US media regulator the FCC is reportedly close to reaching an agreement with four of America's major radio firms regarding accusations that they have accepted payola - gifts, payment or commercial incentives - in return for playlisting music by artists signed to major record companies.
As much previously reported, payola, a long term practice in the US radio industry that breaches broadcasting regulations, has been back in the news in the last two years thanks to an investigation by then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer through which several of the major record companies and radio firms admitted participating in payola practices. Despite reaching settlements with many of the radio firms himself, throughout his investigation Spitzer was calling on the FCC, who oversee broadcasting regulations, to take their own action against radio stations who had accepted payola for playlisting tracks.
Negotiations between the FCC and the radio companies on the matter have been ongoing for sometime, and according to Billboard, insiders there say that two settlement deals are now near completion, which will see four offending radio companies - Clear Channel Communications Inc, CBS Radio, Entercom Communications Corp and Citadel Broadcasting Corp - each pay multi-million dollar fines, as well as committing to giving over a certain portion of air time to independently signed artists and artists based locally to each of the stations in their respective networks. The radio firms will also adopt a new set of "rules of engagement'' governing how radio and record companies should interact in the future.
An official statement from the FCC on the settlements is expected sometime this month.