Clear Channel's US radio bit has started kicking people out of the door as part of its investigations into those much reported payola scandals. As you'll all surely remember, the spotlight fell on payola in the US radio promotions sector after an investigation was launched into dodgy practices by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer - an investigation that led to an admission of such practices by SonyBMG.
Clear Channel launched their own internal investigation into payola earlier this year, and WWPR New York programme director Michael Saunders and KHTS San Diefo boss Diana Laird are the first two casualties. Both have been axed with immediate effect. As far as we can make out, both PDs were accused of accepting gifts as bribes from Sony record labels, the gifts being handed over in the guise of competition prizes. In Laird's case it was arranged for one of her friends to win the prize, while in Saunders case the prize was sent to the radio station c/o the PDs own address, with one Sony promo exec noting in an internal email "can we say we are sending to the radio station but use Mike's address. b/c a lot of stuff gets lost when you send to station...Wink wink."