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N0KFQ > TODAY 11.02.16 16:22l 59 Lines 2786 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Feb 11
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Sent: 160211/1519Z 84362@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1960
The Payola scandal heats up
The Payola scandal reaches a new level of public prominence and
legal gravity on this day in 1960, when President Eisenhower
called it an issue of public morality and the FCC proposed a new
law making involvement in Payola a criminal act.
What exactly was Payola? During the hearings conducted by
Congressman Oren Harris (D-Arkansas) and his powerful
Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight_fresh off its inquiry into
quiz-show rigging_the term was sometimes used as a blanket
reference to a range of corrupt practices in the radio and
recording industries. But within the music business, Payola
referred specifically to a practice that was nearly as old as the
industry itself: manufacturing a popular hit by paying for radio
play.
As the Payola hearings got under way in February 1960, the public
was treated to tales of a lavish disk-jockey convention in Miami
bought and paid for by various record companies. One disk jockey,
Wesley Hopkins of KYW in Cleveland, admitted to receiving over
the course of 1958 and 1959 $12,000 in "listening fees" from
record companies for "evaluating the commercial possibilities" of
records. Another DJ named Stan Richard, from station WILD in
Boston, also admitted to receiving thousands of dollars from
various record promoters, and though like Hopkins he denied
letting such fees affect his choice of which records to play on
the air, he also offered a vigorous defense of Payola, comparing
it to "going to school and giving the teacher a better gift than
the fellow at the next desk." He practically likened it to
Motherhood and Apple Pie: "This seems to be the American way of
life, which is a wonderful way of life. It's primarily built on
romance_I'll do for you, what will you do for me?" It was this
comment that prompted President Eisenhower to weigh in on
February 11, 1960, with his condemnation of Payola.
But what explains the involvement of Congress in this issue?
Technically, the concern of the Harris Committee was abuse of
public trust, since the airwaves over which radio stations
broadcast their signals are property of the people of the United
States. However, 1960 was also an election year, and Rep. Harris
and his colleagues on the Subcommittee were eager to be seen on
the right side of a highly visible "moral" issue. Though it is
widely agreed that the famous 1960 hearings on Payola merely
reorganized the practice rather than eradicating it, those
hearings did accomplish two very concrete things that year: they
threatened the career of American Bandstand`s Dick Clark and they
destroyed the man who gave rock and roll its name, the legendary
Cleveland disk jockey Alan Freed.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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