Payola.

Big news, huh. That payola is still happening in radio. I had to sign a pledge to keep my radio job in the 1960s. Even the inventor of the term "rock n' roll," DJ Alan Freed, got burned for the practice back then.

Now comes Eliot Spitzer, the latest in a long line of crusading New York prosecutors that includes such historic figures as Teddy Roosevelt, Tom Dewey, and Rudy Giuliani, turning the spotlight on the pungent record-biz-radio-biz relationship. Today, he got his first consent decree with Sony BMG Music, which admitted to shoveling goodies into the hands of some of radio's program directors, for adding records to their playlists. Neither the music nor the radio industry are out on the cutting edge of serving the listener. Maybe we can expect a much-needed draining of their intermingled swamps. Not good for stations or music marketers to be continuing gangsterism when new media are opening up both markets. May we flush you all away. Links: New York Times; Radio & Records.