Not a fun read.

I've been reading Eliot Spitzer's complaint against Entercom, and his accompanying exhibits--mostly emails among Entercom program directors, vice presidents and other top management, and a few record company and independent promotion people. And one poor disc jockey. Take the time to look this stuff over and decide for yourself if you think Spitzer's got a case.

A few years ago, as deregulation peaked, there was a lot of talk about "pay-for-play," and the atmosphere shifted--radio stations soliciting money from record companies for playing songs was now considered legal and a legitimate business practice, as long as FCC sponsor identification rules were obeyed. That's actually been true since the early 1960s--the whole basis for FCC action regarding payola, but nobody wanted to risk really doing that above board. As the economy went south, radio was scrambling for new sources of income, and pay-for-play suddenly sounded like a good idea.

Spitzer alleges that Entercom simply didn't inform the listener that some song plays were paid for by record companies. That, he clearly hopes, will force the FCC to act on his earlier payola case--after all, he got record companies to admit it and pay hefty settlements. But he goes farther, and says paying for airplay, and the solicitation by stations for record label money, constitutes fraud, and he expects to win a judgment against Entercom in New York for deceptive practices.

Is this a scandal yet? Wall Street doesn't seem to care, despite their experience with Mr. Spitzer--Entercom's stock's been trading up since his announcement. Radio doesn't care, unless the FCC or Congress start talking license revocations. Some DC lawyers question Spitzer's jurisdiction, according to AllAccess.com. (Warning: this is the most bloated, slow-moving radio site--allow sufficient time if you don't have broadband--free registration required, to boot.)

Technicalities aside, pay-for-play smells fecal. And, I'm betting, it's not helping the record labels any more than it helps the stations. Even the money is insignificant, when balanced against the strain on the listener relationship, not to mention advertiser relationships. This is a good time to drain the music-radio swamp. Do you think it's possible that radio might step up and clean up this mess without help from Eliot Spitzer? We can hope.