (and asked not to be named) says she charges record labels about $450 per week for service to 120 stations. Compare this to a Triple A promoter who charged $450 for his services plus $1,000 to get a song added at a single station.

"There are 1,000 times more legitimate promoters than not," says Eric Murphy, RCA Regional Promotion/Marketing Manager in Troy. Murphy says money provided by independent promoters to stations is like a "retainer budget" set aside for the promotional needs of a radio station and is not related to adding any specific song or songs.

Surprisingly, many of those stunned by the Razor and Tie incident support this practice. Triple A veteran Norris says he might, for example, ask a record company with which he has worked in the past to sponsor a trip, but in no way connects such requests with playlist adds.

"Beyond getting the add, if I can get the label to support the record, great," says Norris. "But is has to be the right record."

"It has to be the right record" is the whole point. Although brokering and exclusivity practices may fall under a legal umbrella that protects them from charges of payola, they raise questions about the integrity of the music industry and the opportunity for independent music to make it to the airwaves.

"I can't speculate on how it would affect (Triple A), although my instincts tell me it would probably affect it in a negative way," says Delisi. "Independent releases getting to the airwaves is incredibly difficult now and if brokering became more widespread in the Triple A format it would be more difficult than it already is."

When money starts changing hands, will program directors choose the records they like the most or the ones that pay the most?

from
Detroit's Metro Times
Oct 23-29 1996