PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Accused WYEP indie promoter under investigation for payola
by Chris Holm Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2004 at 7:14 PM
chris@indypgh.org

The indie promoter Michele Clark that WYEP will neither confrim or deny being involved with yet appears on her list of stations on her website, is under investigation for payola.

This is a follow up to the following stories.

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/05/6612.php

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/8827.php

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/9049.php

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2004/11/16339.php

New York Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer has begun investigation of Michele Clark the indie promoter that WYEP not only was listed as one of her stations on her web site, but whose playlist rotation has been as high as 63% Michele Clark promoted artists, for payola which is bribery to play songs.

Since my last article, WYEP has been removed again from her website, yet was on it only 3 weeks ago.

It also appears WYEP has taken off their "rotation" list of music currently in rotation which showed which artists were getting substancial play, a center piece of the new WYEP, only playing certain artists and mysteriously only playing certain releases of certain artists, while excluding others.

Again, indie promotion is a loop hole in the payola law started in the 60's and a bill introduced by Senator Feingold (D) Wisconsin would make this illegal.

WYEP's "mix" reflects a high percentage of artists promoted by Michele Clark, and when asked to do an interview regarding their programing, they refused.

The Post Gazzette was alerted to this 3 years ago, and the City Paper 2 1/2 years ago, yet all remain quiet on the issue, yet WYEP stills promotes itself touting it's independence, yet not only does that appear to be false, but the true source of the bulk of their repertoire may be illegal.

WYEP has refused accountabilty of their programing policies, and without an open book transperancy, can easliy slip in an out of unethical business dealings when the heat is either on or off, and will be open to what ever new scam comes down the pipe in the future that slips greasily past the law.

Since they no longer list the artists in rotation, I checked their current playlist and counted 30 M.C. promoted artists in one day, just from memory.



http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/6590977?pageid=rs.News&pageregion=double1&rnd=1101330144480&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1040

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Please see comment for link
by Mike Sauter Monday, Dec. 13, 2004 at 2:28 PM
mike@wyep.org

The above posting contains factually incorrect and misleading information.

For more, see here. Mike Sauter WYEP Music Director mike@wyep.org

www.wyep.org

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PLEASE CONTACT ME
by Gerri Trose Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2004 at 11:01 AM

About the possible sale of WYEP.

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pittsburgh net radio
by Brian Cosgrove Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 8:55 AM
bcosgrove@pittsburghnetradio.com

(Reposted From pittsburghnetradio.com)

I wouldn't necessarily say that I dislike WYEP. My local radio preference usually goes back and forth between WYEP and WRCT. It's more like a feeling of disappointment towards WYEP for failing to be the resource that I believe an independent public radio station should be to the community and region. I believe programming like Saturday morning's overnight freeform with Ashwin from Technoir Audio is brilliant and fits exactly into the type of localized programming that I spoke of. It's that type of programming with enthusisam towards the music featured, a personality all to it's own, an exciting positive vibe and communication with the listening audience and a concentrated effort to promote activities within the city that is desperately needed across the board on the FM dial. And there is absolutely no reason that a local independent listener-supported public radio station couldn't be like this twenty-four hours, seven days a week.

Their obvious focus in recent years has been towards attracting a baby-boomer audience. Their programming is not reflective of my own personal taste in music but seemingly geared more for the somewhat older Pittsburgh'er who seeks WYEP as an outlet to feel in touch with current music. WYEP keeps their music selection safe as to not offend this potential sophisticated financial contributor. It's essentially WQED with acoustic guitars instead of orchestras. WYEP keeps this particular demographic in check, feeling cool for supporting independent public radio and feeling hip for knowing who Kasey Chambers, Neko Case and Jesse Malin are. There is nothing really wrong with this. I remember being at the Stills/Metric show at Mr. Smalls and noticing some grey-haired audience members, undoubtedly there because WYEP at the time was pretty heavily featuring the "Still in Love Song" by The Stills in playlist rotation. These days, getting anyone in Pittsburgh to turn out for a live show is a good thing, even if this particular show was a Clear Channel sponsored event. It's ashame similar radio promotion didn't exist when Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart or Thalia Zedek played Garfield Artworks.

