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The motion filed by Entercom Communications to dismiss a suit brought against it by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has been denied by a New York State Supreme Court judge, clearing the way for Spitzer’s payola case to move forward.
The decision, which knocked down all of Entercom’s arguments for dismissal, came six months after Entercom’s filing, and allows Spitzer’s first case against a radio company for fraud and deceptive business practices to proceed to the discovery phase, according to Mediaweek.
The lawsuit claims that the company repeatedly engaged in deceptive schemes of choosing songs for airplay based on payments or non-cash consideration from labels and independent promoters.
Spitzer is seeking settlements from seven radio companies, including CBS Radio, Clear Channel, Cox Radio, and Emmis Communications.
In June, EMI settled with the state of New York over the alleged radio pay-for-play violations, paying a $3.75 million fine (in the form of a charitable donation to New York State not-for-profit music education and appreciation programs). It agreed to reform its radio promotion practices and to stop making payments and providing expensive gifts to radio stations and their employees in return for airplay.
Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group also settled with Spitzer earlier in the year.
Hyper-conservative Rush Limbaugh - heard weekly by nearly 20 million listeners on about 600 radio stations nationwide - renewed his contract with Premiere Radio Networks and Clear Channel Radio, continuing syndication of The Rush Limbaugh Show.
The deal also includes…
WSJ.com’s traffic soared an impressive 94 percent in June compared to the same month last year, according to the company’s internal traffic numbers.
Total page views ballooned 45 percent, to 150 million, compared to the same month last year, writes Mediaweek.…
Kozy Shack, maker of rice and chocolate pudding, is sponsoring the New York Mets, with tubs of the pudding being sold individually at Shea Stadium as well as being included in children’s meals. And the snacks are selling so well…
Though U.K. advertiser investment committed for 2008 is staying put, discretionary spending is becoming shorter-term, at or slightly short of budget; still, WPP’s GroupM forecasts 4 percent growth in 2008 and 3 percent in 2009 for the U.K., thanks to internet…
Email is the most popular form of direct response marketing, with 35 percent of companies using it - compared to 25 percent that use traditional direct mail - according to a new survey conducted by Direct Partners (via Adweek).
The survey…
Without spam protection, the average web user can expect to get 70 spam messages each day, according to a survey by McAfee, the BBC reports (via MarketingVOX).
For the McAfee spam test, 50 people worldwide were asked to web-surf without a spam…
