"July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Univision Radio Inc., a Spanish- language broadcaster, will pay $1 million to settle claims it secretly accepted payment from a record label for playing songs on the air, the Federal Communications Commission said.
“Payola -- the idea of pay-for-play -- misleads the listening public,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said today in a statement. The agency is committed “to ensuring that broadcasters play it straight with the public,” he said.
The broadcaster, which owns or operates 70 stations in 16 U.S. markets, also entered a plea in a related criminal case filed by the Justice Department at federal court in Los Angeles, the FCC said.
The case “relates to a payola scheme by an isolated group of employees” at Univision Music Group from 2003 to 2006, Univision said in an e-mailed statement. New York-based Univision reported the misconduct to federal prosecutors, and the music group was sold in 2008, the statement said. Universal Music Group bought the unit, according to a company statement."
OK to spend money to get stations to play the song, which gets the artist and label exposure, but the sky falls when someone passes along a song to a friend via computer. Over the air is free, over the Net robs the label.... amazingly stupid thought processes.