WYEP's approach isn't necessarily a bad business philosophy. Think of the line in Don Henley's Boys of Summer. "Saw a deadhead sticker on a cadillac." Many of the hippies of yesterday, the type that would have been excited when WYEP launched in 1974, have matured into affluent professionals and WYEP have simply aged with their supporters. Let's face it, Pittsburgh's trouble retaining a young demographic has been well documented. Is there any money at all in tailoring programming towards such an audience? How many indie music promoters have overestimated the local draw of a particular act of style of music? Those of us within the younger demographic in Pittsburgh are struggling financially due to a current lack of employment opportunities, could we support a listener-supported radio station even if we passionately believed in what they were doing? At the moment, the community and music scene in general is dependent on us doing just that. The question is will WYEP be that vehicle for us or will another form of independent media and music need to step in?

I'm about to turn 31 at the end of the month. I'm nearly out of that much talked about "18-34" demo. When I was a teenager in the suburbs, WYEP was a source to hear alternative music, namely the Modern Times show, similar to MTV's 120 Minutes, after WXXP signed off the air. Over the years, there were artists that I appreciated, Jeff Buckley for instance, older artists like Elvis Costello or Joe Jackson, that I could only hear on WYEP. I learned about many techno and electronica acts specifically through late night WYEP programming. I definitely believed in the value of WYEP's existence.

The bulk of their programming these days does not appeal to me at all, in fact, it bores me to tears. Their possible ties to indie promoter Michele Clark, currently under federal investigation for a potential payola scandal involving independent public radio stations, stations with the same AAA programming focus as WYEP, is particularly troublesome when you realize the number of artists or songs they have seemingly ignored over the years in their main playlist. Even artists who have been critical darlings of the music press are often left entirely off of the playlist. WYEP music director, Mike Sauter, finally responded to Chris Holmes of indymedia.org's frequent accusations of payola on December 14th.

Even if accusations were true, WYEP would naturally never admit to accepting any kick backs, especially with an investigation in process. However, what exactly is acceptable in regards to a publicly funded radio station accepting money or donations in return for airplay or promotion? What if it were a local recording label, like Get Hip or Rickety, or a local music promoter like Manny Theiner, perhaps an organization like Sprout Fund, approaching WYEP with an offer of financial contribution for a block of time to support artists they are trying to promote? Does this differ from the Michele Clark "pay to play" scandal even with it's ties to the community? Some Pittsburgh Net Radio listeners have even jokingly suggested that I'm on Lovely Recordings payroll for the number of Shade songs that I feature. I should be but I'm not ;-)

Whether the stories of payola involvement are substantial or not, there are definite holes in how WYEP currently operate. These areas need to be improved upon to better their contribution to the community, local music and the local concert scene.

Their playlist is obviously not freeform radio until you get to the shows that air after midnight or their weekend programming. There seems to be some freedom after 8pm, when the AAA audience would seemingly taper off, but it appears the jocks during these hours are still required to follow some pre-existing playlist while mixing in some tunes at their discretion. Wouldn't a more diverse selection of music, spanning varying genres of interest to a younger audience, seemingly increase potential new members to the station? I don't understand the restricted playlist as it limits a potential WYEP supporter to one specific demographic? Perhaps a fan of punk, old school hip hop, electronica, metal, industrial or modern-day indie rock would be tempted to support WYEP financially if any programming was geared towards their genre of interest? I can even understand leaning towards AAA during the day for that workplace listener but couldn't they start the freeform programming earlier than midnight with an "anything goes after dark" theme?

The three million dollar development WYEP is about to build on the South Side of Pittsburgh may visually improve Bedford Square and may somehow advance what the station is setting out to do but couldn't that type of money have been put to better use? How important is setting up shop in some luxurious modern architecture when all that is needed is a studio, equipment, mic and DJ's willing to play some diverse music programming? This is what WYEP members are paying for when they make their contributions. Not real estate. The structure will include a small performance venue but there is already a small performance venue right there in Bedford Square, Club Cafe, wired especially for the acoustic singer-songwriter styled artist with a national promoter constantly bringing in AAA artists, many that are featured in WYEP's rotation?

