US media company Entercom's website tells you that they have passion for their brands, their people, their communities and for music. No mention of any passion for bribes and freebies - but perhaps they'll get that one added later today.
Anyway, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has started taking on the US radio companies in his ongoing anti-payola campaign, and the first target is media major Entercom. Spitzer began legal proceedings against them yesterday over allegations they broke US payola laws.
As previously reported at length, Spitzer has been investigating the use of bribes to get records airplay on American radio stations for some time - last year both SonyBMG and Warner admitted that some of their promotional staff and agencies had used methods that violated payola rules, and agreed to pay fines for their actions.
But of course if record companies are guilty of bribing people, then someone in the radio sector must be guilty of accepting bribes - hence the new moves by Spitzer against major radio companies. Entercom is accused of trading airtime for gifts, promotional items, personal trips and 'other payments', and for relying on payola tactics to boost revenues streams coming for record companies. Spitzer has published 67 pages of emails from within the radio company that he says proves his case against them and, unlike when similar evidence was published against SonyBMG and Warner, this time the names of correspondents have been left in.
Confirming his lawsuit against Entercom, Spitzer told reporters yesterday: "By accepting secret payments in exchange for air time, Entercom compromised its radio programming and violated state and federal laws. What makes this case especially egregious is the extent to which senior management viewed control of the airways as an opportunity to garner illegal payments from record labels."
Entercom responded by issuing the following statement: "Entercom is a company that believes in playing by the rules and does so. We have firm policies prohibiting payola and requiring compliance with the federal sponsor identification rules and we enforce them. We have cooperated fully with the Attorney General's office in this investigation. Now that the Attorney General has filed this civil action we are confident that the issues will be fully and fairly resolved by the court."
Spitzer also hit out at US media regulator the FCC who, despite saying that they too will be looking into the issue of payola, have, according to the New York Attorney General, been busy mainly doing nothing. Spitzer: "Almost a year after payola was exposed in significant detail, the FCC has yet to respond in any meaningful way. The agency's inaction is especially disappointing given the pervasive nature of this problem and its corrosive impact on the entertainment industry."
The FCC has said that it takes payola very seriously and that it does continue to investigate the revelations revealed by Spitzer, although has so far made no specific comment as to what measures it plans to take against those radio companies found guilty of breaking payola rules.