MUSIC INDUSTRY: Shellac Flacks' Double Dip

Upon leafing through old Down Beats from the 1940s the other day, I came across an editorial in the April 9, 1947 issue chastising disc jockeys for engaging in shady practices. Long before the infamous payola scandals of the late 1950s, when on-air announcers accepted cash from record pluggers to repeatedly play specific singles and turn them into hits, the issue of graft had already surfaced. As jazz deejays gained more power and influence after World War II, they were easy targets for cash-ric...

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