Couldn't they have remained in their modest digs and used that money towards something like orchestrating a Pittsburgh based version of SXSW where we try to get bands and music industry execs to the city with a showcase of emerging indie label artists and national unsigned musicians, networking our own unsigned local musicians and spotlighting our music venues in the process? Something like that would be ten times more valuable to the city of Pittsburgh, especially at this point in time when our concert scene is literally on life support, than some plush radio station studio.

Holmes' also brought up some legitimate points in regards to WYEP's promotion of local music. Local music director, Kyle Smith, was one of the earliest supporters of Pittsburgh Net Radio back when the Internet stream was broadcasting only Pittsburgh musicians. He was influential in getting my website link added to their website, assisted me in making contacts within the scene and I'm sincerely thankful for that. He also encouraged me to produce my own overnight freeform show which I regretfully never took him up on. I also believe that he would wholeheartedly support showcasing a wider range of local music if not for programming restrictions. His local music year-end review show is usually top notch. This year, their top local artists included Camera, Vale and Year, Tangerine and New Invisible Joy. Many of the artists you may routinely tire of hearing on Pittsburgh Net Radio. With the exception of New Invisible Joy and another band featured, Good Brother Earl, none of the other local artists mentioned were featured with any type of regularity on the main WYEP playlist. I've been told of instances where local musicians approached WYEP with a CD, requesting airplay or an in-studio performance, only to be told it wouldn't happen, without even a listen to the music. Whether there is truth to this or just sour grapes from disgruntled local musicians, I don't know. There is undoubtedly more that WYEP could do for the local music scene than spotlighting one artist with one song on weeknights at 10:00pm and a year end review show.

Another idea for the 2.8 million dollars, like I suggested in my WRRK rant, how about taking the DJ's on WRCT or WPTS that are providing quality programming and offering them paid positions (even if it's only modest pay) to take their shows to WYEP? Or offer some form of compensation to the jocks that produce the shows that bring people to WYEP, Stephen's Soul Show on Saturday afternoons for instance? People like him, taking the time and contributing in the way they do (for as long as they have), are really the foundation for those new digs. Shouldn't rewarding these people or volunteer staff in some fashion take priority over a new building?

Chris Holmes has obviously put a lot of time into his research of the entire WYEP/Michele Clark situation. It's obvious that there is both passion and venom in his indymedia.org commentaries. I'm not necessarily as venomous towards WYEP as he is. I believe that the majority of their staff may not necessarily like what the station has become in recent years and would prefer less restrictive programming with more improv and freeform. Of course they aren't going to discuss this matter or the accusations of possible payola with the press. They still appreciate being involved in radio and music and more than likely still see value in what they and the station set out to do. I also don't buy into Mr. Holmes' theory that once an artist reaches some sort of commercial success or airplay, they should be excluded from independent radio. He cites U2 and REM as "once being artistic". I suppose Modest Mouse will now be referred to as "once artistic" based on achieving some level of mainstream success?

Despite somewhat differing opinions, I feel that Mr. Holmes research and commentary needed to be brought to light, in addition to Mike Sauter's response, for WYEP members and Pittsburgh radio listeners to sort through for themselves. Any discouraged WYEP members can consider themselves encouraged to support an alternative outlet like Pittsburgh Net Radio where you'll actually be able to program the music you'd like to hear with your monthly donation. In the mean time, anyone at WYEP is more than welcome to respond. Understand that it's not my intention to attack but to express a general sentiment among people my age in the region with the hope that through expressing this, possible collaboration, etc. something like WYEP can move forward with Pittsburgh rather than remain stagnant and age with the city's dwindling population. Like the eminently quotable Mike Skinner from The Streets would say, "let's push things forward". - Brian Cosgrove

www.pittsburghnetradio.com

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