Same Old Song and Dance
The recording companies are tired of paying radio to play their songs. No wonder: They've been doing it for 80 years.
Cover Story
Last month, the Senate convened a hearing on the presumed problem of "payola" in the radio industry. The hearing followed the re-introduction of a bill by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) to rein in the industry's "new pay-for-play system." The legislation, in turn, follows a spate of media attention—from the New York Times, ABC's 20/20, and PBS's Frontline—on payola.
Odds are that readers most familiar with this word will be graying baby boomers and that they will associate it with a national media scandal of the late '50s and early '60s, in the course of which certain unscrupulous DJs were drummed out of the broadcasting business for accepting bribes from record companies. And thank goodness, right? A record or song is surely a thing that ought to thrive or die according to its own merits, right? The notion that money could distort the market in a cultural field as sacred as popular music just seems inherently wrong...sinister...wicked.
Except now, the Times announces, "payola is back." Aha! responds that portion of the brain dedicated to conspiratorial explanations for why things suck: hence the unfathomable success of that leather-lunged gorgon Celine Dion! And small wonder musical visionaries like Joe Integrity & the Obscuros never get any airplay! Clearly, all right-thinking citizens should get behind the recently renewed calls in Congress to stamp out this noxious practice once and for all.... Continued 
Issue of Feb. 28 - Mar. 6, 2003
News and Features
- Same Old Song and Dance
Cover Story - Everything Must Go
The City - The Long Haul
The City - Emergency? Exit!
The City - Lowering the Boom
The City - Hot Topic
The Mail - Tunnel Vision
The Mail - Barking Up the Wrong Tree
The Mail - Heel!
The Mail - Puppy Uppers
The Mail - Doggie Downers
The Mail - On the Contrary...
The Mail - The Truth Is in There
The Mail
Columns
- Absence of Good Cheer
Cheap Seats - Out of Touch
City Desk - Child Star
City Desk
Eats
Movies
- Boyz N the Wild
Film Review - The Life of David Gale
Film Review - The Ballad of Bering Strait
Film Review
Music
- Total Fabrication
Music Review - Mission Critical
Music Review - Members Only
Music Review - Dream 'Topping
Music Review - Rosebud Music Review
- Hate
Music Review - A Beautiful Day
Music Review - Nothing Feels Good
Music Review - Good Old Boys
Music Review - Hopes Rise
Music Review - Citizen Bird
Music Review - Jacknife
Music Review - Born to Run
Music Review
Theater
- Twisted Tales
Theater Review
Arts and Events
- Tube Topping
Arts - Deep Background
Books - Ivory Coasting
Artifacts - Light the Corners
Artifacts
City Lights
This week's best in Arts and Entertainment.
- When Pigs Fly
City Lights - King Kong
City Lights - Erik Larson
City Lights - Greg Hannan
City Lights - Portrait of the Art World: A Century of ARTnews Photographs
City Lights - Alexander Sokurov Elegies
City Lights - Xanadu
City Lights - Boyracer
City Lights - Ikara Colt
City Lights - The Vienna Philharmonic
City Lights - Bang on a Can All-Stars
City Lights - The Colossal Colon
City Lights - The Coral
City Lights - Mission of Burma
City Lights
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Oct. 2 - 8, 1998 - Fare Elections
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