**STATEMENT OF**

**COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS**

 

*Re: CBS Radio, Inc.*, File No. EB-06-IH-1109, Order

*Re: Citadel Broadcasting Corp.*, File No. EB-06-IH-1108, Order

*Re:*  *Clear Channel Communications, Inc.*, File Nos. EB-05-IH-0059,
EB-05-IH-0144, Order

>  

*Re: Entercom Communications Corp.*, File No. EB-05-IH-0033, Order

Pay-for-play broadcasting cheats consumers, musicians and the law.  It
denies consumers choice in what they hear, it deprives musicians of the
exposure they need to survive and it is illegal.  It is also insidious,
because just as soon as one payola hole is plugged, another is opened
and the payola band plays on.  Today the Commission takes action against
payola.  While not a lethal blow, this action makes real, tangible
progress against unacceptable pay-for-play practices.  It opens some
long-denied access for independent musicians who have faced tough times
getting their songs on the airwaves in markets long dominated by
pay-for-play.  And it is good news for listeners who have been drugged
by years of standardized, homogenized music playlists.  Who knows, if
this works well a listener driving coast-to-coast might actually hear
some good local and regional music along the way instead of the same 20
songs.  Just as importantly, today's action---rightly implemented and
monitored---can be good news for the radio business, putting it back in
touch with the roots from which its earlier successes sprang.  These
agreements remind us of the special community medium and artistic
treasure that free, over-the-air radio can be. 

 

While we celebrate these efforts, we cannot forget what led us down this
road.  How we got here---how we allowed music on free, over-the-air
radio to be hijacked by a band of pay-for-play promoters---is a tale
worth telling.  If I were to give this tale a title, I would call it
"The Way the Music Died."  It didn't happen in a day or a month or a
year.  But two culprits combined to all but slay local and independent
music on the radio dial.

 

First was payola itself.  Payola is by no means a recent arrival on the
music scene.  From the days of Alan Freed the *quid pro quo* of cash for
airplay has lurked behind commercial radio.  The times may have changed,
but the basic mechanics of payola have not.  If an envelope stuffed with
cash motivates what gets played, musical merit falls by the wayside. 
When only artists represented by big labels can afford to play the game,
independent and home-grown voices lose out.  Payola by itself is bad
enough. 

 

But we put the pernicious effects of payola on steroids when we allow
excessive consolidation among the licensees of our airwaves.  Here,
then, is the second culprit: media concentration.  The
Telecommunications Act of 1996 eliminated the national radio cap,
leading to a tremendous wave of consolidation in terrestrial radio.  The
top ten radio conglomerates now control 2/3 of the total U.S. radio
audience.  As a result, the payola kingmakers must grease only a
relative handful of palms in order to get their anointed commercial
artists on the air.  This makes an ugly situation uglier.  It makes for
radio that sounds the same everywhere.  It is why in so many places the
same handful of songs by the same small crop of artists is in heavy
rotation, while local and independent voices never get a spin.  What a
price we pay.  Musical genius in this country runs deep and wide.  But,
by and large, our airwaves do not reflect it.  Concentration of radio
ownership has ushered in a new and especially challenging age of
payola.  But don't just take my word for it.  As the American Federation
of Television and Radio Artists puts it bluntly: "\[b\]ecause the radio
industry is so consolidated, it is more difficult than ever for artists
to get airplay on commercial radio."    

 

This is why I believe these agreements are a starting point, not an
end.  They address payola in some of its guises, but ignore the harms
inflicted by consolidation.  And, sadly, they also fall short of
acknowledging culpability.  Nonetheless, I remain optimistic that the
progress made here is real.  So we will give this effort a play.  If,
one year from now, we are hearing more independent voices on the radio,
we'll know that the progress is real.  If, in one year, we are hearing
more local musicians instead of the same slim crew of nationalized fare
over and over again, we'll know we advanced the ball.  And if, in one
year, we can say that free, over-the-air radio is the place to go for
fresh new sounds and dynamic voices, we can all be proud of what we
claim to have accomplished today.   

 

I intend to closely monitor what happens next.  I hope my colleagues
will, too.  But what I really want to know is how consumers take the
measure of these commitments.  So I urge listeners to contact the FCC. 
Tell us how you think these commitments are being implemented.  Let us
know if you're hearing more and better music.  We don't need a formal
document from you, just e-mail us at fccinfo@fcc.gov (with "Payola" in
the subject line) and tell us how you think it's going.

 

In closing, let me note that this agency's payola work is built on the
historic efforts of former New York State Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer.  We owe him a debt of gratitude for his path-breaking efforts
to stomp out pay-for-play.  He awoke a new generation of music lovers to
the persistent harms of payola and raised in listeners a belief that we
can do better by our airwaves.  Let me also thank my colleagues, in
particular Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein who pushed this matter
front-and-center here and did yeoman's work to see these consent decrees
through.  Finally, let me also thank musicians, other creative artists,
independent companies and consumers across the land who helped us see
the light and who suggested remedies to confront the problem.  I appeal
for their continued vigilance to make sure that the commitments which
have been made are carried out comprehensively and faithfully---and also
to keep their watchful eyes open for any evidence of new pay-for-play
practices designed to perpetuate a crime that never seems to go away.