Radio, record executives, podcasters, performers and everyone who works behind the scenes gather in Toronto for the 42nd Canadian Music Week, June 2-8. It is the largest gathering of people in the music industry across the country.
There will be a lot of chatting, deal making, networking, awards and knowledge gathering over the next few days. CMW for short is one of many industry events held around the world. As a regular attendee, I can tell you that the conference and associated music festival are well organized and orderly.
But that wasn’t the case 65 years ago at the Americana Hotel in Miami Beach. At the Second Annual International Radio Programming and Disc Jockeys Convention in May 1959, things got so heated that Top 40 radio and rock and roll almost broke up forever.
The story of what happened in Miami Beach began a year ago with the first event held in Kansas City, the Pop Music Disc Jockey Convention and Radio Programming Seminar. It attracted some of the biggest names in radio, along with representatives from a half-dozen or so record labels. One guest speaker was the rock-hating Mitch Miller of Columbia Records, who saw this new rock and roll as a disaster for culture, society, and especially American youth. He scolded the assembled group for playing this music and urged everyone to play appropriate songs by artists such as Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne. He was a really depressed person.
Host Todd Storz, one of the inventors of the Top 40 radio format, decided to change direction in 1959. The new location was Americana on 97th Street Beach in Bal Harbour. This second competition was conceived as an opportunity for those involved in the new Top 40 rock and roll radio format to exchange ideas and learn how to improve their programs and radio stations. There were speakers, panels, and presentations. President Dwight Eisenhower gave a video speech. Miami Mayor Robert King declared the city ‘Disc Jockey Week’. On the surface, this convention seemed like any other industry gathering.
not quite.
This was an opportunity for 19 record labels and dozens more to win and dine DJs. But they were all men. They hoped to generate favor and influence for the record, which they played on their home radio shows. They knew that these men were so powerful and influential with their audiences that they could make or break a song. If someone wanted to have a hit record, the guys on the show had to be around.
And how did they plan to do so? By showing them the best and craziest times of their lives.
About 2,500 DJs, about half the number of DJs in the U.S., traveled to Miami with all expenses paid. Popular singers and aspiring stars gathered together and conducted interviews. Everyone took a limousine from the airport. Upon check-in, everyone was given $1 million in play money, which they could use to gamble and win on fixed games. That money could be used to auction off physical items like a TV, a trip to Europe, or even a new Studebaker.
DJs were provided with plenty of alcohol and drugs. One party hosted by Morris Levy, the infamous head of Roulette Records, processed 2,000 bottles of bourbon. The prostitutes came in. Even overseas. Cash payments were promised for future consideration. It was an incredibly wild party that cost the label US$120,000, worth over US$1.1 million in today’s money.
The email you need for the day’s top news stories from Canada and around the world.
The situation was so outrageous that on the final day of the convention (May 31, 1959), the Miami News ran an article titled “For the DJs: Babes, Alcohol and Bribes.” According to the article, “Nero received the loudest cheers from DJs ever since he was convinced that he was a violin virtuoso. … A public relations representative said, ‘You can buy a few air conditioners.’ Some people have money, some people have women.’”
(A typical DJ salary at the time was $50 a week, so any gas was welcome).
The article continued: “’I think the revenue a disc jockey gets in some form is well over $1 million a year,’ said one publicist. The situation sucks, but I don’t know what can be done. As we always say, without disc jockeys we’re dead.’”
This was bad – bad publicity. Payola, the practice of bribing someone to play your song on the radio, has been around since the days of commercial radio and has never been illegal. Perhaps industry leaders didn’t like it. But what were they going to do? The ugly actions in Miami opened the door to a counterattack. The following industry publications came out not long ago: billboard, Diversityand safe I was writing about the scourge of payola and the distortions it created in the markets.
The story of what happened in Miami has only deepened the crisis of trust in America. After enduring Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare a decade ago, which shook trust in American leaders, the country has had to deal with a TV quiz show scandal. A large-scale government investigation in the late 1950s uncovered the following popular game shows: Twenty-one Modifications were made to favor certain participants.
The following year saw the ‘plugola’ crisis, when the public learned that some celebrities were endorsing products and services they did not use. It was all for money. This was labeled as false, dishonest and deceptive advertising and had to be stopped.
And with duplicitous politicians spreading fake news about communists in Washington, rigged game shows, and TV commercials exposed as being built on lies, Americans learned that all the music they heard on the radio was bought.
Something had to be done. And perhaps some politicians, church groups and old-school record experts thought the scourge of rock and roll could be swept away at the same time.
Throughout the summer and fall of 1959, pressure was on radio stations to do something about the misguided practices of DJs lest they lose their valuable broadcasting licenses. Even before the House Select Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight held hearings on the matter in late 1959 and early 1960, DJs across the country were fired for their pay practices. Again, it wasn’t illegal to be unethical and most people turned a blind eye.
Some of the biggest names in radio were called to testify. Alan Freed, who, while working at WINS in New York, gave this new music the name ‘rock and roll’, became the scapegoat. He was charged under New York State’s commercial bribery law and fined $300. The conviction ruined his career and sent him into a spiral of alcoholism. He died bankrupt in 1965, owing nearly $40,000 to the IRS.
Another person in the hot seat was Dr. It was New York DJ Tommy Smalls, who went by the name Jive. He wasn’t found guilty of anything, but he was kicked off the radio. He later returned as promotion manager for Polydor Records and co-founded the National Association of Television and Radio Announcers.
But the person who skated the most was Dick Clark. As a radio personality and host of American Bandstand, he was obsessed with everything happening in rock and roll. He owned shares in a total of 33 music-related companies, including 7 indie labels, 6 music publishers, 3 music distributors, 2 entertainment agencies, and a record production company. By selling off all these profits, he was able to avoid any prosecution. His clean-cut image prompted committee chairman Oren Harris to call him “a fine young man.” He went on to become one of America’s best-loved journalists. When he died in 2012, his net worth was estimated at US$150 million.
After a hearing in 1960, payola was officially declared a crime punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and a year in prison. The American radio and recording industries had fundamentally changed. DJs can no longer choose which songs to play on their shows. Now the executives, including the program director and music director, have made that decision.
The 1959 DJ Convention was Todd Storz’s last event. And the payola issue has been resolved, right? no. A loophole in the new law allowed payments to continue, but using a less blatant and secretive backdoor method. Instead of having to deal with multiple DJs, their point of contact is reduced to one or two program directors and/or music directors per station. Business continued as usual, albeit in a much more efficient manner.
Payola scandals broke out in 1974 and again in the late 1980s and 90s. New York State settled several high-profile cases against record labels and radio stations in 2005 and 2006. According to my contacts on American radio, a version of payola still exists today. Just the first rule of payola is don’t talk about payola.
I need to mention this. I’ve been in the Canadian radio business for almost 43 years, working and running some pretty big radio stations along the way. I never have, always They were offered anything in exchange for playing their records. i never have, always I heard that American-style payola exists in this country. Not once. Either we’re keeping this place squeaky clean, or I’m just incredibly naive.
Either way, I have never received free air conditioning.
—
Alan Cross is a broadcaster for Q107 and 102.1 the Edge and a commentator for Global News.
Subscribe to Alan’s ongoing history of new music podcasts now on Apple Podcasts or Google Play.
